Artist, you try to express, share, sell yourown aesthetic values, attitudes and vision?

328-1024x7682-1024x768

Image from - first curated Instagram show.

jeffrey-deitch-miami-interview-900x450zzz

Images from - Figurative art is back.

What do you as artist wish to do when you paint, perform, install, sing, play a musical instrument, digitalize, Instagramize, etc?

It often seems to me that many artists, in this case painters, paint so as to sell what they have made. This aim appears very low down my priorities, if at all - so I will not bother to deal with it. It is not only from this consumer-orientated attitude of artists that one finds "selling" as first priority, but also from supposedly serious art sites such as Artnet. Such sites list the top 100 or 200 artists at present, or annually, say for 2015, 2014, for all time etc by the amount of money s/he sold work for in that year or other time period and/or by the highest prices paid for his/her work.

On a more serious note - at least two conditions must be fulfilled for a painter to express his/her aesthetic 'vision' (values, attitudes, insights, understanding, inner world and other realities, etc) . 1) S/he should have a clear, effable, meaningful aesthetic 'vision' and 2) s/he should have the techniques, skills, ability and wish to express this 'vision'. Note that I only mention 'express' this vision and not share, communicate, sell, etc.

The latter requires other attitudes, agendas, intentions and motives than that of 'expressing' one's aesthetic vision and realities. I will not deal with them here.

What is a clear, unique, original, authentic , truthful and effable or expressible aesthetic vision? Everybody has aesthetic notions and that is revealed by many things in the person's life, for example how s/he present himself in the world, they way he dresses, what someone eats, the individuals s/he finds attractive and other preferences in their daily and more specialized areas (for example preferred films, music, television shows, art, fashion, interior design, etc) existence.

Here we are concerned with the painter's aesthetic vision in the socio-cultural practice of painting (and perhaps related areas) and the discourse of Visual and Fine Art and the the genre of painting. This holistic vision and/or some of its parts and perhaps even certain basic principles, pre-suppositions and other factors that influence, affect and determine it might change, even drastically, suddenly and intentionally over time. Or, changes might occur gradually and even unintentionally. Think of the changes over time n the work of some artist for example van Gogh, Picasso, Rothko, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pollock, et al. A unique, original, authentic (or personally truthful) and fully developed aesthetic vision, ideals, attitudes, values and principles will most likely only be attained after many years in the life of a mature artist (writer, composer, etc).

The second condition, the artist's means of expression or tools refer both to the material ones as well as the formal, structural ones involved in a painting as a 'work of art'. The latter includes things such as composition, form, color, texture, shape, movement, etc. The former refers to the techniques to get the paint, etc on the support and ways of manipulating them.

Condtions 1 and 2 goes hand in hand and 2 is required so as to be able to create and express condition one (aesthetic vision), while 1 determines they ways in which, how and why and artist will deal with the structural, formal aspects in certain ways or his/her gradually evolved style.

Occasionally an artist will view his completed or almost completed work and add finishing touches to it. Touches that might be imperceptible or irrelevant to other viewers, but that are essential for the artist to express and convey details and complexities of his aesthetic vision.

(to be continued...)

Video recent work Ulrich de Balbian 30/11/2015

Video recent work Ulrich de Balbian 30/11/2015
https://youtu.be/JNu9tp1RaUc

how dim artists are when it comes to the art market, zombie formalism and 'ainting

The real takeaway of the whole business is how dim artists are when it comes to the market and its machinations. Every once in a while a market mover like Simchowitz makes headlines, but in fact this sort of thing goes on all the time. Charles Saatchi invented an entire art movement in the '90s, and Mary Boone had the magic formula in the '80s. Larry Gagosian sits at the center of his own solar system, as do scores of other art dealers around the world. Museums, art schools, and art magazines are also power centers in their own way, as are the new digital communities.
Formalism” because this art involves a straightforward, reductive, essentialist method of making a painting (yes, I admit it, I’m hung up on painting), and “Zombie” because it brings back to life the discarded aesthetics of Clement Greenberg, the man who championed Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, and Frank Stella’s “black paintings,” among other things
Flipping and the Rise of Zombie Formalism
Can anyone stop the march of Zombie Formalism? Does anyone really want to?

It's been fun watching the teapot tempest launched by Los Angeles art flipper Stefan Simchowitz in his Artspace interview last week. Initially the reaction was rather savage, as it unfolded via comments on Facebook, illustrating the ruder extremes of our digital art discourse. But if you ever wondered just how this flipping business works, at least now you have some first-hand evidence.

The ferocious currents of the art market have always been visible enough in the auction rooms. But it’s silly to be upset with the fish that swim there—that’s like getting mad at people who win the lottery, or Donald Trump. It’s just not very bohemian to care about that kind of stuff, as many who involved themselves in the Simchowitz contretemps eventually pointed out.

The real takeaway of the whole business is how dim artists are when it comes to the market and its machinations. Every once in a while a market mover like Simchowitz makes headlines, but in fact this sort of thing goes on all the time. Charles Saatchi invented an entire art movement in the '90s, and Mary Boone had the magic formula in the '80s. Larry Gagosian sits at the center of his own solar system, as do scores of other art dealers around the world. Museums, art schools, and art magazines are also power centers in their own way, as are the new digital communities.

lucian smithLucian Smith's Two Sides of the Same Coin (2012)

And sad to say, the notion that there is a genuine, pure, sincere, and deep art that can be set in opposition to a compromised, mercenary, dishonest, and shallow one is romantic piffle. In 40 years in the art world, I’ve met plenty of irreverent artists, but never one who thought, first and foremost, that he was running a scam.

