A new art seasons began a few days back, one that
promises some of the most important shows in many years and that has
already seen the closing of many galleries. All across the art capitals of
London, Berlin, and New York, there is a palpable fear in the air among smaller
and younger dealers about what the future may bring. From its high of over 370
galleries in Chelsea alone, New York has lost at least 40 galleries and more
than 100 have closed in Chelsea over the last two years, a demise brought
on by the triumph of the franchise dealers and mega-mall spaces of the likes of
Zwirner, Gagosian, White Cube and their ilk (and the astronomical rents they
can pay). If a gallery does not have a physical space on at least two or three
continents, it is almost considered inconsequential. Just now Paris-based
Perrotin has announced the forthcoming debut of its New York Gallery in an old
Bank of New York Federal-style building on Madison and 73rd Street;
interestingly, one of its directors will be Lucien Terras, a pioneer in
Chelsea, who will be handling its museum and institutional sales. (I first met
Lucien when he was working, with Tony Feher, whose career he launched, at Paula
Cooper’s space on Wooster Street.) Marian Goodman, who has long had galleries
in New York and Paris, has just signed a lease for a very large space in London
off Piccadilly Circus, while the Berlin dealer Max Hetzler is opening two new
venues in Berlin and one in Paris.
Perhaps the most pernicious, if least discussed, aspect of the
rapid change in the promotion and sale of contemporary art has been the rise of
the PR firm as a major component of the process. While museums and other arts
institutions have long had in-house media and public relations operations and
have occasionally used outside public relations firms to handle exhibitions for
which a big box-office is expected or for which a major donor is paying, this
has not been true for commercial galleries. They have generally used mailings
and phone calls made to select clients to generate buzz and sales. The rise of
email and art event sites has allowed even the smallest galleries to publicize
their openings widely, in hopes of drawing both crowds and clients---and, of
course, the critics from The Times. The public relations firms now control how
and when and even by whom articles and reviews can be done; they will even
refuse to offer any help, including images, to small publications, if they
think The Times wants first rights. And there are even pop-up exhibitions that
exist only through and for publicity, with the names of the models and
celebrities in attendance getting far more notice than the works on display.
Julian Schnabel’s son Vito ws one of the first—while still a teenager—to do
this kind of pup-up gallery, but he reestablished the careers of a number of
older artists, like Ron Gorshov. The same cannot be said for Vladimir Restoin
Roitfeld, whose exhibitions seem to exist in a world in which the prime
motivation is fashion celebrity—like the breathless and very controlled reports
from the front lines of the party circuit at the art fairs.
Some of the galleries that have been forced to leave Chelsea
because of rising rents and building sales have taken over spaces on lower
Orchard Street, the heart of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, that have been
abandoned by the pioneers there, as they seek larger venues on parallel
streets. Perhaps the most interesting of this group is Monya Rowe, whose second
floor space on West 22nd Street was no longer available. The
peripatetic DCKT alighted in late Spring in the former space of Nicelle
Beuachene, who shares a building on Broome Street with Jack Hanley. The two
actually alternate using the ground floor, which must have posed a bit of a
problem during Ms Beauchene’s pregnancy this summer.
Among the closings I most lament, over the past few months, are
Anna Kustera, Newman Popiashvili, and Harris Lieberman, each of
which carried real personality and creative vision to the task of selling art.
From its early days in an almost inaccessible aerie on Mercer Street,
Newman Popiashvili brought the unexpected to light, including, at one
point, the skillful and macabre racing crash paintings and tornado scenes of
Rover Feyer and, throughout its run, the psychologically powerful photographs
of Mark Woods. And who can forget the time when, in their gallery on 22nd
Street they lowered the ceiling so that you basically had to crawl to get to
their office through the installation. Fortunately that was not during one
of the times when the gallery flooded, especially during Hurricane Sandy last
year.
Harris Lieberman in seven years presented some of the more
innovative shows I saw, including works by Karl Haendel. Ohad
Meromi, Matt Saunders, and Alexandre Singh. One of the really
surprising works they sponsored was a lot-line wall mural by Haendel at
the corner of Howard and Broadway in New York; watching it over the years
as it aged and then as it was hidden by construction in the next door vacant
lot—once the home of a flea market---was truly a great New York art experience.
I wonder if it will reappear again in a hundred years if the new building is
demolished.
Anna Kustera has long been one of my favorite dealers,
perhaps the most innovative I have known. And I have known her from the time
when she was the assistant to Josh Baer in his enormous space on Broome Street.
With shows as diverse as the first-generation feminist artist Mimi Smith and
the "bomb-maker" Gregory Green, she has challenged our
ideas of what the historical paradigm should be. And she showcased artists of
all backgrounds, allowing them to do things that did not fit the official line
of ethnic or politically engaged art. She has said she is looking, like a
number of other dealers, including Casey Kaplan, (long her neighbor across 21st
St), for a new location, without the ridiculous overhead of Chelsea and now,
unfortunately, much of the Lower East Side.
