Heading to Hauser & Wirth’s new gallery, in Monaco, with Airport, please!

Louise Bourgeois
Spider in Monaco

Over a nearly 30-year history, Hauser & Wirth has created physical spaces in locations where their artists and collectors reside—of course in the large urban cities of London, New York, and Los Angeles but also in legendary resort communities and seasonal gathering spots such as Southampton and St. Moritz. In July 2021, Hauser & Wirth will also open an extraordinary center for the arts on King’s Island, in the port of Mahon in Menorca. The artists and estates represented by the gallery has always been  its driving force for expanding in the areas of art, education, conservation and sustainable development. The impact of the events of the last year and one-half have acted as a compelling catalyst to accelerate Hauser & Wirth, and every major network of galleries, auction houses, and art fairs, in developing new and innovative, often technologically based, ways to present and sell works of art.

https://www.hauserwirth.com/

Hauser & Wirth
Gallery Interior
Monaco

On June 19th, located in the heart of Monaco, near the historic Hôtel de Paris, Hauser & Wirth’s latest gallery features a spectacular main exhibition space, an impressive 350 square yards cube with 30 foot high walls, lit by a dramatic skylight. The conversion of the site has been conducted by Selldorf Architects, New York, which has collaborated with Hauser & Wirth on its spaces internationally since the founding of the gallery in 1992. In Monaco, Hauser & Wirth occupies the lower spaces of a building designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and owned by the Société des Bains de Mer.

https://www.hauserwirth.com/news/32176-hauser-wirth-monaco-opens-inaugural-exhibition-louise-bourgeois

The inaugural exhibition ‘Louise Bourgeois. Maladie de l’Amour’ (Love Sickness although it sounds so much better in French!) runs from  June 19th until September 26th, 2021. A monumental public sculpture from the French American artist’s Spider series, a bronze arachnid over three meters tall, will be installed in the gardens adjacent to the gallery.

One Monte-Carlo
Gallery facade
Monaco

‘When we were invited to play a part in the continuing revival of the art scene in Monaco,’ says Iwan Wirth, President, Hauser & Wirth, ‘we saw that it offered an exceptional opportunity to present our artists in the heart of city, engaging with the vibrant contemporary scene across the south of France, strengthening our European presence. In former times, Monaco was a destination for artists, writers, and filmmakers who were as captivated as we have been by the Côte d’Azur.

Louise Bourgeois
Hauser & Wirth Monaco

INAUGURAL EXHIBITION, HAUSER & WIRTH, MONACO: LOUISE BOURGEOIS

The works in the inaugural exhibition by Louise Bourgeois span a period between 1947-2008 and draw on recurring themes of anxiety and longing, emotions which the artist repeatedly evoked to create her personal visual vocabulary. Along with Bourgeois’ monumental Spider sculpture dating from 1996, one of the artist’s most enduring and iconic motifs, two further aluminium sculptures are suspended inside the gallery. ‘Untitled’ (2004) gently rotates, as a continuously morphing form. The abstract spiral belongs to an important series Bourgeois made during the 1990s and shares a particular affinity to a previous work entitled ‘Les Bienvenus’ (1996), commissioned by the French Government and installed in the Parc de la Mairie in the village of Choisy-le-Roi, France, where she grew up.

Louise Bourgeois

LOUISE BOURGEOIS

Bourgeois’s work is inextricably entwined with her life and experiences. ‘Art,’ as she once remarked in an interview, ‘is the experience, the re-experience of a trauma.’  Employing motifs, dramatic colors, dense skeins of thread, and a vast diversity of media, Bourgeois’s distinctive symbolic code enmeshes the complexities of the human experience and individual introspection.

Rather than pursuing formalist concerns for their own sake, Bourgeois endeavored to find the most appropriate means of expressing her ideas and emotions, combining a wide range of materials – variously, fabric, plaster, latex, marble and bronze – with an endless repertoire of found objects. Although her work covers the range of painting, drawing, printmaking, and performance, Bourgeois remains best known for her sculpture.

 

Bourgeois’s work was included in the seminal exhibition ‘Eccentric Abstraction,’ curated by Lucy Lippard for New York’s Fischbach Gallery in 1966. Major breakthroughs on the international scene followed with The Museum of Modern Art in New York’s 1982 retrospective of her work; Bourgeois’s participation in Documenta IX in 1992; and her representation of the United States at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993. In 2001, Bourgeois was the first artist commissioned to fill the Tate Modern’s cavernous Turbine Hall. The Tate Modern’s 2007 retrospective of her works, which subsequently traveled to the Centre Pompidou in Paris; The Guggenheim Museum in New York; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; and The Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C., cemented her legacy as a foremost artist of late Modernism.

 

In response to the isolation and distancing of the pandemic, many of the major galleries have successfully opened branches in luxurious resort areas, Palm Beach and the Hamptons, on the East Coast. The debut of a new Hauser & Wirth gallery on the Cote d’Azur is a seductive destination and supports Monaco’s efforts to establish an active art scene with Monaco Art Week and the Monte-Carlo fair.

See for yourself! Airport, please!

Airport, please! Artfields, a town in South Carolina, transformed into a cultural destination, reopens after the pandemic

ARTFIELDS
April 23 – May 1, 2021

We believe art is a field that endures—through flourish and fallow. …Artfields

Spring has finally arrived. A time of regeneration. And there is nothing that represents the symbol of regeneration more than the town of Lake City, South Carolina. Today, the LRFA blog travels to a small town in South Carolina, by plane to Florence, SC and then 20 minutes by car, for an overwhelmingly engaging experience: ARTFIELDS: 2021, April 23-May 1st.

Artfields mural

The town itself, every shop, restaurant, The Inn at the Crossroads, the Library, the McNair Space Center, as well as three large gallery exhibition spaces established since Artfields was founded, is transformed into both indoor and outside spaces that display art, installation, video, sculpture, painting, photography, murals, and craft.

https://www.artfieldssc.org/

Darla Moore

Conceived and founded by visionary investor and philanthropist, Darla Moore, Artfields started in 2013 with a simple goal: to honor the artists of the 12 Southeastern states launching a phenomenal  annual art competition and festival to transform her once small, poor rural hometown into a thriving cultural destination. Passionate about the state of South Carolina and its rich legacy, Darla founded the Moore School of Business in its capital, Columbia, to further her commitment to education, in 2019 she endowed the Continuum, a 46,000 square foot center for tech education and workforce development in Lake City.

Moore Farms Botanical Garden

She founded and chairs the Palmetto Institute, a nonprofit think tank aimed at bolstering per capita income in South Carolina. She is the founder and chair of The Charleston Parks Conservancy, a foundation focused on enhancing the parks and public spaces of the City of Charleston, to highlight just a few of the commitments she has made to support and transform her beloved hometown and state.

Jones-Carter Gallery

The competition and exhibition offers over $100,000 in cash prizes. The winners of two People’s Choice Awards are determined by the votes of people visiting ArtFields; a panel of art professionals selects all the other awards, including the $50,000 Grand Prize and $25,000 Second Place award. Winners of the competition have had life-altering opportunities to engage in inspiring foreign travel, to exhibit in other venues and to develop their potential as professional artists.

Jamieson Kerr
Director, Artfields Collective

Up to 400 works of art are on display in locally-owned venues, from renovated 1920s warehouses and professional art spaces such as Jones-Carter Gallery and TRAX Visual Art Center to the library, the history museum, the Ronald E. McNair Life History Center, restaurants, boutiques and other shops. During ArtFields, Lake City, once one of South Carolina’s most prosperous agricultural communities, becomes a living art gallery as they recognize, celebrate and share the artistic talent of the Southeast.

Carla Angus
Education and Program Manager

As a visible way to show the power of art to revitalize and invigorate, the ArtFields Collective commissions artworks each year to enhance overlooked corners of the town. The Collective has commissioned over 9 murals and sculptures and an additional 9 artworks have been commissioned and contributed by other involved donors.

The ArtFields Collective is living, breathing proof of the power of art, a reminder that its beauty and soul and energy live within each of us—even in the harshest of seasons. In these divided and divisive times, Lake City’s Artfields has integrated its black and white, young and old, residents into a united, engaged community, working together to choose artworks, to welcome visitors and school groups to exhibitions and cultural events throughout the year  and to enjoy the rewards of living in the thriving town of Lake City.