This is not to deny that money talks, as people like to say. The question we should be asking, though, is: "What is it saying?"

One thing I’m hearing these days, loud and clear, is the hum of an art style that I like to call Zombie Formalism. “Formalism” because this art involves a straightforward, reductive, essentialist method of making a painting (yes, I admit it, I’m hung up on painting), and “Zombie” because it brings back to life the discarded aesthetics of Clement Greenberg, the man who championed Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, and Frank Stella’s “black paintings,” among other things.

Do I need to prove that formalist abstraction is a walking corpse? Will a quote from the book jacket of Florence Rubenfeld’s Clement Greenberg: A Life (1997) do? “By the late 1970s, ‘Clembashing’ had become the art world’s favorite indoor sport.” The rejection of “Greenbergianism” was absolutely central to SoHo art conversation in those pre-Chelsea days. And as the ‘80s got under way, with the decade’s double focus on Neo-Expressionism and postmodernist photography, Greenberg dropped out of the debate altogether.

jacob kassayJacob Kassay's Untitled (2010)

His aesthetic principles persist, however. Two notable examples of Zombie Formalism would be the electroplated silver monochromes of Jacob Kassay (b. 1984) and the “Rain Paintings” of Lucien Smith (b. 1989), both recent favorites of the art flippers. (Kassay’s auction record is $317,000, reached last fall at Phillips New York, and the high price for a “Rain Painting” is $372,000, set just two months ago at Sotheby’s London, according to the Artnet price database.)

With their simple and direct manufacture, these artworks are elegant and elemental, and can be said to say something basic about what painting is—about its ontology, if you think of abstraction as a philosophical venture. Like a figure of speech or, perhaps, like a joke, this kind of painting is easy to understand, yet suggestive of multiple meanings. (Kassay’s paintings, for example, are ostensibly made with silver, a valuable metal that invokes a separate, non-artistic system of value, not unlike medieval religious icons, which were priced by both their devotional subjects and by the amount of gold they contained.) Finally, these pictures all have certain qualities—a chic strangeness, a mysterious drama, a meditative calm—that function well in the realm of high-end, hyper-contemporary interior design.

Another important element of Zombie Formalism is what I like to think of as a simulacrum of originality. Looking back at art history, aesthetic importance is measured by novelty, by the artist doing something that had never been done before. In our Postmodernist age, “real” originality can be found only in the past, so we have today only its echo. Still, the idea of the unique remains a premiere virtue. Thus, Zombie Formalism gives us a series of artificial milestones, such as the first-ever painting made with the electroplating process (Kassay), and the first-ever painting done using paint applied in a fire extinguisher (Smith).

I confess a certain bias towards the idea, having long claimed as a figurative painter to have debuted in 1984 the first-ever painting of a nude flossing her teeth.

aaron aujlaAaron Aujla's Untitled (2013)

At any rate, like the creatures of its namesake, Zombie Formalism pops up all over the place. I see it in “Ain’tings,” a show of 16 relatively unfamiliar artists at the new Robert Blumenthal Gallery at 1045 Madison Avenue just north of 79th Street. Ryan Steadman, the artist who organized “Ain’tings,” writes of the “materiality” of the works, which nevertheless abandon the “conventions of painting” and other traditional mediums. Me, I just wonder why it took so long for someone to come up with the too-witty term “ainting.”

The show includes a wood panel covered with black cedar shingles by Aaron Aujla (b. 1986); a vertical monochrome whose surface is marked by circular holes, which turn out to be the insides of plastic caps for cans of spray paint, by Dylan Bailey (1985); and a ghostly square monochrome whose surface is made from horizontal rows of strapping tape, translucent but reinforced with white string, by Chris Duncan (b. 1974).

chris duncanChris Duncan's Fade #6 (2014)

Though apparently none of these artists are on the Simchowitz list (prices range from $2,500 to $12,000, and several of the works are sold), the show still represents a concentration of art-world interest. Among the signs: several of the artists have long waiting lists; several are represented by serious art-world players or have recently had well-received shows at hip young galleries; one is in the Whitney Biennial; one received a great review in the New York Times; a couple of them are former assistants to artists who are now hot art-market properties.

dylan baileyDylan Bailey's Untitled (2013)

Does any of this make your blood boil? Well, passion can be good thing in the art business. Just don’t let it keep you from joining the winning side.

Figurative art is back, post-internet art, Zombie Formalism.

http://www.artspace.com/magazine/contributors/see_here/the_rise_of_zombie_formalism-52184

http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/trend_report/post_internet_art-52138

--------------------
Ever since Jeffrey Deitch returned early last year from his controversial stint as director of MOCA in Los Angeles, the art world has been wondering about his next chapter. There have been signs of an attempt to re-create the vital infusion of art, design, fashion, nightlife, and street culture that was Deitch Projects in its earlier incarnation, with a tribute show to the 1980s nightclub Area (held at his protégé Kathy Grayson's Hole Gallery) and an exhibition of street art in Coney Island, but also reports of a lucrative consulting practice and a renewed focus on his time-honored trade in the secondary market.

As 2015 draws to a close, however, a clearer strategy is starting to gel—one that makes use of both Deitch’s private-dealing acumen and his status as an impresario of pop-up shows and special events. For Art Basel Miami Beach, for instance, he has teamed up with none other than Larry Gagosian on an exhibition, “Unrealism,” that will fill the atrium of the Moore Building with figurative painting and sculpture from the 1980s (Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente) to the right-this-minute (Jamian Juliano-Villani, Sascha Braunig).

