The acerb Charile Finch has more to say on Artnet.com about the Robins v. Zwirner trial and what’s behind dealer Jack Tilton’s testimony:
Tilton, one of the most savvy secondary market dealers whose SoHo gallery basement “boiler room” was a legend in the 1990s, has been courageously fighting Parkinson’s Disease. As one who often complained to me about being priced out of the contemporary Chinese art market, which Tilton originated, as well as expressing frustration with wealthier dealers who co-opted his artist discoveries (especially Marlene Dumas), Tilton appears to be throwing in the towel on a career of struggle and innovation, a medium-sized tuna biting back at the sharks, at last. […]
Tilton’s characterization of Dumas and her studio can only be described as tragic. Far from glorying in her rare success and the attentions of major museums, galleries and collectors, Dumas, in Tilton’s telling, appears obsessed with issues of her legacy, the destinations of her paintings (which she regards with the kind of fixation that Brecht’s Mother Courage dangerously bestowed upon her ill-fated children) and the sad idea that someone somewhere might be making a buck off her labors. I mean, where is the joy, Marlene?
Tilton at Windmills (Artnet.com)
