Art is about experimenting and ideas, but it is also about excellence and exclusion. In a society where everyone is looking for a little distinction, it’s an intoxicating combination.

The newsletter contributes to the illusion of transparency,” he admits. “People are overinformed and undereducated. They have this veneer of knowledge.

Our lives are constantly changing. Different things become relevant at different times in our lives. We are motivated by our changing sensibilities. Why can that not be applied to art?

The contemporary art world is what Tom Wolfe would call a “statusphere.” It’s structured around nebulous and often contradictory hierarchies of fame, credibility, imagined historical importance, institutional affliction, perceived intelligence, wealth, and attribution such as the size of one’s art collection.

Many outsiders see the art world as elitist and it is, except it is also oddly down-to-earth and embracing of oddballs who don’t fit in well anywhere else.

Art is not supposed to repeat what you already know. It is supposed to ask questions.

Although the art world is frequently characterised as a classless scene where artists from lower-msddle-class backgrounds drink champagne with high-priced hedge-fund managers, scholarly curators, fashion designers and other "creatives," you'd be mistaken if you thought the world was egalitarian or democratic. Art is about experimenting with ideas, but it is also about excellence and exclusion. In a society where everyone is looking for a little distinction, it's an intoxicating combination.

The contemporary art world is what Tom Wolfe would call a "statusphere." It's structured around nebulous and often contradictory hierarchies of fame, credibility, imagined historical importance, institutional affliction, perceived intelligence, wealth, and attribution such as the size of one's art collection.

Buying is an extremely satisfying, macho act

Kelly wears her hair swept back in an odd 1940s pompadour that one writer assumed must be her “auxiliary brain.