Make ARTFIELDS a destination during the festival or at any time of the year. It is truly an enlightening, moving (and fun!) experience.

Lake City, South Carolina

Have a look at a huge selection of talent in this year’s competition!

https://www.artfieldssc.org/galleries/?festival_year=2021

 

Core values stand the test of the pandemic at the Sean Kelly Gallery with Senior Partner, Cecile Panzieri

Cecile Panzieri and Sean Kelly of Sean Kelly Gallery

That the pandemic has shifted how art is bought and sold is evident in the 255% rise in online-only auction sales between January and August, to nearly US$597 million from US$168 million in the same period last year. Of the experts surveyed, 24% expect auction sales overall will rise in the next six months, while 39% expect rising sales to continue for a year.

The ability of the major auction houses to pivot quickly to digital sales, and eventually to hybrid models involving live-streams from their global locations, buffered the initial steep losses the houses experienced in the first part of the year, ArtTactic said. Still, year-end results will likely be significantly down from 2019 levels, the report said.

In 2019, global auction sales from Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips were US$9.74 billion, down 19.8% from a year earlier.

Art Basel Miami OVR
Sean Kelly Gallery
December 2-6, 2020

Galleries and art fairs that mostly sell works in the primary market also quickly, and largely successfully, transitioned to digital programming and sales in 2020, allowing confidence in the primary market to rise from a level of 3 on ArtTactic’s indicator last May to 39 in November. Of experts the firm surveyed, 36% are optimistic about the next six months (compared to only 2% who were in May) and 29% are neutral.

BARRONS.COM/PENTA, Abby Schultz, November 20, 2020, ArtTactic Finds “V-Shaped” Recovery in Market Confidence

https://www.barrons.com/articles/arttactic-finds-v-shaped-recovery-in-market-confidence-01605909874?reflink=article_emailShare

SEAN KELLY GALLERY REMAINS TRUE TO ITSELF, IN WHATEVER FORM THE CURRENT CLIMATE DEMANDS: VIRTUAL, DIGITAL, ONLINE, OR LIVE. THEIR CORE VALUES REMAIN INTACT, THEIR COLLECTORS AND ARTISTS LOYAL AND THE GALLERY PROVIDES A SAFE PORT IN THIS PANDEMIC STORM.

TODAY, THE LRFA BLOG IS HONORED TO CONTINUE ITS CONVERSATION WITH CECILE PANZIERI, SENIOR PARTNER AT SEAN KELLY GALLERY, ON THE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC ON THE GALLERY IN PARTICULAR AND ON THE ART MARKET IN GENERAL.

Frieze Viewing Room 2020

Art Basel Miami OVR
Sean Kelly Gallery

IN THIS VERY COMPETITIVE ART WORLD, IN WHICH ARTISTS ARE AS CONSCIOUS OF THEIR PROFESSIONAL STANDING AS THEY OF THEIR ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT, WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS WITH RESPECT TO REPRESENTING THE WORK?

We share and do everything we can to foster our artists’ ambitions and our ambitions for them.  We want their work to be critically recognized, publicly exhibited, and collected. We want to facilitate their creative vision.  Our ability to succeed in these areas comes from decades of experience and nurtured relationships, but this alone is not enough: the artists are integral to making our efforts successful.  Our artists  understand this.  The pandemic with all its challenges has reinforced the core values that bind us: trust, integrity,  hard work and passion for what we do.   Together we are well positioned to navigate the current stormy waters. 

TEFAF New York Fall 2019

HOW DO YOU PLACE WORKS IN BOTH PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS? ARE THE PROCESSES SIMILAR OR DIFFERENT OR DO THEY OVERLAP?  

Over the years, we have had the pleasure of getting to know collectors who were at different points in their collecting history.  We have wanted to create a gallery experience where one would feel welcome to explore, discover and talk about art, be it with Sean, me or my other colleagues.  If a museum wants to acquire a work by one of our artists, we will do our best working with the artist to facilitate an acquisition. Our collectors understand that institutions are a priority, they are generous and excited for the artists when this happens.  Over the years we have placed works in the collections of many museums worldwide.  My experience with our collectors over the years is that acquiring a work is a pursuit they love and a question of timing: “the right work at the right time”.   We value our collectors, their passion and support for the gallery’s program.  They know that when solicited they can trust and rely on our opinion.   I derive a lot of satisfaction from being part of the “matching” process and  fulfilling the quest along the way.

Zona Maco 2020

HOW IMPORTANT DO YOU THINK ART FAIRS ARE TO BOTH THE PRESENCE OF THE GALLERY AND TO THE ARTISTS IN THE GLOBAL MARKET?  

Art fairs are important as they provide visibility to the gallery and its program, and the opportunity to meet existing and new collectors, private and institutional from all over the world in an “acquiring” or research mode.  It is instrumental to the expansion of the gallery’s activities and network.  I am a “people” person and very much enjoy attending and working at art fairs.  Operating a gallery of our size without art fairs as we just experienced these past few months has meant less income.  Virtual art fairs are not the same: they require a great deal of planning but our collectors find them both overwhelming and underwhelming, and are learning how to “visit” them, the same way we are learning how to best participate in them, and what technology can or cannot do for the remote art viewing experience.  More and more people from all over the world spend a lot of time looking at art, and more and more, purchasing art on the internet as well.  What we do not know is how profound and lasting  this trend is.  

ADAA Art Show 2020
Solo presentation by Idris Khan

WHICH ART FAIRS DOES THE GALLERY PARTICIPATE IN AND WHY?

Until the pandemic forced the cancellation of all art fairs, we participated in Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, Art Basel Hong Kong, Armory Show, ADAA , Zona Maco, Taipei Dangdai, TEFAF NY  and Frieze NY.   We felt that each fair complemented our activities at the gallery.  We have been deliberate in making sure that we do not become too dependent on them.   The core of our business is gallery driven, it is solid.  The past few months of distant/remote working have validated our prudence.

Frieze Viewing Room 2020

THE LRFA BLOG LOOKS FORWARD TO CECILE’S PERSPECTIVE ON THE CURRENT MARKET AND FUTURE PLANS OF SEAN KELLY GALLERY IN OUR NEXT POST.

PLEASE JOIN US!

A view of the post-pandemic art world with Laura Lester, Director of Richard Gray Gallery

Rashid Johnson
Seeing in the Dark
Frieze Masters: Gray Gallery

In the current UBS Global Art Market Report, the effect of the pandemic on the art world has been thoroughly investigated by the brilliant art economist, Clare McAndrew:

Signs that the pandemic will have long-lasting consequences could be here, according to the report, which said that the rise of the digital market during the crisis may lead to the slowing of brick-and-mortar retail and a further investment in e-commerce.The survey used data from 795 galleries and analyzed the collecting habits of 360 high-net-worth individuals across the U.S, the U.K., Europe, and Asia. According to the report, galleries reported sales have fallen by 36 percent in the first half of 2020, compared to the equivalent period in 2019, though the report does not provide an estimated total. According to their annual report published in February, sales in dealer sector were estimated to have reached $36.8 billion in 2019.

Gray Gallery, Chicago
Rashid Johnson
Seeing In the Dark
Current exhibition

The gallery sector has been hit hard by the contraction in sales volume, leading to staff furloughs and layoffs at enterprises of all sizes. Of the dealers surveyed, one third reported staff downsizing. Smaller galleries with annual turnover between $250,000 and $500,000 saw the largest share of staff cuts, with roughly 38 percent reporting that they had shrunk their workforces.

In general, the pandemic has forced new habits for dealers and collectors alike. New buyers continue to be a priority for dealers, accounting for 26 percent of those online sales overall and 35 percent for smaller galleries with an annual turnover of less than $250,000. Art fairs around the world have been canceled and postponed, meaning that dealers have also had fewer opportunities to sell their art there. Sales volume through this channel fell from 46 percent in the first half of 2019 to just 16 percent in 2020. Yet the report found that, without the cost of showing at fairs, galleries were able to mitigate the loss in sales money. Dealers add they were now most focused on online sales, reducing costs, and maintaining existing client relationships for the remaining of 2020. 

