The definitive guide on everything one needs to know about commissioning contemporary art In an age of blockbuster exhibitions and public art projects, the most exciting artworks are often those that have been specially commissioned for a specific site or event. This invaluable guide reveals and demystifies every stage of the commissioning process—from the initial invitation to an artist and the financing of a project to the final installation of works. Combining theoretical and conceptual considerations with practical ones, the text is supplemented with copious quotations and insights from some of the best-known artists, curators, commissioners, and museum directors of today. It is an essential guide for anyone involved in the process of commissioning new art—private collectors, foundations, public bodies, museums, galleries, and artists themselves—as well as those fascinated by the inner workings of the contemporary art world.

Owning Art offers an informative, authoritative and richly anecdotal route through the minefield of the contemporary art world. This entertaining and easy-to-use handbook is set to become every collector's indispensable companion.

Building on her bestselling "Moving Targets" (1997), Louisa Buck presents "Moving Targets 2" - a fully updated and greatly expanded survey of the key players, places and presences that are shaping British art at the beginning of the 21st century.

Published for an exhibition held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery May 30-July 27 1997.

The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is pleased to present the first major survey exhibition in the Southern hemisphere by internationally renowned artist and Turner Prize recipient, Grayson Perry, as part of the Sydney International Art Series. It introduces the full spectrum of his practice from the early 1980s to the present, including new work. Grayson Perry is one of the best known British artists of his generation, acclaimed for his ceramics, sculptures, drawings, prints and tapestries. With a keen eye for detail and a love of the popular and vernacular, Perry infuses his artworks with a sly humour and reflection on society past and present. The artist's highly decorated pots in particular reveal a panoply of imagery ranging from the highly personal to the political, their subjects including his own family, the art world, Biblical stories, the royal family, and images of warfare and sexual fantasy. Perry's transvestism and feminine alter ego 'Claire' emerges through his practice as a recurring visual motif. A contemporary of the YBA (Young British Artists) generation, he has forged a distinctive career that sits apart from the cooler theoretical approach of some of his peers, favouring a more flamboyant, accessible aesthetic that blurs the division of high art and popular culture.

Addresses such questions as: Why do we value art? Does the extraordinary price paid for certain paintings bear any relation to their artistic value? Why do we care so much about originality in art?