This clearly sales-oriented, object-centric exhibition may sound a bit staid for a Deitch event in Miami—this is, after all, the man who invited Miley Cyrus to peform at the Raleigh last year. But it also capitalizes on a new wave of figuration by younger artists who have tired of neo-formalist abstraction (a topic we have been covering in our conversation series surrounding Phaidon's new book Body of Art). And in characteristic Deitch fashion, it will incorporate a festive performance: an exuberant, costumed parade through the Design District by the voguing video artist Rashaad Newsome.

Meanwhile, Deitch is also working on “Overpop,” a touring international group show scheduled to debut in Shanghai in 2017 that explores Pop influences in Post-Internet art. And closer to home—much closer, in fact—he has big plans for the year ahead. Deitch sat down with Artspace’s Karen Rosenberg at his Grand Street space to talk about the resurgence of figurative art, the evolving downtown art scene, and what’s next for him and his gallery.



What inspired you to do a show of figurative painting and sculpture? At first glance, this exhibition looks a lot more conservative than your usual programming.

This has been an interest of mine going way, way back. In 1984, I organized a big exhibition at P.S.1 called “The New Portrait” that took up the entire second floor. It was a portrait salon, and Andy Warhol helped me organize it. We had one room that was Pictures Generation artists like Robert Longo, a Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring room, photography rooms. In the center, we had a fantastic display of Warhol’s portraits of artists. So I’ve been interested in this from the beginning. Figurative art is like the novel—it’s reinvented by every generation, and gives us insights into how artists are perceiving life today.

I had planned, at MOCA, a show on new figurative painting. If you’ve gone to the Museum of Modern Art over the past 15 years, or most other American museums, you’ve hardly seen any figurative painting on view. That’s really what most artists do, and what the general public generally expects out of painting. They relate to it. I’m as steeped in conceptual art as anyone—I worked at the John Weber gallery in the ‘70s—but it’s something I was thinking about when I went to a museum. There’s hardly been an ambitious exhibition of new figurative painting in any American museum in a long time.

Can you tell me more about that unrealized MOCA show? How close is “Unrealism” to your original vision?

At MOCA I was planning on doing it with Alison Gingeras as a guest curator. I loved the show that she did at the Pompidou, more than 10 years ago, called “Dear Painter”—the title is taken from Martin Kippenberger. Alison is quite interested in a kind of counter-history of figurative painting, and she notoriously included Bernard Buffet in that show. The theme that Alison was interested in was “wrongness” in figuration. It started with Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Picabia, other figures like that, and went into the present.

We never were able to do that show. But I still had this desire to do a really strong show on new figurative painting, and I just adapted it to this commercial situation—a show that’s supported by making sales, which we do in this sector. My original title for the MOCA show was “Unrealism,” because I love titles like this that have some ambiguity. Alison preferred “Wrong Figures,” so that was our title there, but here I went back to “Unrealism, and it’s a much more compact history, because for a one-week show we can’t be borrowing de Chiricos.



SchnabelJulian Schnabel, The Unknown Painter and the Muse Will Never Meet, 2010. Inkjet print, oil on polyester, 114 x 136 in. Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian Gallery



Were you also thinking about the ideas from your 1993 touring show in Europe, “Post Human”? That exhibition, which focused on the reshaping of the body through futuristic technologies, seems so prescient now in our age of Post-Internet art.

“Post Human” is the inspiration for another show I’m working on, “Overpop.” It’s great that it’s had this second life. I’ve done so much, and most of it unfortunately just disappears into the ether. You hope that cumulatively, it made some statement.

There are number of artists, like Maurizio Cattelan, Vanessa Beecroft, and the Chapman Brothers, whose work comes right out of “Post Human,” and they actually acknowledge that. And, subsequently, Urs Fischer was very influenced by the show, even though his work is not really in this vein.

What’s very gratifying for me is that when I first met Josh Kline, I said, “By any chance did you hear of a show I did called ‘Post Human’? And he said, “Of course!” He even has the book. It’s a real reference for Josh and a number of other artists, who somehow got hold of the book at a used bookstore.

I want to hear more about “Overpop.” But first, who are the artists in “Unrealism”?

This show was also inspired by a group of very exciting young figurative painters I’ve discovered over the past few years. In New York there’s Ella Kruglyanskya, Jamian Juliano-Villani, and Emily Mae Smith, and, in L.A., Tala Madani. In Germany, there’s Jana Euler. In Maine, Sascha Braunig. There’s Jonathan Gardner, who’s just moved to New York from Chicago. I think some of these artists are exceptional talents, and a perfect example of reinventing figuration to connect with contemporary experience.

These artists are very knowledgeable about historical precedents. They’ve studied traditional technique, but it’s very, very fresh. Ella, Tala, and Sascha all studied for their MFAs at Yale, and they intersected with Kurt Kauper, who’s an artist I used to show and a great teacher. Others like Jamian, who went to Rutgers and is much more self-taught, are looking at unexpected sources—monster magazines, old Playboys, things like that.

I’m very excited about these artists, and if I could get enough material I would do a show just with them. But they’re so in-demand, and just to get what we got was a real achievement. I thought it would be interesting to put them in a context with several other generations of contemporary figurative painters, who are continuing to do vital work and are changing with the times.



