Art Market Monitor

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Gagosian’s First Online ‘Spotlight’ Series Closes After Big Sales as Dealer Looks to Expand in Future

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Jenny Saville, Virtual, 2020. Oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 63 in. © Jenny Saville. Courtesy Gagosian.

Gagosian has wrapped the inaugural season of its online “Artist Spotlight” series, a weekly showcase of artists from the gallery’s stable with works priced as high as $5 million. That the gallery has seen success on the platform, which features editorial commentary alongside its artworks for sale, is yet another sign that business is booming in the virtual realm. The series ended with the sale of Jenny Saville’s aptly titled new self-portrait Virtual (2020). Gagosian has said the Saville is the most expensive work to sell through the platform, but has declined to state a price for it.

The initiative, according to Sam Orlofsky, a director at Gagosian, was developed as a direct response to the pandemic crisis that left a host of the dealer’s artists without exhibitions or an obvious source of income for the foreseeable future. “We immediately started to brainstorm ways we could bridge the gap until the shows could reopen,” Orlofsky said. “Some artists work three years for a major New York exhibition and their budget accounts for that exhibition being able to generate income.”

Comparing artists’ studios to small enterprises, Orlofsky added, “It was a moment where we were all very conscious of the impact on small businesses.”

In the three months since the series was launched, Gagosian held spotlights for 14 artists, including Damien Hirst, Jenny Saville, Stanley Whitney, Jennifer Guidi, Theaster Gates, Dan Colen, Urs Fischer, Mark Grotjahn, and Mary Weatherford. So far, there have been various high-level private deals. An untitled painting by Grotjahn from his “Capri” series was sold privately for $5 million (the most expensive work sold during the artist’s spotlight period), and two works by Hirst—one piece went for $2.2 million; the other, a 2017–18 oil painting called Veil of Hidden Meaning, went for $1.5 million—were placed with collectors. There have been major public sales, too, and they include a $775,000 Urs Fischer, a $250,000 Jennifer Guidi, a $400,000 Mary Weatherford, and a $300,000 Titus Kaphar. Altogether, the announced works total $10 million with the gallery hinting much more that has not be publicly revealed. Continue Reading

London’s $75m Man, Brice Marden at Gagosian

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Early reports from London have Brice Marden’s show at Gagoisan’s Grosvenor Hill outpost selling out of all 10 paintings each with a price tag of $7.5m. That’s no indication that fair-goers came with their pockets full of spending money. But combined with strong sales in Asia this weekend, it does set the tone for Frieze.

Brillo Box (3¢ Off): A Documentary About Art Collecting

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On Monday, August 7, HBO will debut Lisanne Skyler’s documentary Brillo (3¢ Off) about the Andy Warhol sculpture her father bought in 1969 from Ivan Karp at the OK Harris Gallery. The smaller, yellow Brillo box sculpture was only $1000 but even then buying it was an act of cultural courage.

The film is framed as a wistful search for lost opportunity and a study of how works of art increase in value. The Skyler’s Brillo Box, which sat in a protective plexiglass case in the family living room, was eventually sold to Charles Saatchi. He, in turn, sold it to a collector who also gave the work up to the dealer Robert Shapazian who ran Larry Gagosian’s LA outpost until his death in 2010.

When Shapazian’s estate was sold at Christie’s later that year, there was a bidding war for the Brillo Box driving the price to $3m. Would the Skylers have gotten so much money for their Brillo Box had they held on to it? After all, Saatchi and Shapazian are big names to conjure with in the art market.Continue Reading

Perelman’s Fraud Claim Against Gagosian Will Get Day In Court

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GagosianBloomberg reports that the long simmering suit between Ronald Perelman and Gagosian Gallery will got to court on only one of the many points because the judge, Barbara Kapnick, doesn’t think she can rule on the issue of fraud:

“Plaintiffs allege that Gagosian has enormous power to influence, and even set, the markets for the artists he represents because of his impressive roster of artists and his access to and knowledge of the largest private art collections in the world,” Kapnick wrote. “Even though the plaintiffs are sophisticated art collectors and investors, the court cannot say, as a matter of law, that plaintiffs’ alleged reliance on defendants’ representations regarding the art market and intrinsic value of particular works of art was per se unreasonable or unjustified.”

“The court has affirmed that we have a valid fraud claim against Mr. Gagosian based on his unfair dominance of the art market,” Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Perelman, said in an e-mail.

“We are delighted that the judge summarily dismissed five of the six bogus claims that were put forth by Mr. Perelman,” Matthew S. Dontzin, an attorney for Gagosian, said in a telephone interview. “The judge felt that at this very early stage she could not accept the documentary proof we put forward destroying any evidence of fraud and we look forward to the day when those documents can be considered by the court.”

Perelman Fraud Claim Against Gagosian Will Go Forward (Bloomberg)

Gagosian’s Show of Force at ArtRio

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Gagosian is making a big play in Brazil with a show of force at ArtRio. Katya Kazakina says the world’s premier gallery is bringing 80 pieces by 30 artists to attract the country’s new wealth:

“The population of people collecting seriously has exploded in the last five years,” said Allan Schwartzman, who has been advising Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate who founded Inhotim, a 5,000-acre contemporary-art park in the country’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

Gagosian is taking 80 pieces by 30 artists to ArtRio. The gallery’s selections cover a broad spectrum of prices and periods, from a $10,000 photograph by New York-based artist Roe Ethridge to Picasso portraits with asking prices between $10 million and $15 million.

Alexander Calder priced between $5 million and $10 million will vie for buyers with four Warhols, including a 1965 Campbell’s soup can and a 1986 self-portrait in a fright wig, valued between $1 million and $10 million. The gallery will display some works in a booth at the fair; others will be included in a separate sculpture exhibition, also part of the fair.

Gagosian Plans $130 Million Package For Brazil Art Fair (Bloomberg)

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