Giving Adam Lindemann His Due

Robin Pogrebin cleverly spent some time with Adam Lindemann last week in what became a bit of victory lap for the collector-turned-dealer. Lindemann’s galleries now bookend the US market with Venus Over Manhattan and Venus Over LA. But his sale of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled work for $57.3m not only set the high-water market for the artist’s market but achieved the top price in this cycle’s sales.

Lindemann’s score, however, only highlights his penchant for going where the market isn’t. In his venues he tries to shine light on under-appreciated aspects of the market like his recent show of H.C. Westerman:

“There’s plenty of good galleries in New York […],” he said, adding that he aims “to revisit artists who are out of favor, to look at historic work in a new way.”

[Brett] Gorvy said: “The fact that he likes Westermann kind of tells it all — a highly quirky, highly respected artist among a niche group of collectors — someone who is really anti-commercial in a certain way. That’s the kind of thing Adam pursues.”

The news in Pogrebin’s story is somewhat buried. This season, both auction houses followed Lindemann’s lead and began showing their Contemporary art in the context of Oceanic and Tribal art from around the world. Lindemann has long been an advocate of this sort of work and this strategy for collecting.

Pogrebin reveals that he put his money there too:

Before selling the Basquiat he bought an Uli figure from Papua New Guinea, the cover lot at Sotheby’s African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art sale, for $4.7 million.

A Collector’s-Eye View of the Auctions  (The New York Times)