September 9, 2020, Artnews.com

Richard Gray Gallery
New York City

 

TODAY THE LRFA BLOG IS DELIGHTED TO WELCOME BACK LAURA LESTER, DIRECTOR OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS RICHARD GRAY GALLERY,  CHICAGO/NEW YORK GALLERY. LAURA’S PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN THE ART WORLD SPANS BOTH FIRST-TIER AUCTION HOUSE AND GALLERY EXPERIENCE.

IN TODAY’S POST, SHE WILL SHARE HER OWN ASTUTE OBSERVATIONS ON THE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC CRISIS ON THE ART MARKET.

https://www.richardgraygallery.com/

LAURA, WELCOME BACK!

WHEN YOU WERE AT KASMIN GALLERY, WERE YOU INVOLVED IN LOOKING AT ARTISTS TO JOIN THE GALLERY ROSTER. WHAT IS THE SELECTION PROCESS AT THE GALLERY?

The artist selection process at Kasmin was very democratic. We met as a team often and would raise our various ideas and discuss if they could make sense in the gallery’s program. If an artist seemed like they could be a potential fit we’d go on studio visits, bring a few of their works to fairs, etc. to explore the match further. I focused almost exclusively on estates at Kasmin and was involved in bringing one very special estate to the gallery’s roster- the American modern legend Stuart Davis, who is still thriving there. 

Gray Warehouse
Wheeler Kearns Architects
Chicago

WHAT WAS THE CURATORIAL PROCESS? KASMIN CERTAINLY HAS AN EXTENSIVE ROSTER OF STRONG MASTER AND CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS AND ARTISTS’ ESTATES, AND ALSO ORGANIZES THEMATIC EXHIBITIONS OF NOTE. 

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS THAT MEANT THE MOST TO YOU?

With three spaces to program on 6 to 8-week rotations, each director is responsible for organizing a few shows a year—so, we are constantly pitching to each other, looking for projects with rigor and resonance that we also felt could be financially successful for the gallery. Paul—and Nick Olney, who manages the gallery now—encouraged risk taking and were forgiving of occasional failure. That positive and supportive culture gets the best creative “juice” out of all of us! 

Alex Katz
Richard Gray Gallery
Gray Warehouse, Chicago

DUE TO THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC, THERE HAS BEEN A RATHER ABRUPT SHIFT FROM THE TRADITIONAL BRICKS AND MORTAR VIEWING OF EXHIBITIONS AT GALLERIES AND AT ART FAIRS TO THE VIRTUAL WORLD.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE POST-PANDEMIC ART MARKET?

I think the consensus amongst gallerists and art professionals generally is that technology has been under-utilized in the art world, and the pandemic is going to force many to get up to speed and develop what’s needed to make e-commerce as efficient and helpful as it can be for our business. That being said, we are all desperately craving the physical experience of being with art and the exchange of ideas that gallery spaces, fairs, and openings facilitate. Their invaluable and irreplaceable nature have really been cemented.

DO YOU THINK THE SHIFT TO VIRTUAL WILL BE SUSTAINED IN THE “NEW” NORMAL?

I hope that our business will become more comfortable with technology overall, and that certain platforms that have become important during the COVID crisis, such as online exhibitions & ecommerce at a certain price point, will become a lasting and successful component of business as usual.

LRFA BLOG: SO DO I!

Gray Warehouse, Chicago

 

HOW DEEPLY AND FOR HOW LONG DO YOU ANTICIPATE THE ECONOMIC EFFECTS OF COVID-19 WILL AFFECT THE ART MARKET?  DO YOU SEE A SHIFT IN THE TYPE OF BUYING THAT IS TAKING PLACE AND IN WHAT WAY?

For the first several weeks after the quarantine began, nearly everyone’s priorities were elsewhere- including mine! Once we all began to navigate how to live in this incredibly new and cautious world, sources of pleasure and culture became desirable once again. The collectors who are continuing to buy art, of which there are many, are looking for only the very best examples and at very correct prices. I’ve seen a surge of interest in my area of expertise, Post-War and Modern, because of the established stability of that market.

THANK YOU, LAURA, FOR YOUR INSIGHTS INTO THE CURRENT ART MARKET, PERHAPS A SHIFT TOWARDS A MORE CONSERVATIVE COLLECTING ATTITUDE THAT HAD STARTED TO EMERGE EVEN PRIOR TO THE PANDEMIC CRISIS.

NEXT WEEK, THE LRFA BLOG LOOKS FORWARD TO LAURA LESTER, DIRECTOR OF RICHARD GRAY GALLERY, NEW YORK, JOINING US TO EXPLORE THE CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS OF THE GALLERY. BE IT IN A VIRTUAL, PHYSICAL, VIEWING ROOMS, OR DIGITAL FORMAT, GRAY UPHOLDS ITS REPUTATION FOR QUALITY AND INTEGRITY.

PLEASE JOIN US AND THANK YOU FOR FOLLOWING THE LRFA BLOG!

The future is now: traditions and innovations at David Zwirner with gallery partner Greg Lulay and director Veronique Ansorge

 

Isa Genzken
Paris New York
Opening at David Zwirner, Paris

OVER THE LAST DECADE, DAVID ZWIRNER HAS UNDERGONE AN UNPRECEDENTED TRANSFORMATION AND STANDS AS A MAJOR DRIVING FORCE IN REDEFINING WHAT A GALLERY PRESENTS AND HOW AUDIENCES INTERACT WITH THE ART AND EXHIBITIONS. A NEW BREED OF EXPANSIVE AND TRANSPORTING SHOWS OFFERS UNIQUE EXPERIENCES TO A WIDER , CULTURALLY ENGAGED PUBLIC WHILE ALWAYS SUPPORTING AND HONORING THEIR ARTISTS’ AMBITIOUS VISIONS.

THE LOCKDOWN AND PANDEMIC CRISIS ONLY SERVED TO FURTHER STIMULATE THEIR EFFORTS TO SUPPORT THEIR ARTISTS, THEIR GALLERIES AND OTHER SMALLER STRUGGLING GALLERIES  REACHING OUT IN NEW AND INNOVATIVE WAYS TO THEIR INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC.

William Eggleston
David Zwirner Hong Kong
Opening September 10

TODAY, THE LRFA BLOG WARMLY WELCOME BACK VERONIQUE ANSORGE, GALLERY DIRECTOR AND GREG LULAY, GALLERY PARTNER, TO SHARE THEIR ARTICULATE VISION OF DAVID ZWIRNER NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.

GREG AND VERONIQUE, ART FAIRS HAVE BECOME A DOMINANT VEHICLE TO SHOW ARTISTS. WHEN THE PANDEMIC HIT, HONG KONG ART BASEL WAS THE FIRST FAIR TO CREATE EXCLUSIVELY VIEWING ROOMS FOR ALL THE EXHIBITORS AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO BEING AT THE FAIR.

HOW DID THE GALLERIES IN GENERAL DO AND HOW SUCCESSFUL WERE THE MAJOR INTERNATIONAL GALLERIES?

GL: I think that the dominant form of physically seeing work still happens within the galleries and museums themselves. After that, comes the art fair setting.  

Since the 1970s, with the birth of Art Cologne, and on to the long-standing fairs like Art Basel, we’ve seen the landscape of art commerce change dramatically. The art world and the art fair sector of that art world has grown tremendously into a global industry. Regional art fairs are now held across the globe and are typically intended to serve the collector base of the specific country or region where they take place. Other art fairs have a much wider reach in terms of exhibiting galleries and the international patrons that visit and buy from the fair. The difference between the two types of fairs has to do with the brand behind the fairs, the destination, the time in the yearly calendar, and the longevity of the fair as an institution. As the art fair model of business took off, galleries became more reliant upon them for a large part of their annual business. In one week and in one spot you are able to interact with large numbers of new and existing clients, connect with curators, and make significant sales. Over the years we’ve found that all of that activity for each fair is precluded by digital outreach to our clients. So, there’s been a growing online component of what we do at a fair which occurs digitally even before we set foot in our booth. 