Juliano-VillaniJamian Juliano-Villani, The Entertainer, 2015. Courtesy of the Artist, JTT, New York and Tanya Leighton, Berlin



Who are some of those other painters?

We start with the ‘80s generation—Francesco Clemente, George Condo, Julian Schnabel, Richard Prince. Then, from the ‘90s generation, John Currin, Rachel Feinstein, Elizabeth Peyton, Karen Kilimnik, Cecily Brown, and others. We have others who go beyond the New York group, like Henry Taylor from Los Angeles. space lends itself to sculpture as well—the entrance will be an Urs Fischer candle portrait of Michael Chow, which will burn during the show, and we’ll have two great Duane Hansons.

What about the many artists who combine figuration and abstraction? How strict were your parameters?

It’s such an open, big topic, but we wanted to keep it as coherent as we could. I’m not one to make restrictions on media, but rather than having all kinds of media—photography, video, immersive installations—I decided to keep it a tighter show. It’s painting, and a small amount of sculpture, and most of the painting is figurative. There’s one painting that is not—it’s a Dan Colen interior. It’s always good to have one thing that throws it off.

Will there be performance?

Yes. The opening will have a procession and performance by Rashaad Newsome. I got the idea from a video of a procession he did in New Orleans, called King of Arms, which I thought was incredible. He’s very involved in the new vogueing scene, and we’re bringing voguers down from New York. We’re going to have a marching band from Miami. We’re doing a procession that will start at the de la Cruz space and go through the Design District. It’s a big challenge, because there are going to be a lot of cars coming in and we have to figure out the whole traffic pattern. But it’s going to be worth it, because it’s going to be very exuberant. I’d like to do more, but it’s a short show. If I were to do the show in New York, there would be more of a performance component.



ClementeFrancesco Clemente, For Morton Feldman. Mixed media on canvas, 78 x 93 in. Courtesy of the artist.



Do you see performance in general, particularly some of the performances you’ve done at your gallery—for example, Colen and Dash Snow’s “The Nest”—as part of the figurative tradition?

Oh, absolutely. Part of the revival of figuration, in the early ‘80s, came out of performance. When I was the American editor of Flash Art years ago, we did a whole issue of performance into painting. It was a big topic then—the mainstream galleries were conceptual/Minimal, and there were a few galleries showing photorealism, but you weren’t even allowed to talk about going there. There wasn’t much of a place to go for the younger generation.

My whole group would go to performances at the Kitchen and CBGB when that started up, and a lot of the people who became painters at that stage were in bands, doing performance art, making vanguard film. Somehow it all converged into a more iconic image, into painting. Performance is so crucial to that shift—the dialogue between Cindy Sherman and other artists in her circle like Longo or David Salle, who went to CalArts with all the dance and performance art and turned it into paintings. That’s very, very important. Today, for many painters the references are film, TV, the videos that people send around on social networking—that’s very much part of the vocabulary.

In a recent interview with the New York Times you spoke about the appeal of humanism at this moment, when artists have been preoccupied with "inside-art issues." Can you elaborate on that?

Even though I have a whole history of exploring figuration, I’m equally interested in abstraction. The most important show that I did at MOCA, for me, was “The Painting Factory,” a survey of new abstraction. So it’s not that I think this is better—what happens is that a chapter gets completed; it plays out. There’s a lot of achievement, when you look at Julie Mehretu, Mark Bradford, Wade Guyton, Tauba Auerbach. But now you see that the field is diluted by second-tier abstractionists—I don’t want to mention any names—who are using printing techniques and kind of a conceptual story, and it’s just not as good.

It reminds me of Post-Minimalism when I came into the scene in the ‘70s, after Robert Ryman and Robert Mangold and Brice Marden—there were dozens of artists doing Minimalist-type painting, and most of it’s completely disappeared. I just see that something similar is happening with the abstract dialogue—it’s played-out. Younger artists recognize that, and ambitious people are going in a fresh direction. There are cycles. After the ‘80s, people had had it with fabricated, market-ready sculpture, and then there was more of the ethereal—Felix Gonzalez-Torres installations, things like that.

You can see the next cycle starting in the current “Greater New York” survey at MoMA P.S.1 and in last spring’s New Museum Triennial.

That’s right. The interest in the figurative never goes away, and I love that it reappears in a fresh way that reflects contemporary experience.



KrugyanskayaElla Kruglyanskaya, Profile in Hat With Cut Papers, 2015. Oil and oil stick on linen, 84 x 64 in. Collection of Craig Robins, courtesy of the artist and Gavin Brown, NY



How exactly are these younger artists you’re championing in “Unrealism” making the figure new again?

They’re all different. Ella is probably the most traditional—she’s looking very carefully at Picasso and Matisse, and even that is somehow fresh because that has not been so much of a reference for vanguard painters. But there’s also something that connects with fashion illustration and the expanding art platform and the confusion of what’s art and what’s fashion and what’s popular culture. She’s involved with that. I see references to Picasso, but I also see references to fashion illustrators like Antonio Lopez.

Jamian is interested in Surrealism—in her work you see Yves Tanguy, and also Mexican women Surrealists like Remedios Varo. She’s looking at that more Feminist art history. But she’s also into weird non-art stuff, like H. R. Giger science fiction illustration. She’s brilliant at finding all these obscure sources, including some artists who were neglected but are coming back, like Christina Ramberg—she has every book on Ramberg. She addresses something very contemporary, which is increasing confusion between fine art and popular culture. It’s all colliding. Her studio is this crazy mezzanine in somebody’s silkscreen shop. If the building department ever came, people would get arrested! You know how artists have to work in New York, even successful ones.

