In a world where art fairs have siphoned attendance from galleries and online sales negate a physical art experience, Blake Gopnik regrets the trend towards art being solely about private exchange.
As the virtual replaces the physical and the world gets globalised, we’ve been hearing that art galleries, material and settled in a single place are bound to be on their way out. Collectors are now more likely to buy at a fair than from a dealer’s home base; some may do their art shopping online. A few mid-range dealers, especially, are already closing their galleries, to conduct all their business in private, at fairs, or by jpeg. Some newly prominent art middlemen, such as Vito Schnabel in New York, have never even opened a permanent space. I believe that these changes put art itself at risk.
Nicole Klagsbrun is one of the more prominent New York dealers to close up shop recently. She has cited the fact that art fairs have siphoned attention and attendance from galleries, and that online sales negate the actual art experience a physical show provides. Why should she pay rent on a gallery, when clients care less and less about the kind of art-viewing it allows? (Click here to read more)
As the virtual replaces the physical and the world gets globalised, we’ve been hearing that art galleries, material and settled in a single place are bound to be on their way out. Collectors are now more likely to buy at a fair than from a dealer’s home base; some may do their art shopping online. A few mid-range dealers, especially, are already closing their galleries, to conduct all their business in private, at fairs, or by jpeg. Some newly prominent art middlemen, such as Vito Schnabel in New York, have never even opened a permanent space. I believe that these changes put art itself at risk.
Nicole Klagsbrun is one of the more prominent New York dealers to close up shop recently. She has cited the fact that art fairs have siphoned attention and attendance from galleries, and that online sales negate the actual art experience a physical show provides. Why should she pay rent on a gallery, when clients care less and less about the kind of art-viewing it allows? (Click here to read more)