Suzan Frecon
Opening David Zwirner Gallery
September 10 – October 17, 2020

I think one of the big questions is, will the digital art fair exchange begin to replace the need for an actual art fair? 

When Art Basel Hong Kong was cancelled earlier this year due to Covid-19, all galleries had to turn solely to online presentations and interactions supported by Basel’s new online platform. Because our gallery already had developed the technology to support an online viewing room experience, we were able to do something in tandem with Art Basel’s platform. We were able to reach people who were interested in looking at art even if they couldn’t go to the fair, let alone leave their homes.

VA: I’m very happy that it was a success for the gallery. We will all have to see what is happening now based on the health crisis in the long run for the art fairs. But you do miss the interactions with clients in an art fair context, and human interaction will certainly not be able to be replaced completely.

GL: Certainly not. I think that a key component of this industry is that it is experiential and social. People who are interested in building collections and living with art love the personal connections they make with artists, curators, and art dealers. There is a social aspect of gallery openings and art fairs that will never be replaced by a purely online experience. What we have built online is something to run in tandem with what we are already doing in our physical spaces. 

Harold Ancart: Traveling Light
David Zwirner Gallery West 19th Street
Opening September 10th

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE OTHER WAYS IN WHICH YOU ARE NOW COMMUNICATING WITH CLIENTS AND ARTISTS IN LIGHT OF THE CURRENT CRISIS?

GL: I think in a time when people are forced to be at home, we all still have a need to be connected. Even this conversation that we are having now is being done virtually, where we can see each other on the screen and have a conversation. This is something we are doing on a daily basis with our artists, many of which are busy in their studios, but they need a connection and want a connection just like the rest of us.

VA: And obviously all these video conferencing apps that allow you to have meetings and interact with multiple people are very helpful both in terms of internal meetings and meetings with artists. I do feel a lot of clients also appreciate calls and ways of communicating where we see each other.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS TO DEVELOP YOUR ONLINE PRESENCE IN THE FUTURE?

GL: While we discussed this earlier,  I think it’s worth noting that while we have focused on this initiative for the past several years, we are only just beginning and will continue to explore what this new online platform can offer to our artists.

VA: Yes and also making it usable in a way where artists can really have control over the experience the visitor has on the site; the artist can put their artistic vision in it. 

Josh Smith
David Zwirner, New York East 69th, London, Grafton Street
Opening September 15th

DO YOU AGREE THAT THIS IS MORE AND MORE THE FUTURE OF THE GALLERY WORLD, AND THAT THE COVID-19 WAS MORE OF A CATALYST TO AN ALREADY ESTABLISHED TREND?

VA: Yes, Covid-19 is somewhat of a catalyst. As the other options are temporarily inactivated it is forcing us to accelerate our performance in the digital space. 

GL: Exactly, I think that this is obviously the way in which the world is moving, and people are becoming more and more accustomed to receiving content of all sorts online. Like we’ve said, these changes are not going to replace the essential in-person exchange or experience. But certainly in this moment when none of us can physically be with each other or walk into a gallery space, the necessity to charge ahead in some fashion has been a catalyst for this digital exchange on a larger scale. 

GL: It’s worth saying that the gallery in its 25+ years has weathered several storms, including the attacks on September 11th and Hurricane Sandy. This is a new experience for all of us, and a challenge we will overcome together, hopefully stronger as a gallery and as a world. During this uncertain time we have come together as a gallery to help those who may be struggling even more than we are. We’ve been able to share our existing technology and Online Viewing Room with galleries in New York and London who don’t have the same capabilities to present and sell artworks online. With an initiative called Platform: New York, and Platform: London, respectively, we’ve invited a group of young gallerists from those cities to select one artist from their program to feature on our online viewing room platform. We’re hosting our friends and neighboring galleries in an effort to connect them with collectors who are interested in buying art during this very challenging moment.

Platform
David Zwirner Gallery

IT HAS BEEN A GREAT PRIVILEGE TO HAVE GREG AND VERONIQUE SHARE THEIR THOUGHTFUL AND DEEPLY KNOWLEDGEABLE PERSPECTIVE ON THE DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY PLATFORM, PHILOSOPHY AND ARTIST-CENTRIC POINT OF VIEW AND THEIR VISION OF OUR ART WORLD IN GENERAL NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.  SO MANY THANKS TO YOU BOTH!

THE LRFA BLOG WILL RESUME AFTER LABOR DAY. WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO A CONVERSATION WITH LAURA LESTER  AND LEARNING ABOUT HER NEW POSITION AS DIRECTOR OF GREY GALLERY, NEW YORK.

A very warm welcome to David Zwirner Gallery’s Veronique Ansorge and Greg Lulay

David Zwirner and gallery partners by John McCracken’s FAIR (2011)
David Zwirner Gallery, West 20th St, NY

IN JANUARY 2018, DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY CELEBRATED ITS 25TH ANNIVERSARY. WITH AN IMPECCABLE ROSTER OF LIVING ARTISTS AND ARTISTS’ ESTATES AND A GLOBAL NETWORK OF GALLERIES IN NEW YORK, LONDON, PARIS, AND HONG KONG, DAVID ZWIRNER HAS ALWAYS BEEN A VISIONARY DEALER. INITIALLY, HE OPENED A RELATIVELY SMALL SPACE AT 43 GREENE STREET IN THE SOHO DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.  MANY LOCATIONS LATER, MUCH EXPANSION AND AN INTERNATIONAL PRESENCE AS ONE OF THE VERY TOP LEADING GALLERIES WORLDWIDE, THE ONE CONSISTENT THREAD THROUGHOUT THE NOW TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS IS DAVID ZWIRNER’S COMMITMENT TO SHOWING CHALLENGING, THOUGHTFUL, MEANINGFUL WORKS OF ART WITHOUT COMPROMISE.

David Zwirner
First gallery in SoHo
43 Greene Street, New York

FROM GREENE STREET TO CHELSEA IN NEW YORK TO THE UPPER EAST SIDE OF MANHATTAN, FROM LONDON TO HONG KONG WITH A MUCH-ANTICIPATED EXPANSION IN CHELSEA UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF ARCHITECT EXTRAORDINAIRE, ANNABELLE SELLDORF, ZWIRNER HAS CREATED AN INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY OF DEDICATED STAFF, COMMITTED COLLECTORS, CURATORS AND SUPPORTERS. THE GALLERY’S COMMITMENT TO ITS ARTISTS AND TO THE INTEGRITY OF THEIR WORK SET A STANDARD WHEN THE GALLERY FIRST OPENED THAT HAS CONTINUED TO THIS DAY. MANY OF THE ARTISTS IN AN EXHIBITION, FIVE YEARS, 1993-1998, COMMEMORATING THE GALLERY’S FIRST FIVE YEARS ON GREENE STREET, CONTINUE TO BE REPRESENTED BY DAVID ZWIRNER GALLERY TODAY.

Veronique Ansorge
Director
David Zwirner Gallery, New York

THE LRFA BLOG IS HONORED TO WELCOME VERONIQUE ANSORGE, DIRECTOR AT DAVID ZWIRNER, 525 WEST 19th STREET, IN CHELSEA, NEW YORK AND GREG LULAY, PARTNER AT DAVID ZWIRNER, 537 WEST 20th STREET, NEW YORK. COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS, THEY HAVE JOINED FORCES TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE LRFA BLOG. AFTER AN INITIAL INTRODUCTION TO BOTH OF THEM, WE WILL FOCUS ON THE RELEVANCE OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC AND ITS IMPACT ON THE WAY IN WHICH ONE OF THE GREAT INTERNATIONAL GALLERIES HAS HAD THE FORESIGHT TO PREPARE FOR THIS UNSEEN CRISIS.

New York: 19th Street

https://www.davidzwirner.com/galleries

VERONIQUE AND GREG, THANK YOU SO MUCH. I KNOW YOU ARE BOTH AS BUSY AS EVER, WORKING FROM HOME, ONLINE AND JUST RECENTLY, BY APPOINTMENT AT THE NEW YORK GALLERIES, TO CONTACT CLIENTS AND CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE PRESENCE AND COMMERCE OF THE GALLERY DURING THE SHUTDOWN.

