Linke - Artinfo

16
THEREPORTER
Artists Shift Allegiance
THE ART WORLD IS ABUZZ AFTER GAGOSIAN GALLERY STARS JUMP SHIP
Larry Gagosian
ON THE FIRST DAY of Art Basel
Miami Beach this past
December, Gagosian Gallery
sold Jeff Koons’s wooden
sculpture Buster Keaton,
1988, for approximately
$5 million. That same day,
word spread that Koons
was planning a major show
of new work—but the
exhibition, which opens in
May, would be with Gagosian
competitor David Zwirner.
Koons did not say he
was splitting with the blue-
chip international gallery
where he has shown for
more than a decade. And
Gagosian Gallery said in a
statement that it continues
to represent Koons in
partnership with Sonnabend
Gallery, the Zwirner show
notwithstanding. Just
over a week later, however,
two of Gagosian’s other
high-profile artists, Damien
Hirst and Yayoi Kusama,
announced they were
leaving the gallery for good.
Neither of them gave a
reason for doing so and
the gallery did not respond
to a request for comment
by press time.
Observers wondered
if these departures suggest
that the dealer’s art world
dominance is waning. Could
it be that his business has
simply grown too big?
“His expansion has been
unprecedented,” says art
adviser Lisa Schiff. Indeed,
Gagosian has opened six
galleries in as many years,
spreading his empire across
three continents. The dealer
recently estimated his gallery
network employs roughly 150
people, 20 to 25 of whom are
devoted to sales. According
to figures published in the Art
Newspaper, rental costs for
11 of Gagosian’s spaces—not
counting his 25,000-squarefoot
property on West
24th Street in New York,
which he owns—may exceed
$11 million per year.
The moves of the three
artists come at a critical
moment for each. The final
exhibition at the Whitney
“Dealers cannot serve buyer,
artist/seller, and themselves without
giving someone short shrift.”
Museum’s Madison Avenue
location (before a 2015
move to the Meatpacking
District) will be a major
Koons retrospective. Hirst
and Kusama are fresh off
career retrospectives
at Tate Modern and the
Whitney, respectively.
Some observers speculated
that a large operation
might find it more difficult
to cater to the needs of
major artists. “Dealers cannot
serve buyer, artist/seller,
and themselves without
giving someone short
shrift,” says London-based
dealer Kenny Schachter.
That question of where a
dealer’s priorities should
ultimately lie—with the buyer,
the artist, or the dealer
himself—has also driven two
recent lawsuits against both
the gallery and Larry Gagosian
personally by claimants
who accuse him of withholding
information to profit
unjustly from a deal. The
first suit, filed by collector
Jan Cowles in January
of last year, concerns Roy
Lichtenstein’s enamel
Girl in a Mirror, 1964, which
Cowles’s son Charles
allegedly consigned to Gagosian
without her knowledge
or consent. Jan Cowles
contends that as part of the
unauthorized sale, Gagosian
wrongfully skewed the
balance of information in
favor of the buyer to achieve
an unusually high commission.
In November, both
sides agreed to mediation.
Another lawsuit was
brought by billionaire
Ronald Perelman, in New
York State Supreme Court
this past September, alleging
that Gagosian’s failure to
disclose “secret contract
provisions” during negotiations
over the sale of a Koons
sculpture cost the collector
millions of dollars. According
to court papers, in May 2010
Perelman agreed to buy a
new granite sculpture by
Koons, titled Popeye, for $4
million and the sculpture was
to be delivered to Perelman
in December 2011. After
fabrication delays, Perelman,
through one of his holdings,
negotiated a group of art
transactions to acquire a different
work from Gagosian,
not identified in court papers,
to be “paid for...with cash
and...certain works of art,
including the sculpture
Popeye, thereby receiving a
credit for the purported value
of the works.” When Gagosian
refused to value Popeye
for over $4 million, the suit
alleges, Perelman learned
of “the existence of a secret
contract with Koons”
whereby the artist is entitled
to 70 percent of any resale
profits above the original
sale price. Perelman claims
Gagosian “was required
to share such information”
at the time of their initial
agreement on Popeye.
On January 18, Gagosian’s
attorneys filed a motion
to dismiss the case.
Such specific artist and
dealer contract details are
rarely leaked to the public,
and sources say the
revelation could have been
a factor in Koons’s decision
to show with another gallery.
Hirst’s motivations for
leaving the gallery, however,
may simply stem from
dissatisfaction with his sales
figures. “There’s no
doubt Hirst has saturated
his market,” says Alberto
Mugrabi, a collector
who owns approximately 300
Hirst pieces. Nonetheless,
he says, “I think Hirst has
been his own dealer for a long
time. I think eventually he’ll
reject the system entirely.”
The reasons for Kusama’s
move—sources say
the artist is planning to join
Zwirner’s stable—are not
clear and Zwirner
representatives declined
to confirm or comment on
Kusama’s reported switch.
That blue-chip artists are
more frequently calling the
shots in their own careers
is a consequence of the very
art world corporatization
Gagosian helped pioneer,
observers say.
“Expansion on this level
is still a novelty,” Schiff says.
“Coming up with the right
recipe for growth is
important, and I don’t think
we’ve figured it out yet.”
—JULIA HALPERIN
MARCH/APRIL 2013 | BLOUINArtinfo.comAsiA
AMBER DE VOS