How you think the conditions for making and showing art in New York have changed in recent years? Did anything surprise you when you came back from California?

In five years, the studios have gotten more and more miserable. In the ‘70s, people in my circle had entire floors in SoHo and Tribeca that were really cheap—young people that had just arrived. Then the ones who still had their leases divided them up into warrens. Then people had really nice places in Williamsburg, but that fell apart for artists pretty quickly. Then it was nice places in Bushwick. And now it’s like you’re in some institution, where some real-estate sharpie has rented a floor and divided it into 30 cubicles. It’s like you’re in some state hospital. Everyone has a cubicle, but they keep the doors all shut.

It’s much tougher to be an artist here, and I really admire people for being here and pushing it. It’s not as pleasant as it was for my generation. People say, “Let’s all move to L.A,” but it’s still so dynamic in New York. With this group of artists I’m looking at with the new figurative painting, there’s more talent in New York than L.A. It’s the dialogue, the social networking of people seeing each other in person and talking and hanging out. And the standards that are here—you can’t have a half-baked exhibition and keep your position. It’s changing in L.A., but until recently people had half-baked exhibitions, and it was sort of still ok.



BraunigSascha Braunig, Marker, 2015. Oil on linen over panel, 25 x 19 in. Private collection, courtesy of Foxy Production, NY



Did working within that institutional structure of MOCA change anything about the way you organize exhibitions?

It’s so ironic, but when I did the shows here I never had to think of commercial considerations. We always had something going that would help to pay for it. My business philosophy was, if you do something inspiring, someone is going to want to buy something. And it worked.

In a museum, there’s more compromise. There are certain things you can’t include because a sponsor might find it offensive. Then, say there’s an important patron of the museum who collects an artist.... All the museums say, “Oh, we don’t do this,” but if your big trustee is a big collector of this artist, well, you basically have to put that artist in. You don’t really advertise it, but that’s the reality.

But the thing that really astonished me is that if you’re a museum director and, increasingly, a museum curator, the majority of your time is spent fundraising. I was quoted someplace saying that when I had Deitch Projects it was 90 percent art and 10 percent business, which is pretty accurate. At the museum, it was 90 percent business and 10 percent art. It was just constant, relentless fundraising. A certain kind of museum show simply won’t find a sponsor, but another kind is more appealing to the public and a bank will sign up. I’m used to working without compromise, and it was interesting going to a museum where there’s much more compromise.

“Unrealism” is a collaboration between you and Larry Gagosian—how did that take shape?

I’ve known Larry since 1979. I met him when he and Anina Nosei had a gallery in a loft on West Broadway across from the building with Castelli and Sonnabend, and they showed Salle who was a friend of mine. In the early ‘80s, I used to go out to L.A. frequently to attend the openings of shows of friends of mine, like Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. I got to know him in a casual way, not just a business colleague way. We were both protégés of Leo Castelli—we had that in common. And we’ve worked with many of the same artists over the years: Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Cecily Brown.

People say, “Isn’t he your competitor?” But I never thought that way. This is a very big platform. If some artist decides to leave me and go to Gagosian, it’s not the end of the world. It opens up the opportunity to develop someone else. It goes both ways—there are artists like Salle or Clemente who used to be with Gagosian and then they worked with me. There are never any recriminations or lawsuits. I’m relaxed about this—I’m very confident in what I can do. I never thought of this field as a zero-sum game.

You two do have very different business strategies, however—he has a global franchise model, whereas you have focused on New York and just a couple of spaces.

For me, it’s not business first. I’m much more about using the business structure to support my curatorial projects. I’ve found that the market system is a great system to support radical art and artistic innovation.

What do you make of the business challenges of running a smaller or mid-sized gallery today, especially in New York? There are the staggering expenses of participating in art fairs, on top of rising rents.

Just like the artists keep coming, the ground-level galleries keep coming. Artistic entrepreneurship is thriving here. Some of the most exciting places to encounter art in New York are the basement of Ramiken Crucible, the little storefront of JTT, and Real Fine Arts in Brooklyn underneath the highway. The artists who show at these places, and the people who want to buy their work, don’t need a gigantic, slick, super-expensive gallery. I’m more stimulated by the experience of going into this alley behind the liquor store to get to Ramiken Crucible. The serious people love it—there’s a sense of discovery and authenticity, and a number of artists also appreciate that.

Some artists are waiting for that invitation from the mega-gallery. Other galleries want to do something with them, and they’re holding back. And some of the mega-galleries do a really good job. But is Oscar Murillo’s career going to be more interesting and dynamic and rewarding to him by being with David Zwirner than if he had stayed with Carlos/Ichikawa in London, where he’s hanging out with other artists of his generation? It’s an interesting question. I’m always more enthusiastic about the model where the gallerist is about the same age as the artist, and they grow up together and establish something together.



Cecily BrownCecily Brown, The Homecoming, 2015. Oil on linen, 77 x 97 in. Courtesy of the artist



One of the strategies that you’ve been working with is to have less of a gallery presence and to focus on pop-up exhibitions.