FIRST, A BIT ABOUT YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUNDS.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BOTH BEEN AT THE GALLERY AND HOW DID YOU COME TO WORK AT ZWIRNER? WAS YOUR BACKGROUND IN THE ARTS, AS AN ACADEMIC, IN THE AUCTION WORLD OR IN ANOTHER GALLERY?

Greg Lulay:

I’ve been at the gallery for 17 years, starting at Zwirner & Wirth, which was the secondary market gallery David opened on the Upper East Side in 2000. Prior to that, I was at university in Seattle, where I studied business, fine arts, and art history, and worked in a gallery in Seattle upon graduation. I worked for a gallery there for a few years, which brought me to New York in 1999. 

Veronique Ansorge:

I’m originally from Germany, and I  started at the gallery in December 2007. I have an MBA, studied Economics in college, and previously worked in business consulting and marketing. I switched careers because of my interest in art. I started as David’s assistant and was lucky enough to grow within the company. I’m now a Director on the gallery’s Sales Team.

GL: That’s amazing. I remember when I started working at the gallery there were only three people at Zwirner & Wirth, including myself, and only a handful of people working at the Chelsea outpost. It’s changed quite a bit in the 17 years I’ve been here. I went from working the front desk and as a gallery manager for years to making my way into sales and artist management.

New York: 20th Street

HOW IS ZWIRNER STRUCTURED?  THE GALLERY HAS VENUES VIRTUALLY ALL OVER THE WORLD, NEW YORK, LONDON, HONG KONG, AND NOW A BEAUTIFUL NEW SPACE IN PARIS.  ARE EACH OF THE GALLERIES AUTONOMOUS IN TERMS OF EXHIBITION SCHEDULES AND CLIENT RELATIONSHIPS OR, IN THIS GLOBAL MARKET, IS THE PLANNING FOR ALL THE ZWIRNER GALLERIES WORLDWIDE HANDLED BY A SPECIAL TEAM?

VA: The way it’s structured, it’s still very much driven by David Zwirner as the owner and main strategist of the gallery. However, he has eight partners that have a lot of influence in making decisions on artist management and exhibition schedules. New York is the hub, but we all connect on a weekly basis. Our decisions are made as a team.

GL: Although each of our galleries around the world have distinct qualities unique to that physical location and city, the larger gallery operates collectively – as one company. For example, certain operational decisions are specific to doing business in London versus Hong Kong, and largely those decisions are made by our teams in those locations. However, the majority of decisions we make are coordinated across all locations, be that client outreach, exhibition planning, research, communications, inventory, shipping.  But, as Veronique noted, one aspect that adds to the success of the gallery is the fact that we operate in a team format. We make decisions as a team, and are stronger because of it.

IN NEW YORK, VERONIQUE AND GREG EXEMPLIFY THAT TEAM SPIRIT, TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE 19th AND 20th STREET GALLERIES WITH CLIENTS AND MUSEUM CURATORS  BOTH OFTEN WORKING IN TANDEM TO SHARE THEIR LOVE OF THE ARTISTS’ WORK AND THEIR DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THEIR PROCESS AND AESTHETIC WITH THE VISITORS TO THE GALLERIES. SOCIAL DISTANCING OR NOT, THE LRFA BLOG PREDICTS LINES AROUND THE BLOCK FOR THE KUSAMA EXHIBITIONS ARE NOT A THING OF THE PAST!

IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG POST, THEY WILL CONTINUE TO ADDRESS THE WORKINGS OF THE GALLERIES WITHIN THE UMBRELLA OF DAVID ZWIRNER WORLDWIDE. PLEASE JOIN US!

Holding one’s breath while allowing artists complete creative license with Meg Malloy, partner, Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

Zipora Fried As the Ground Turns Solid Current exhibit Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

 

BOASTING A DIVERSE ROSTER OF NOTEWORTHY ARTISTS WORKING TODAY, SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO. IS AN ESTABLISHED MIDSIZE GALLERY SPACE LOCATED IN WEST CHELSEA. REPRESENTED ARE SUCH BIG-NAME VETERANS AS VIK MUNIZ AND KARA WALKER, AS WELL AS MID-CAREER POWERHOUSES SHEILA HICKS AND DEANA LAWSON. THE WORK REPRESENTS ARTISTS WHO WORK IN EVERY MEDIUM: PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTURE, VIDEO, INSTALLATION; AND IN EVERY GENRE: ABSTRACTION, NARRATION, FIGURATION, MANY ADDRESSING SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES, OTHERS ADDRESSING THE LEGACY OF ART HISTORY AND EVOLVING IT FORWARD.  THE UNIFYING FACTOR IS THE QUALITY, ENGAGEMENT AND IMPACT OF THE WORK, TO THE VIEWER, TO THE COLLECTOR AND TO THE MUSEUM CURATOR.

IN 2019 ALONE, SIKKEMA JENKINS & CO.  EXHIBITED THE WORK OF THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS, AN ABBREVIATED EXAMPLE OF THE BREADTH AND SCOPE OF THE ARTISTS THE GALLERY SUPPORTS AND ENCOURAGES.

Brenda Goodman

BRENDA GOODMAN

With over 50 years of experience as a painter, Goodman is an artist at the height of her career. She began in 1960s Detroit, as a member of the famed Cass Corridor Movement. In the early 1970s, she exhibited with Guston, Tworkov and de Kooning at the Gertrude Kasle Gallery. After moving to New York City in 1976, Goodman explored ways to integrate intensely personal issues with the freedom of abstract expressionism.

Louis Fratino

LOUIS FRATINO

Drawing inspiration from personal experience and, more recently, photographic source material, Fratino makes paintings and drawings of the male body. His work includes portraits, nudes, and intimate scenes of male couples engaged in activities ranging from the mundane to the graphically sexual. The result is a body of work that is a loving and honest expression of the contemporary gay experience.

Jennifer Packer

JENNIFER PACKER

Packer’s painted figures and still lifes are exceptional for their expressive fields of color, worked tenderly by the artist’s hand. They are images made with the utmost care–for the subject, and for the artist herself. Packer’s subjects are often friends and family, loved ones who serve as an emotive force in her life. Her representations critique the positionality, autonomy and power of the marginalized subject.

Terry Haggerty

TERRY HAGGERTY

Terry Haggerty’s paintings reveal the multi-dimensional possibilities within painting – bold color is used to enliven and give volume and depth to positive and negative space. A series of monochrome lines, corners, and edges fold around one another, activating gaps between geometric planes of color. Haggerty’s works embrace the tension between two-dimensional outline and three-dimensional form, creating images characterized as “half object, half painting.”

AND CURRENTLY, THE BEAUTIFUL RECENT ABSTRACTIONS BY

Zipora Fried

ZIPORA FRIED

Working across sculpture, photography, and drawing, Fried’s oeuvre explores the potential of color and form to transcend language and express the nuances of the human experience. The subconscious remains a focal point of interest for Fried, as the formal conditions of object and image become deconstructed and reinterpreted through their symbolic connections to one another. Every gesture of the artist’s hand, in shape and form, signifies a distinct moment in the phenomenological experience of Fried’s work.

MEG, WHAT ARTISTS DOES THE GALLERY REPRESENT, AND HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE THE WORK?

The artists that  we represent are quite varied, and it is hard to pinpoint, but I feel that all  start from social or conceptual concerns, and all have great skill and create work that is consistently engaging on both a visual and an intellectual level.

IS THERE A PARTICULARLY AESTHETIC, OR CONCEPTUAL OR ABSTRACT POINT OF VIEW THAT CONNECTS EACH ARTIST’S WORKS?

I would say it is open-ended, but each of our artists has an integrity and an unshakable commitment to what they do. 

WHAT DID YOU MOVE TO CHELSEA, AND WHAT PROMPTED THAT DECISION?

The gallery moved to Chelsea because there were great spaces, and Soho rents were through the roof.

WAS THE CURRENT 22^nd STREET LOCATION THE FIRST SPACE THAT YOU TOOK, AND HOW HAS IT EXPANDED OVER THE YEARS?

