A Kinder, Gentler Contemporary Art World?

If I had to point to three people in the art world who defined what has been termed the recent "corporate turn" in the contemporary art market, they would be, in my opinion and in order of influence, mega-gallerist Larry Gagosian; Christie's auction house chairman of postwar and contemporary art development, Amy Cappellazzo; and (formerly) Sotheby's auction house worldwide head of contemporary art, Tobias Meyer. Forming as perfect a trio in shifting the tide of history as perhaps Jefferson, Madison, and Franklin, these masterful movers and shakers each played a huge role in drowning out the previous preoccupations with aesthetics or politics in the art world and quite successfully refocusing the center of the dialog on profit, celebrity, and power.

Is that unfair of me?

Private dealer Richard Polsky says that in many cases, when collectors buy from Mr. Gagosian, what they're really buying is Mr. Gagosian's cachet: "You cannot underestimate the egos of the people who buy from Gagosian. Most would rather overpay to be part of his world, and he counts on that mystique to draw clients to him."
---Wall Street Journal

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Basically art’s worth what someone will pay, Ms. Cappellazzo explained. “Someone offered me today a masterpiece by Leon Golub,” she said. “I thought, ‘You can buy five of these for the price of one Nate Lowman right now!’”

She emphasized that she wasn’t commenting on Mr. Lowman’s work, just making the point that money operates in peculiar ways in the market. “We’re not really pricing a work of art,” she said. “We’re pricing what money means to the five people who might be interested in it.”---Gallerist

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"What I love to do is put people in front of art and make them feel it, make them stop everything else they're doing and experience it, deeply," [Tobias Meyer] says. "That's how I make art expensive. And that's my job, for the company and for my clients. To make art expensive."
---The New Yorker

They say good (or bad) things come in threes, and so it was when I saw the third successive, unexpected change among these titans of contemporary art in about as many weeks, I began to wonder whether it might be pointing toward a kinder, gentler contemporary art world. Whether these "sharks" known to have laser beam-like focus on the next deal might not have all woken up one day to realize there were other, sometimes really interesting things in life beyond money and evermore power.

First, of course, was the news that Tobias Meyer was leaving Sotheby's. Speculation ran high as to whether the decision was his or not (despite the auction houses press release), given his results had consistently paled in comparison to those at Christie's, but his own explanation seemed a shift in tone:

In a telephone interview, Mr. Meyer explained that his decision to leave Sotheby’s was “about lifestyle,” adding that after turning 50 in February, which he called “a big benchmark,” he began assessing his life, especially given the global explosion of the contemporary art world now. “It’s all become so international and so mobile that a buyer might be in Dubai or Moscow or Paris and by taking advantage of technology you can do business everywhere,” he said.

There was a marked shift in tone as well from Larry Gagosian, who, as noted in the Wall Street Journal article above, has made a point of throwing lavish parties to court Hollywood celebrities and others with tons of disposable income. It was odd therefore to read his recent comments about the scene in Miami last weekend: 

“I think there’s too many parties here,” Gagosian said earlier at the dinner at the Dutch. Gagosian hardly ever speaks to the press and he seemed disinclined to answer questions — initially, he misheard Women’s Wear Daily as the Venezuela Daily News — but the explosion of events around the fair has raised enough red flags for him that he wanted to voice some concerns. He noted this year he didn’t see as many collectors from Seattle, San Francisco or Europe. 

“It could be the social scene swallows the art scene,” he said. “It could erode the core of what made this and I’m a little concerned that serious collectors, people who I do business with, and a lot of my colleagues might say, ‘Well, this is just some social rat f--k,’ and I’ve already started to sense a little bit of that.” 

Gagosian had more on his mind. 

“It becomes a place to attach a product launch and I understand that. Those are legitimate businesses, too. I’m not a snob,” he said. “All I’m saying is that for my industry, the tail might wag the dog and that could be a problem. Two years ago, the audience was a little more interesting from the perspective of the galleries that come here.”

And then today we hear that Amy Cappellazzo is leaving Chrisite's as well.

After months of rumors and denials from experts at Christie’s, officials there have finally confirmed that Amy Cappellazzo, its chairman of postwar and contemporary art development, is leaving that auction house in February after 13 years to work as a private dealer and adviser. 

“The market has changed considerably,” she said. “It’s now a vast industry, and there are tremendous opportunities.”

And while that may not in and of itself suggest any change of heart, Artinfo points to a comment Amy made last year that may shed more light on why she's moving:

Over and above online sales, private sales — the more anonymous pairing of collectors and artworks — have been something of a passion for Cappellazzo in her latter days at Christie’s so the move makes sense. “When I think about private sales,” she told WSJ in 2012, “I think about matchmaking—it’s literally about arranging love.”

 Ahhh....

Er, excuse me...I got something in my eye.