Gagosian: New York's Dominance Waning

Sarah Douglas conducted a wide-ranging interview with dealer Larry Gagosian published in The National for the Abu Dhabi art fair:

To Gagosian, however, the current slump cannot compare to the devastation of the depression that struck the art market at the start of the 1990s. “The early 1990s were an absolute nightmare,” he says. “It was brutal. I remember going to Sotheby’s in November of 1990. And usually after an auction you meet up with some friends – collectors and co-workers and other dealers – and you go out for dinner and have a good time. Back then, nobody wanted to talk to anybody. You were numb. You walked in, and half the auction didn’t sell. People weren’t even bidding. It was just unbelievable, because in May there had been an incredibly strong auction. Huge prices. Records for many artists. Vibrant market. It just turned on a dime. And the ensuing recession in the art market was absolutely the worst thing I’ve ever been through in my career as an art dealer. The phone literally didn’t ring.”

[…] “This hasn’t been the case now. This has been a totally different dynamic.” It is the exponential expansion of the market in recent years – and that includes patronage from areas like the Middle East – that Gagosian credits, in part, for keeping the current downturn from become so severe. “We’re in a much more global art market.”

That very global art market may come to threaten New York’s position as the de facto centre of the art world, […]. “I think New York is still the centre,” he says. “But it’s considerably less dominant.” He adds that he doesn’t know “if New York will be the centre of the art world in five or 10 years. There’s been a shift, particularly to Europe. ‘

Europe has lately been crucial as a portal to collector bases further east; Gagosian is particularly excited about Paris, where he has an office and is rumoured to be at some point opening a gallery. Collectors from Russia, Asia and the Middle East “tend to go to Europe more than New York. They’re very comfortable in London and Paris”. Since he opened a space in Rome two years ago, he has been, he says, “pleasantly surprised” to see collectors from these regions visit him there. “We find people who would never come to New York.”