Jackie Wullschlager does an excellent job with her Lunch with the FT with Larry Gagosian. There’s an interesting comment by Gagosian on the importance of physical galleries in this age of fast flying jpegs:
In the past week, Gagosian has been in London for the giant Frieze contemporary art fair, then in Paris to receive the Légion d’Honneur – an award he studiously avoids mentioning throughout our lunch – and to inaugurate his ninth gallery, a swankily revamped hôtel particulier close to the Champs Elysées. “There’s room for a gallery like ours there, so we decided to take the plunge. And Paris is catching up with London – don’t you think so?”
The charming sleight that my opinion matters conceals ruthless ambition and business acumen. Gagosian is establishing himself in the French capital ahead of Bernard Arnault’s museum, the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation, designed by Frank Gehry, which will transform Paris as a contemporary art centre.
[…] What he does is enact, in real street level spaces, the abstract idea of 21st-century global culture. “New York used to drive the art world but it’s much more diverse, more global now. One sees wealth in many more different parts of the world, and the big change is electronic information – being able to show images anywhere. Yet you have to reinforce that with bricks and mortar apparently, this business is based on walking in a door and looking at things. Most major galleries have clients round the world; we’ve built all these galleries. It’s a particular approach, I’m not sure it’s necessary but it is fun. Once I started I couldn’t stop.”
Lunch with the FT: Larry Gagosian (Financial Times)