Yes. It’s a much bigger reward for me to create a thematic exhibition, instead of just running as fast as I can on a treadmill to create 30 shows a year, which we used to do. We did “Unrealism” pretty quickly, although it’s a major effort. With “Overpop,” I’m taking more time. This is more what I want to do now, to do projects that take some time and have a book attached and that make a bigger impact. Also, rather than just representing artists I like, I can work with all galleries. With “Unrealism,” we’re getting wonderful collaboration with everybody. That’s something I was able to take advantage of at the museum, and I wanted it to continue. The show is a great collaboration, not just with Gagosian but with Zwirner, with Hauser & Wirth, with Jack Shainman, with many other galleries.

What do you think is the future of SoHo as an art neighborhood? There are very few galleries left in the area, and some of the ones that remain are consolidating or closing. Meanwhile, the Lower East Side is booming.

SoHo has a new dynamism, because of the Lower East Side. You can just walk right down Grand Street—it’s a 10-minute walk. It’s a really central area for shopping, restaurants. There’s Chanel here, but also there’s H&M, Uniqlo. There’s something for everyone, no matter what your income level. I’m very populist, so I like that it’s very central, very accessible. Every subway goes here.

The other new development, besides the Lower East Side galleries, is Condé Nast and TIME and Fox going to the World Trade Center area. It’s one subway stop on the E train, and you’re here. You can easily come here at lunch hour if you’re working for Vogue.

So I’m very happy—I’m not going anywhere. In August, I’m going to take back the Wooster Street space back. I had given a special five-year lease to the Swiss Institute—I was planning to be away, but I had always planned to take the space back.

So you’ll operate it as a gallery again?

Yes, but again it’s not like we represent this or that artist—it would be thematic shows, or… I have plenty of ideas. Not for month-to-month shows, but maybe shows that would be on for a couple of months. And then we would use this space [at 76 Grand Street] more as an office and showroom.

Is Brooklyn, where you had been looking for gallery space last year, off the table at this point?

Yes, I’m focusing here. I tried to make a deal to bring in a partner who I was connected with to buy a half-interest in a big property in Red Hook, and out of that I would get an exhibition space. It wasn’t completed. Then I got this building back, and then I was invited to do this outdoor project in Coney Island. So I don’t really need it now.

Can you tell me more about “Overpop”?

The theme of “Unrealism” is very straightforward—the winds are shifting, and there’s some very fresh figurative painting, and we’re seeing this cycle just like we did in 1980 or ’82—a new interest in figuration. “Overpop” is much more complicated. In a way, it’s my sequel to “Post Human.”

When I see something that’s out there that hasn’t been fully articulated yet, that plenty of people are talking about, I want to rise to the challenge—can I define what is important in this moment? I’m very interested in tendencies in art that coincide with trends in society and science. With this “Overpop” moment, we see this convergence between artistic trends, social trends, technological trends. There’s something really interesting there that can help us to understand and define our moment by looking at art.

For me the title is even more important than the essay. It’s crazy how few people actually read your essays, but everybody knows the title. With this group of artists, there’s a lot of debt to the foundation of Pop art, to Warhol and other artists in the Pop arena. There’s also this confusion between art and popular culture. There are artists in “Overpop” who work directly in popular culture—like Miranda July, or Harmony Korine. Spring Breakers is pop culture, but it has amazing artistic imagery and concepts.

Where exactly are you doing "Overpop"?

It’s going to open in Shanghai. We’re talking with an American museum—I hope it’s going to happen. Then it’s going to the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation in Turin—they’re very astute, they collect a lot of these artists. And we’re doing a book, with [Karma's] Brendan Dugan.

What else are you working on? I heard you were planning to do the “Disco” show you had wanted to do at MOCA.

That’s all conceived and ready to go. But what I decided is that the “Overpop” show is very timely—I have to do it now. The disco show, it doesn’t matter whether it’s done this year or three years from now—it’s more historical, and people will love it then. So I put that off to do “Overpop”— I can’t delay that show, because it’s of this moment.

How would you characterize this current moment in the art world, aside from the issues in "Overpop"? What else is on your mind?

From my perspective, this whole gigantic structure of art fairs and auctions has become excessive. There will probably be some sort of correction, because it’s just too extreme. But I’m also an idealist, and I love it that the art audience has become so much bigger. I do believe that art enhances people’s lives, that art at its best can create more open and tolerant attitudes and understanding between people of diverse backgrounds. So I think it’s good that the art world is much bigger.

I also don’t want to be a curmudgeon and say, “It’s ruined now,” or that the ‘80s was the golden age. In the ‘80s we had to listen to the people from the ‘50s, who thought that Leo Castelli had ruined the art world! The big message is, contemporary art used to be quite marginal in the general culture and the economy, and now art is much more in the center.

video of recent work 29/11/2015

21st Century painter, philosopher, art and cultural writer. Dedicated to all the beautiful moments in the lives of kind, gentle human (and other) beings, artists, composers, philosophers, scientists... who are no longer with us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnOwG_MnNAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnOwG_MnNAY

https://youtu.be/pnOwG_MnNAY

">

">

TOP 5 on art most read this week

TOP 5 most read on FAD this week.

The Top 5 Art Exhibitions to see in London this week

http://fadmagazine.com/2015/11/22/tabishs-top-5-art-exhibitions-to-see-in-london-this-week-90/

New survey shows arts sector is a closed shop.