We are at the same address, but the gallery has been in the unusual position of  being able to expand in place as the business grew.   We had half of our downstairs originally and then were offered the other half.   This was due to unfortunate circumstances as both Pat Hearn and Colin de Land who had that space passed away.  Then we rented the back of upstairs from Anina Nosei for storage and viewings, and then when she didn’t renew we took over  that space. 

Sheila Hicks

 

THE GALLERY ROSTER IS A STRONG MIX OF ESTABLISHED ARTISTS SUCH AS ARTURO HERRERA, SHEILA HICKS, KARA WALKER, AND EMERGING TALENTS. WHO ARE SOME OF THE ARTISTS AND WHAT ARE SOME OF THE EXHIBITIONS THAT HAVE RESONATED WITH YOU THE MOST?

That is an impossible question!  😊

YOU SHOW ARTISTS IN A WIDE VARIETY OF MEDIA. WHO ARE SOME OF THE ARTISTS THAT YOU REPRESENT THAT ARE THE MOST CHALLENGING IN TERMS OF THE EXHIBITION OF THEIR WORK? YOU ARE SO GENEROUS WITH THE GALLERY SPACE, ALLOWING THE ARTISTS LICENSE TO TREAT THE SPACE AS PART OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS.

You have to have faith in an artist’s  vision.   That said, there are times when we hold our breath. For Kara’s last show, there were three very large-scale unframed works on paper.  The audience for that show was enormous and we worried that the work could be damaged but people were so respectful.  William Córdova created a scaffolding that pushed viewers to the perimeter of the gallery. 

William Cordova
Machu Picchu

MORE ABOUT THE GALLERY, ART FAIRS, CURRENT AND FUTURE EXHIBITIONS WITH MEG MALLOY IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG.

IN THE MEANTIME, EAT, DRINK AND BE MERRY, AND HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Andy Warhol
Turkey Noodle Soup

A history of rich, scholarly and history-making exhibitions at Cheim and Read with Director Maria Bueno

Al Held
Black & White Paintings
Cheim & Read

CURATING AN EXHIBITION IS AN ART FORM IN AND OF ITSELF. THE CONCERNS ARE BOTH AESTHETIC AND PRACTICAL. A CURATOR HAS AN IDEA FOR AN EXHIBITION AND THEN STARTS TO EXPLORE THE ARTWORKS THAT WOULD BE THE FIRST CHOICES TO BEST ILLUSTRATE THE THEME. FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW, IT IS LABOR-INTENSIVE IN TERMS OF CONVINCING THE LENDERS, BORROWING THE WORKS, EXECUTING THE LOAN AGREEMENTS, CHECKING THE CONDITION OF THE WORKS, TRANSPORTING THEM, THE INSURANCE, AND SO ON. FROM AN AESTHETIC PERSPECTIVE, THERE ARE WORKS THAT ARE ESSENTIAL CENTERPIECES OF THE EXHIBITION AND CURATORS MUST PLAN, A LONG TIME IN ADVANCE, TO ACQUIRE THEM FOR EXHIBITION.

Serpentine Pavilion

ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT MUSEUM CURATORS IS SUPERSTAR HANS ULRICH OBRIST, CURATOR OF THE UNIQUE SERPENTINE GALLERY IN LONDON,  WHO CONTRIBUTED THIS ARTICLE ON THE ART OF CURATION TO THE GUARDIAN IN MARCH 2014.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/mar/23/hans-ulrich-obrist-art-curator

IT’S WORTH THINKING ABOUT THE ETYMOLOGY OF CURATING. IT COMES FROM THE LATIN WORD CURARE, MEANING TO TAKE CARE. IN ROMAN TIMES, IT MEANT TO TAKE CARE OF THE BATH HOUSES. IN MEDIEVAL TIMES, IT DESIGNATED THE PRIEST WHO CARED FOR SOULS. LATER, IN THE 18TH CENTURY, IT MEANT LOOKING AFTER COLLECTIONS OF ART AND ARTIFACTS.

THERE’S A HANGOVER OF ALL THOSE THINGS IN MODERN CURATING. WHEN I CURATED MY FIRST EXHIBITION – WHICH FOLLOWED DISCUSSIONS WITH THE ARTISTS PETER FISCHLI AND DAVID WEISS,  RICHARD WENTWORTH, CHRISTIAN BOLTANSKI AND HANS PETER FELDMANN,  IN THE KITCHEN OF MY APARTMENT IN ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND – I HAD A PRODUCTIVE MISUNDERSTANDING WITH MY PARENTS. THEY THOUGHT I WAS GOING INTO MEDICINE BECAUSE CURATING MEANS CARING. I DON’T THINK THEY THOUGHT IT WAS TO DO WITH ART.

TODAY, CURATING AS A PROFESSION MEANS AT LEAST FOUR THINGS. IT MEANS TO PRESERVE, IN THE SENSE OF SAFEGUARDING THE HERITAGE OF ART. IT MEANS TO BE THE SELECTOR OF NEW WORK. IT MEANS TO CONNECT TO ART HISTORY. AND IT MEANS DISPLAYING OR ARRANGING THE WORK. BUT IT’S MORE THAN THAT. BEFORE 1800, FEW PEOPLE WENT TO EXHIBITIONS. NOW HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE VISIT THEM EVERY YEAR. IT’S A MASS MEDIUM AND A RITUAL. 

IN THE GALLERY WORLD, CHEIM & READ IS KNOWN FOR ITS EXCEPTIONAL GALLERY EXHIBITIONS.

https://www.cheimread.com/

IN TODAY’S LRFA BLOG, GALLERY DIRECTOR MARIA BUENO, WILL SHARE A VERY SMALL SLICE OF THE GALLERY’S VERY RICH AND EXTENSIVE EXHIBITION HISTORY.

MARIA, WELCOME BACK!

Jack Pierson
Installation View
Cheim & Read

 

MANY OF THE ARTISTS THE GALLERY REPRESENTS HAVE BEEN WITH THE GALLERY SINCE ITS INAUGURATION IN 1997.  WHO ARE SOME OF THE ARTISTS THAT FALL IN THAT CATEGORY?

Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Adam Fuss, Bill Jensen, Jonathan Lasker, Jack Pierson, and Juan Usle.

Lynda Benglis
Installation View
Cheim & Read

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CRITERIA FOR CONSIDERING AN ARTIST’S REPRESENTATION? ARE THEIR SPECIFIC STEPS, AS IN TESTING THE WATERS WITH GROUP EXPOSURE, OR DOES IT DIFFER IN EACH INSTANCE?

It differs in each instance, but the most important component of considering representing an artist is that the artist’s work fits within John Cheim’s curatorial vision and also complements the artists whom we already work with – context is extremely important to us and it is important all of our artists’ work can have a meaningful dialogue when shown together. 

Jean-Michel Basquiat In Word Only Cheim & Read

WITH A TWENTY YEAR HISTORY, THIS BECOMES AN IMPOSSIBLE QUESTION BUT WHAT WOULD YOU CONSIDER SOME OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING SOLO EXHIBITIONS?

Impossible question, indeed! Some that come to mind are IN WORD ONLY by Jean Michel Basquiat, Joan Mitchell FRÉMICOURT PAINTINGS, Louise Bourgeois SUSPENSION, and Al Held’s BLACK AND WHITE PAINTINGS.

N.B. To coincide with two major retrospective exhibitions of Basquiat’s work at the Brooklyn Museum, New York and the Museo d’Arte Moderna, in Lugano, Switzerland, in 2005, Cheim & Read presented an exceptional exhibit entitled “In Word Only” that focused on the paintings, drawings and notebooks that celebrated the use of the written word and its significance.  This exhibition was the first to exclusively feature Basquiat’s unique and significant use of language.

The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women
Cheim & Read, 2009

WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER SOME OF THE MOST OUTSTANDING GROUP EXHIBITIONS?

The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women and its counterpart , The Female Gaze: Women Look at Men, Soutine and Modern Art: The New Landscape, The New Still Life and I Am As You Will Be: The Skeleton In Art.

