Larry Gagosian reshaped the art world | Hacker News Reader

Larry Gagosian reshaped the art world

newyorker.com

35 pointskeiferski18 comments

Am commenting without reading the article. The book that gave me a peek how the art dealership works https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42250022-boom

It got me thinking the dealership side of software. One might have written a next big thing, but having a Larry Gagosian to evangelize it is equally imortant

I also recommend Boom. A very thorough overview of the last century of art dealing.

There is a lot in this piece taken from Boom, but this article paints GoGo in a much worse light. It more or less says he's unscrupulous when it comes to the source of money (Russian Oligarch's) being used to buy art. It also makes him out to be a shadowy market maker, representing both sides of a transaction where neither buyer nor seller know who each other are.

I honestly didn't find the article to be that great...just a predictable New Yorker piece circa 2023, complete with all the "checkboxes" that need to be mentioned. Gagosian himself, however, I find super fascinating, and most of his life is covered here.

I can recommend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12391759-12-million-doll... "$12 Million Dollar Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art and Auction Houses" around these topics too. For someone without any background in art it's very approachable. Gagosian is mentioned many times in the book.

Patrick Radden Keefe is one of the best non-fiction writers going around today. His book about The Troubles [0] in Northern Ireland is particularly good.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Say_Nothing_(book)

There are parallels between the speculative art world and VC capital approaches to tech companies. In some ways, the art and ideas don't matter when it comes to potential value. Because of that, art dealers and VC funds don't seek quality. They invest in notability and novelty, in many directions at the same time. An interesting book about the history of art dealers is Rogues' Gallery by Philip Hook. When I read about the financial angles of the 1875-1935 modern art world, I saw many similarities to 2005-2015 Silicon Valley VC culture.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32489013-rogues-gallery

Exactly. The art work doesn't matter. At all. At all. The only thing that matters is the brand of the artist and that it is well known.

The primary reason for people like Larry to exist at this scale is the tax loopholes that the ultrarich use to hide wealth. This includes international money-laundering and cartels.

As well as (1) bragging rights, (2) not knowing what else to do with the enormous amounts of money they have, and (3) trying to embed themselves in a culture they've contributed nothing to, other than buying its most prized artifacts.

side-note: The Economist offers a "listen" button to subscribers for most articles that appear to the weekly digital publication (web and mobile). The articles are narrated by different, high quality narrators with different accents (British English, South Africa English, etc). These are a breeze to listen to when running or commuting. The difference in quality to the text-to-voice counterpart is staggering.

Did he reshape the art world or the art trade? Artists or art traders?

is there a genuine distinction?

I hate these Amrican-centralist articles. Or rather, I don't mind their US focus but they always write "the world", not just NA.

This is the kinda commnt that HN downvotes, but I ask the Americans on here to look themseves in the eye and maybe acknowledge their overstatement?

Agreed, way too often even comments here use either "the World" or "the West" interchangeably with US (and maybe Canada), or the Anglosphere. It's just wrong and confusing.

The "art world" is a specific term that references galleries, artists, museums, auctioneers, etc. It's also not American-centric, with significant art world hotspots in Hong Kong, Basel, Berlin, and London, to name a few.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_world

noooobody cares about your critical opinion, just do your thing and leave your supposed lessers in the dust

Larry shapes the "Art World" both in and out of the US

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