Create have announced the findings of its Panic! survey, which was delivered in association with Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Sheffield and LSE as part of major new project Panic! What Happened to Social Mobility in the Arts?
http://fadmagazine.com/2015/11/23/new-survey-shows/

3 PREVIEW: ARCADIA AMERICANA a multimedia exploration into the heart of the American Dream.

http://fadmagazine.com/2015/11/22/220987/

4 The world’s first Instagram-curated art exhibition.
Paintguide opening tonight (Thursday 26th November) is the world’s first Instagram-curated art exhibition. An innovative collaborative exhibition of new works by 60 international artists working primarily with the medium of paint, as featured on the hugely successful Instagram account @Paintguide.

http://fadmagazine.com/2015/11/25/worlds-first-instagram-curated-art-exhibition/

New Art gallery to open in Cambridge
http://fadmagazine.com/2015/11/19/new-art-gallery-opens-in-cambridge/

A new art gallery will open at Downing College, Cambridge on 6th February 2016. Designed by world-renowned architects Caruso St John, the gallery is an innovative commission by Downing College and will be dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

The gallery will open with an exhibition of works from the private collection of Sir Alan Bowness, former Director of Tate and an alumnus of Downing College. Generation Painting 1955-65: British Art from the Collection of Sir Alan Bowness features works by an array of significant mid-20th century British artists including major works by Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, William Scott and Allen Jones. It is the first time these rarely seen works will be displayed together, and the exhibition draws links between the collection and his long career in the arts. Some of the paintings are already in the collection of the Fitzwilliam – others will follow.

some of my latest work - postmodern, post-minimalist, New Aesthetics, art as marks on paper, anti-art, anti-anti-art

Painting = 5 Golden Rules

Painting =

FIVE

Golden Rules

Here are five golden rules for the socio-cultural practice or the activity of painting when it is exercised in the Western Tradition of Fine and Visual art
more specifically the genre of painting. These rules concern the artist as a whole, his Self, constructions of reality, social relationships, values,
norms, attitudes, emotional and intellectual development, beliefs, etc. These are things he will get in order during his life time, for as Socrates
is alleged to have said, "an unexamined life is not worth living". He will obviously question himself, his pre-suppositions and assumptions
concerning all aspects of existence. It is in this totality of his existence that the subtlety and complexities of these rules should be interpreted,
understood and individuated by each person.
(1) The artist is totally, completely and absolutely authentic (and increasingly so) in his entire being and all areas of his existence.
(2) S/he is unintentionally and naturally original and unique in his approach to and understanding of reality (internal and external realities), the
discourse of art, the socio-cultural practice of Fine or Visual Art and painting.
(3) S/he is naturally and intentionally questioning, reflective and aware of the subtle problematics of all things, phenomena and situations.
(4) A work of art makes one, clear statement.
(5) The real aim of a work of art is to be, subconsciously so, an emotional punch, a KO through and as 'feeling'.

1) He should learn to be authentic in all areas of his existence, he must endlessly question and examine himself, his Self, and entire existence. With
this refined and highly developed skills of self-examination, that have become second nature to him and/or be applied sub-consciously all the time,
he should approach his artist reality. This exercise will assist him to become increasingly truthful to himself, both in his entire existence and all
aspects of his being and obviously in his artistic practices.

2) He will increasingly become unique in all areas of his existence and obviously in his original artistic work. This most definitely does not mean that
he will use or abuse art to shock, merely attempting to attract attention and become in/famous. For an artist to be original it is essential that he explores
and develops many aspects of the discourse and processes of painting, for example techniques, different media, supports and the structural or formal
aspects of painting (such as color, composition, form, etc.)

3) His painting and his attitude towards painting will reveal that he, similar to creative thinking and questioning individuals in all socio-cultural
practices and specialized discourses (for example, philosophy, natural and social sciences, visual and performance arts, mathematics, theology,
composition of music, etc) and all areas of daily existence (for example parenting, work, leisure, relationships, beliefs, etc), investigates and
explores phenomena and do not merely accept them on face-value, or the way they are constructed, perceived and understood by his time and
place - his culture and sub-culture, class, age group, personality-type and other socio-cultural, psychological, biological and human factors. In
other words he will be experimental, explorative and questioning and able to interpret and translate everything as problems, by systematic, logical
and controlled problematization or problematizing. He will continually and constantly have a reflective, questioning and open frame of mind and
reference towards all aspects of existence and his own artistic practices. He would deal in depth with the formal and structural aspects of his work
(and all aspects of his existence, for example the re/construction of his external environments as well as his inner worlds) be it in painting itself
(for example the exploration of certain aspects of painting by working in series), drawing, installations, performance, photography, videos and
other new media.

4) Every single one of his paintings will make one, clear statement. This point and the next point (5) are really the different sides of the same coin. In fact
all 5 points are merely different perspectives on or views of the 'same' object, for example perceiving a house (and architectural plans of it) from the front,
the top and the different sides.

5) All socio-cultural, personal, structural and formal aspects concerning a painting will work together in unity, or disunity (some aspects of the work might
be 'slightly off' and intentionally so) with the single purpose and sole aim to convey an 'emotional or feeling-based' punch or KO. This, is the real aim and
overriding purpose of every work of art - the pre-conceptual,(conceptually) ineffable, emotional, feeling expression or 'message' it conveys, expresses and
communicates.

