SFAQ_issue_sixteen

WATER MCBEER WATERMCBEER.ORG
Interviewed by ANDREW MCCLINTOCK
So Water, what made you want to start the infamous Water McBeer
Gallery?
My goal since starting Water McBeer gallery back in 2010 was to bring the attention of
the international art market to San Francisco. It all started at the tender age of fourteen
when I inherited my distant uncle’s massive art collection worth about six billion
dollars. At the time it was 1969, and I was living in a small hippie commune in Northern
California where I was raised, hence my name, Water. With my valuable art collection
I left my family and humble beginnings behind to pursue life as a powerful art dealer
So we know each other because of the exhibition you curated at Ever
Gold gallery in 2011 that ended with the riot police showing up... And
more recently when we co-presented the stolen Van Gogh painting
on a yacht off the coast of Dubai, which was one of my favorite shows
of all time. It’s nice that you offer a safe place for billionaires and politicians
to mingle with each other and celebrate culture away from
any pesky protesters.
Yes Andrew, it is always a pleasure to work with you. As you remember there was a
physical altercation between some tenderloin locals and clients of mine, who were badly
beaten and emotionally scarred. Unfortunately, the authorities had to be involved.
So of course for your illegally curated exhibition [in Dubai] we wanted to ensure a
comfortable platform for the wealthy to observe culture from a safe distance. As a
gallerist this is my duty to provide culture to a very small percentage of special people.
And this time we didn’t want the stolen Van Gogh to attract any attention from the
media or authorities, so we made sure it was held on a private yacht in international
waters and negotiated with the Dubain pirates to provide security. Everyone was able
to enjoy themselves and it was a fabulous time.
Your mission of providing unbiased and unpretentious, private culture
to the wealthy and elite of the world is a very nobel cause. So
you also recently worked with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, can you talk a little
bit about that exhibition?
Thank you, it’s not an easy job but somebody has to do it. A wise man once said, “See
the change in the world you want to be,” or something like that. I met Hans at a conference
in New York held at MoMa PS1 where I was invited to speak. Hans and I share
similar ideas about alternative exhibition formats and the future of exhibition space
in the Internet age. Hans used to curate a pocket-sized museum that existed inside a
2”x3” folding frame called the Nano Museum. He had the brilliant ideal to curate the
Nano Museum inside the Water McBeer gallery, featuring works by Chris Marker. It
was a genius exhibition. Hans is a wonderful man.
So what are some of your views on the future of exhibitions?
Downsize downsize downsize. The lines of legitimacy are ever blurring and the gallery’s
presence is changing and who’s to say what’s a gallery and what’s not a gallery. All you
need to be a gallery is a website. If your gallery doesn’t have a website, it doesn’t exist
in my book. So what I’m doing is breaking the gallery down to its bare essentials. When
our relationship to art is predominantly virtual who needs space? The future will be
more than just downsized, more than nanosized. Size, mass and volume will be completely
eliminated from the experience of art.
Are you competing with the Google art program then?
Google ain’t got shit on Water McBeer. I was unaware they even had an art program.
Look I’ve been in the business for forty-something years now and these nerds at
Google come into town still suckin’ on their Mama’s tit thinking they’re hot shit Internet
wizards. They can kiss my ass with their new ass-kissing app.
How will net artists fit into your programming, or are you more concerned
with pumping out the big secondary market shows at this
point? Including your ongoing private showings of black market artworks.
At this point the gallery still operates in a physical realm and therefore net art is not so
much a part of my programing. I cater to a very specific market of collectors, wanting
to make big investments in smaller scale artworks and of course stolen artworks and
hypothetical art works.
You are frequently seen at the casinos in Monaco with Larry Gagosian,
racing cars, yachting and gambling at the high stakes tables. Do
you two ever gamble with art?
I once bet Larry a Warhol that he couldn’t drink a bottle of shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck
in under sixty seconds. I won the bet and he gave me his estate in the countryside of
France instead of parting with the painting. I’ve since overcome my very serious gambling
addiction.
-This interview was conducted over text message on April 15 th and 16 th , 2014.
[Opposite] Water WcBeer and Hans-Ulrich Obrist during the
opening reception of Hans-Ulrich Obrist’s curated Water Mc-
Beer exhibition featuring works by Chris Marker. December
24 - Feb 8, 2014. [Top] Evan Nesbit, Art Party. July 30 - August
4, 2012. [Bottom left] David Bayus, PRECIOUS. April 6 - May 11,
2013. [Bottom Right] Matthew Palladino, Group Show. July 30 -
August 4, 2011