Francois de menil biography of william

The art world and its patrons, dealers, museums, auction houses and hangers on have become front page news.  Art fairs, biennials, art storage, hidden transactions, repatriation of stolen masterpieces, all these are the subjects of our continuing fascination. 

But the essential work, the ability of the artist to make things, is in constant precarious flux. Artists are in and out, auction prices up and down.  Collectors are busy scrambling for the right thing to put on the wall, looking over their shoulders most of the time at what the market is doing instead of buying things they love.

“The gifted artists are the great benefactors of the world,” said Dominique de Menil, a patron who is the subject of Double Vision a new joint biography with her husband John by William Middleton.

de Menil and Middleton remind us that the ability to wisely commission things, to spot things before they are a la mode,