N.B. THESE ARE JUST A VERY FEW EXAMPLES OF THE SCHOLARSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL RIGOR THAT CHEIM & READ HAS INVESTED IN A TWENTY YEAR PERIOD WHEN CURATING WORKS FOR AN EXHIBITION. THE EXHIBITS ARE ACCOMPANIED BY BEAUTIFULLY CONCEIVED CATALOGUES THAT INCLUDE AN ESSAY ON THE EXHIBITION AND IMAGES OF THE WORKS.

The Female Gaze: Women Look At Women
Cheim & Read 2009

THE FEMALE GAZE: WOMEN LOOK AT MEN

A prescient two part exhibition on the female form as seen through the eyes of women artists and men artists took place in September 2009 at Cheim and Read.

With
 this
 premise, 
the 
show  
sought
 to
 present
 a
 collection 
of 
works
 which
 reclaim
ed the
 traditional
 domination
 of
 the
 “male
 gaze”
 and
 reorient
ed the
 significance 
of
 the 
female
 figure 
to
 allow 
for
 more
 varied
 interpretations. A variety of mediums was included- sculpture, photography, video, painting and installation- and a rich and diverse group of women artists represented including Vanessa Beecroft, Lynda Benglis, Ellen Gallagher, Nan Golden, Roni Horn, and Joan Mitchell, to name a few. 

Wendy
Steiner, 
in 
her
 essay
 “Venus 
in 
Exile:
The
Rejection 
of
 Beauty in
Twentieth-Century
 Art”
 elaborates 
further:

The 
‘self’
 judging
 the 
beauty
 of 
art,
 for 
example,
 is 
a
 perceiver
 and
 hence 
a 
conscious
 subject,
 whereas 
the
‘ Other’ 
is
 merely
 the 
object
 of 
this 
perception. 
If
 the 
Other 
is 
an
artwork, 
it
 is 
inanimate
 by 
definition;
 many 
people 
would
 argue 
that 
the
 perception
 of
 a
 woman 
(or 
man 
or
 child)
 as
 beautiful
 reduces
 her 
to 
the 
status 
of 
a
 thing 
as
 well.
Indeed,
 in 
the
 perennial
 symbolism
 surrounding
 beauty,
 the 
perceiver 
(the
 self)
 is
 active 
and
 ‘hence’
 male,
 and 
the 
artwork
 or
 woman 
(the
Other)
 is
 passive
 ( to-be-seen )
 and 
‘therefore’ 
female.

This
 exhibition 
attempts 
to 
debunk
 the
 notion
 of 
the
 male 
gaze 
by
 providing 
a
 group
 of
 works 
in 
which 
the
 artist 
and
 subject
 do
 not
 relate
  as
“voyeur”
and
“object,”
 but
 as
woman
 and 
woman.
 It
 would 
be 
interesting 
to
 ask 
the 
question
 how
 we
 would 
feel
 about
  the 
works 
in
 the
 exhibition 
if
 we
 were
 told
  they 
were
 made
 by 
a
 man.

Soutine and Modern Art: The New Landscape, The New Still Life
Cheim & Read

DO YOU INVITE GUEST CURATORS OR DOES THE THEMATIC IDEA FOR AN EXHIBIT REST WITH HOWARD AND/OR JOHN OR WITH THE GALLERY STAFF AS A GROUP?

The majority of our exhibitions are conceived and curated by John Cheim but on occasion we do invite artists like Jack Pierson to curate exhibitions. We have also had independent curators like Raphael Rubinstein curate exhibitions such REINVENTING ABSTRACTION which focused on New York abstraction in the 1980s as practiced by a generation of painters born between 1939 and 1949.

IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG POST, MARIA GIVES HER ASTUTE PERSPECTIVE ON THE PLACE OF ART FAIRS IN THE CURRENT MARKET.

UNTIL THEN!

The art of relationships: art fairs, appraisal services, museum curators at Debra Force Fine Art

Debra Force
Art League Presents
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

DEVELOPING A DIALOGUE WITH MUSEUM CURATORS AND MUSEUM BOARDS AND PLACING WORKS IN INSTITUTIONAL VENUES IS ONE OF THE GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF ONLY A HANDFUL OF GALLERIES.  IT REPRESENTS AN INVESTMENT OF TIME AND SCHOLARSHIP AS WELL AS ONE OF NURTURING RELATIONSHIPS. SEVERAL CONTEMPORARY GALLERIES HAVE DIRECTORS WHO FOCUS SOLELY ON CULTIVATING MUSEUM RELATIONSHIPS FOR THEIR ARTISTS, TRAVELING ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO NEGOTIATE EXHIBITIONS AND MEETING WITH BOARDS OF MUSEUMS AND CURATORS TO PRESENT WORKS BY ARTISTS THEY REPRESENT. IT IS AN ART FORM IN AND OF ITSELF.

AS THE CHICAGO APPRAISERS ASSOCIATION NOTES:

The trick to selling to museums whether it be a large institution like the Metropolitan Museum of Art or your local historical society is scholarly research, provenance and a lot of patience. Nothing moves fast with museums. They do not have to necessarily operate on at a yearly profit, so they move at their own maddening slow pace.

IT IS A MARK OF THE QUALITY OF THE WORK AND THE EXPERTISE OF THE DEALER THAT DEBRA FORCE HAS SUCH GREAT SUCCESS IN PLACING ART WORKS IN VERY PRESTIGIOUS MUSEUMS.

TODAY, THE LRFA BLOG CONTINUES ITS DIALOG WITH DEBRA TO LEARN ABOUT THIS ASPECT OF THE ART BUSINESS.

http://www.debraforce.com

DEBRA, THE GALLERY HAS AN EXTREMELY ACTIVE AND IMPRESSIVE TRACK RECORD OF STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH NUMEROUS MUSEUMS. HOW DID THAT COME ABOUT?

I started out more in the museum field and have an academic background, so have always felt a special affinity for institutions.  Throughout my career, I have made a point of visiting the curator or director of the art museum wherever I am traveling and have welcomed them to the gallery.  At times, we’ve organized small events for museum collecting groups and patrons, including special Saturday visits to discuss American art, using our inventory as visuals.  I have also spoken at various institutions and to their collecting groups, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the High Museum, etc. 

I have always attempted to match works of art with the right institution and find it rewarding to do so.  Museums to which we have sold works in recent times include:  Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Vero Beach Museum, New Orleans Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Montclair Art Museum, and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among many others.

Norman Bluhm
X, 1964
Oil on canvas

WHAT WOULD YOU DEFINE AS THE MOST SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A SALE TO A COLLECTOR AND A SALE TO A MUSEUM?

Both are rewarding, especially if helping a client build a collection; there is a sense of pride in coming up with a theme or plan and finding works to illustrate the goal.  From the museum standpoint, it is so exciting to place a work in an institution where it will be studied and admired for posterity.  It is less interesting to work with clients who are mostly buying art for decorative purposes, but it can be challenging just the same.

Martin Johnson Heade
Cluster of Roses In a Glass
Circa 1887-1895

THE GALLERY IS A REGULAR EXHIBITOR AND PARTICIPANT IN SOME VERY PRESTIGIOUS ART FAIRS. WHICH ONES DO YOU FIND THE MOST PRODUCTIVE AND WHY, IN TERMS OF ATTENDANCE, SALES AND INTRODUCING NEW COLLECTORS TO THE GALLERY? 

We do a variety of art fairs to reach different audiences.  The best one for traditional American art is the one called The American Art Fair (TAAF) which takes place every Nov. at the same time as the major American Paintings auctions.  We have sold major works there, including ones by Martin Johnson Heade, Thomas LeClear, Thomas Hart Benton, and Oscar Bluemner.  It is the only fair that extols traditional American art; no works by living artists are allowed.

Milton Avery
Pink Island, White Waves, 1959
Oil on canvasboard

Of late, because of the emphasis on art from the second half of the 20^th Century and 21^st Century, we have exhibited at the Seattle Art Fair in August and Art Miami in December.  In both cases, we have focused upon Post-War era works as well as Modernism.  These fairs give us a chance to meet new clients and to exhibit works that we do not feature in the gallery on a regular basis.  We might also show works by living artists such as Wolf Kahn, Wayne Thiebaud, or Jamie Wyeth.

John Marin
Hudson River Galley, 1911
watercolor on paper

The Art Fair, sponsored by the ADAA in New York in March, is a favorite of ours.  It also allows us to promote our 20^th-century material, generally with a thematic approach such as a tribute to the 100^th anniversary of the Armory Show of 1913, social commentary, or urban/rural landscape.  We have consistently sold well at this fair, selling works by Marsden Hartley, Walt Kuhn, Charles Sheeler, Max Weber, Charles Burchfield, John Marin, and Alice Neel, among others.

We have also tried fairs in Palm Beach and Chicago as well as others in New York, always experimenting with new venues to determine where we best fit.

THE GALLERY ALSO PROVIDES LICENSED APPRAISAL SERVICES. WHAT DOES THAT ENTAIL AND WHAT DO YOU PROVIDE?

I have been doing appraisals for over 30 years, beginning when I was at Christie’s.  We presently provide formal insurance valuations for both private collectors and museums and assist the latter with insurance figures for exhibition loans.  Over the years, we have appraised entire museum collections.  We do not presently do gift tax or estate appraisals, but we do offer consultation and recommendations for clients in need of either.

O. Louis Guglielmi
Elements of the Street, 1947
Oil on canvas

THE GALLERY TAKES WORKS ON CONSIGNMENT ON OCCASION. WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA WHEN CONSIDERING A WORK OF ART FOR RESALE?

We try to find the best quality works that we can from any period of American art, beginning in the 18^th Century up to about 1980. 

For example, we have portraits by Benjamin West and Thomas Sully, landscapes by Jasper Cropsey and Thomas Moran, still lifes by Heade and William Harnett, genre scenes by Eastman Johnson and Winslow Homer, Ashcan works by Robert Henri, William Glackens, and Everett Shinn, Modernist pieces by Stuart Davis, Marsden Hartley, and Arthur Dove, Regionalist scenes by Thomas Hart Benton, and Surrealist and Magic Realist pieces by George Tooker and O. Louis Guglielmi, among others. 

Winslow Homer
Green Apples, 1866
Oil on canvas

We attempt to find the best of any given artist and work with pieces in a variety of price ranges to accommodate clients with varying pocketbooks.  Generally, most of our inventory is on consignment; it is very difficult to buy works at auction for resale, given public access to price records on the internet.

IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG POST, DEBRA WILL CONTINUE TO OUTLINE THE EXTENSIVE SCOPE OF SERVICES THAT THE GALLERY PROVIDES.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF THE HIGH STANDARDS THAT THE GALLERY SETS IN PROVIDING EXPERTISE IN EVERY ASPECT OF THE BUYING, EXHIBITING AND SELLING OF AMERICA ART.

UNTIL THEN, THANK YOU ALL!

 

 

NB The works illustrated in this blog are from the gallery inventory

Artists choosing artists at the Mary Boone Gallery with Ron Warren

Laurie Simmons: Clothes Make the Man: 1990-1994
Retrospective at Mary Boone Gallery
April 27 – July 27, 2018

IN 1991, NEARLY THIRTY YEARS AGO, FOR AN INSTALLATION AT MARY BOONE GALLERY, BARBARA KRUGER CREATED A TOTAL ENVIRONMENT OF WORDS AND IMAGES COVERING THE WALLS, CEILING, AND FLOOR. IN 1994, KRUGER REFINED THIS IDEA BY SEAMLESSLY PAPERING THE GALLERY WALLS, TILING THE FLOOR AND INTRODUCING A BOOMING RECORDED VOICE-OVER. THESE WERE RADICAL AND REVOLUTIONARY ART FORMS AT THE TIME. TODAY, BARBARA KRUGER COMMANDS AN EVEN MORE INFLUENTIAL AND INNOVATIVE PRESENCE THAN SHE DID THEN. MARY BOONE GALLERY HAS SUPPORTED HER IDEAS AND HER WORK SINCE SHE WAS FIRST REPRESENTED BY THE GALLERY, TRUE FOR KRUGER AND NUMEROUS OTHER ARTISTS WHOSE WORK HAS EXPANDED AND DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS, CAREFULLY NATURED BY THEIR GALLERIST AND THEN DISSEMINATED IN GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD TO GAIN RECOGNITION IN THE ART WORLD AND VALUE IN THE ART MARKET.

I, FOR ONE, FIND THIS CONSISTENCY OF VISION AND FIERCE DETERMINATION EXTRAORDINARILY IMPRESSIVE.

Barbara Kruger
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

TODAY, THE LRFA BLOG WELCOMES RON WARREN, PARTNER AND DIRECTOR AT THE GALLERY, TO DISCUSS HOW THE GALLERY SELECTS ITS ARTISTS AND ITS CURRENT AND FUTURE PLANS.

RON, PLEASE TELL US ABOUT THE GALLERY’S HISTORY WITH BARBARA KRUGER.

Barbara is an artist whose work has truly influenced culture! The look of the iconic image and text works she showed with us throughout the 1980s and 1990s is frequently mimicked in advertising and graphic design, not to mention numerous student art projects that appear online. Barbara is an old-school artist, a teacher, no assistants, operating on her own ideas and sharp perceptions of people and power. Barbara consistently applies new materials, technologies, and ideologies to her work. Our shows of her work in the 1980s included large photo-silkscreened works on vinyl, a process developed for outdoor advertising. In 1991 she pioneered the concept of a room-sized installation, covering the walls, floor, and ceiling with images and texts, and in 1994 added to this a booming narrated soundtrack. Our 2004 and 2010 exhibitions were four-channel video projections. Presently she is working mostly with large-scale architectural installations and public art works, like the wide-ranging project she did last Fall for Performa 17.  An exhibition of her work is being organized by the Art Institute of Chicago for 2020.

Barbara Kruger
Performa 17

How does the gallery identify new artists that they are interested in showing? It is a group decision amongst the directors or exclusively Mary Boone’s?

Artists are great auditors of other artists’ work. We follow up on recommendations of the artists we show, and the entire staff discusses weekly any interesting shows we have seen or ideas for exhibitions.

I have always felt that Mary Boone is truly dedicated to her artists. Are artists assigned on a day-to-day basis to various directors or is the scheduling of exhibitions, at the gallery, other galleries and in museum exhibitions a group process?

We all work together for all the artists.

Art fairs are such a dominant venue for exposure and sales. Which fairs does Mary Boone Gallery participate in and why?

The emphasis on art fairs is a relatively new thing. The art calendar has become crowded with so many fairs world-wide, it does put a strain on the galleries, as well as the artists to produce enough work. Some galleries maintain staff that only travel from fair to fair! In order to show the best selection of fresh material, we have made the decision to show only at Art Basel Miami Beach. Our booth at the fair is very much a hands-on extension of the Gallery.  

 

Tomoo Gokita
Installation shot

How are you reaching the Asian market?

With the internet and Instagram, the art world really has become global—it’s a cliché, but it’s true. There is an extraordinary network of information and images being exchanged. Many collectors from Asia have come to us through interest in the artists we show. Often that initial interest is driven by our exhibition of artists from Asia, like Ai Weiwei or Tomoo Gokita, and then the collector becomes intrigued by other artists in our program. We also share our artists with galleries in China, Japan, and Korea.

 

Matt Bass
Installation
May 2018

What are some of the exhibitions the gallery is planning in the year ahead?

Our current show features new paintings by Math Bass whose work I love. Math was a student of Barbara Kruger in the MFA program at UCLA. She had a Project Space exhibition last year at the Yuz Museum, Shanghai.  Although Math has done performance at the Whitney Museum and project exhibitions with MoMA PS1 and has the current Lobby Artist Commission at the Jewish Museum, this will be her first solo New York gallery exhibition.

Check out the great review of this exhibition in the  May 28, 1918 prestigious New Yorker magazine.

RON, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR A GREAT SERIES OF POSTS!

IN OUR NEXT LRFA BLOG, WE INTRODUCE OUR FIRST EXCLUSIVELY PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERY, NEW YORK’S YANCEY RICHARDSON GALLERY. IT IS A PLEASURE TO LEARN ABOUT THIS VERY SPECIFIC AREA OF COLLECTING WITH THE GALLERY DIRECTOR, MATTHEW WHITWORTH.

STAY TUNED!