Click names of top 200 collectors, 2015, for entire article on persons

If click does not work go to this website

http://www.artnews.com/top200year/2015/


2015 Top 200 Collectors
Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip E. Aarons

New York
Real estate
Contemporary art
Roman Abramovich and Dasha Zhukova

Moscow
Steel, mining, investments, and professional soccer (Chelsea Football Club)
Modern and contemporary art
Ricard Akagawa

São Paulo
Travel and real estate investments
18th-century Brazilian Baroque furniture and imaginaries, Caucasian Rugs, International contemporary art
Paul Allen

Seattle
Computer software and sports franchises
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art, Old Masters
María Asunción Aramburuzabala

Mexico City
Beverages and investments
Modern and contemporary art
Hélène and Bernard Arnault

Paris
Luxury goods (LVMH)
Contemporary art
Laura and John Arnold

Houston
Hedge Fund
Modern, postwar, and contemporary art
Hans Rasmus Astrup

Glasgow, Oslo
Shipping- and finance-related activities
Contemporary art
Candace Carmel Barasch

New York
Real estate
Contemporary art
Maria Arena and William Bell Jr.

Los Angeles
Television production
Modern and contemporary art
Ernesto Bertarelli

Gstaad, Switzerland
Biotech and investments
Modern and contemporary art
Debra and Leon Black

New York
Investment banking
Chinese sculpture, Contemporary art, Impressionism, modern painting, Old Masters, works on paper
Len Blavatnik

London, New York
Investments (media, industrials, and real estate)
Modern and contemporary art
Neil G. Bluhm

Chicago
Real estate
Postwar and contemporary art
Karen and Christian Boros

Berlin
Advertising, communication, and publishing
Contemporary art
Irma and Norman Braman

Miami Beach
Automobile dealerships
Modern and contemporary art
Udo Brandhorst

Munich
Insurance
Postwar and contemporary art
Peter M. Brant

Greenwich, Connecticut
Newsprint manufacturing
Contemporary art, design, furniture
Edythe L. and Eli Broad

Los Angeles
Philanthropy (The Broad Foundation)
Contemporary art
James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach

New York, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Investments and law
Contemporary art
Bettina and Donald L. Bryant Jr.

Saint Helena, California, St. Louis, Missouri
Winemaking (Bryant Family Vineyard) and insurance
American Masters of the 20th Century, German and Austrian Masters of the early 20th Century, Old Masters
Melva Bucksbaum and Raymond Learsy

Colorado, Connecticut, New York
Inheritance (shopping malls) and commodities trading
Contemporary art
Joop van Caldenborgh

Wassenaar, the Netherlands
Chemical industry (Caldic)
Modern and contemporary art, including sculpture, photography, artists' books, video, and installations
Edouard Carmignac

Paris
Asset Management
Contemporary art
Trudy and Paul Cejas

Miami Beach
Investments (PLC Investments)
Postwar and contemporary art, especially Zero
Pierre Chen

Taipei
High-tech industry
Modern and contemporary art
Adrian Cheng

Hong Kong
Retail and real estate (K11 and New World Development)
Contemporary Chinese and global art
Halit Cingillioglu

Monaco
Banking
Impressionism, Modern, postwar, and contemporary art
Kemal Has Cingillioglu

London
Banking
Contemporary art
Ella Fontanals-Cisneros

Gstaad, Switzerland, Madrid
Investments, real estate, and telecommunications
Contemporary art, video, and photography, with an emphasis on architecture and historical geometric abstraction from Latin America
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros

Caracas, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, New York
Media, entertainment, telecommunications, consumer products, and travel resorts
19th-century traveler artists to Latin America, Amazonian ethnographic objects, colonial art and objects from Latin America, Modern and contemporary Latin American art
Alexandra and Steven A. Cohen

Greenwich, Connecticut
Investments
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art
Cherryl and Frank Cohen

Cheshire, England
Home-improvement stores
Contemporary art, modern British art
Isabel and Agustín Coppel

Mexico City
Retail
International art
Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz

Key Biscayne, Florida
Coca-Cola bottling in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean
Contemporary art
Dimitris Daskalopoulos

Athens
Financial services and investment company (DAMMA Holdings)
Contemporary art, especially large-scale installations, sculpture, drawings, collage, film, and video
Tiqui Atencio Demirdjian

London, Venezuela
Investments
Latin American art, Modern and contemporary art
Beth Rudin DeWoody

Los Angeles, New York, West Palm Beach, Florida
Philanthropy and real estate
Modern and contemporary art
Leonardo DiCaprio

Los Angeles
Actor
comics, Contemporary art, fossils, rare books
Glenn Dubin

New York
Asset Management
Modern and contemporary art
George Economou

Athens
Investments and shipping (DryShips)
Modern, postwar, and contemporary art
Stefan T. Edlis and H. Gael Neeson

Aspen, Colorado, Chicago
Plastics manufacturing (retired)
Postwar and contemporary art
Carl Gustaf Ehrnrooth

Helsinki
Construction and Investments
Contemporary Scandinavian, European, and American art
Mitzi and Warren Eisenberg

Union, New Jersey
Retail (Bed Bath & Beyond)
Contemporary art
Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg

New York
Retail (Bed Bath & Beyond)
Contemporary art
Lawrence J. Ellison

Woodside, California
Software
ancient to early 20th-century Japanese art, Late 19th- and early 20th-century European art
Caryl and Israel Englander

New York
Hedge Fund
contemporary photography, Modern, postwar, and contemporary art
Susan and Leonard Feinstein

Long Island, New York
Retail (Bed Bath & Beyond)
Modern and contemporary art
Frank J. Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta

Las Vegas
Casinos (Station Casinos) and professional fighting (Ultimate Fighting Championship)
Modern and contemporary art
Marilyn and Larry Fields

Chicago
Commodities
Contemporary art
Amanda and Glenn R. Fuhrman

New York
Investments (MSD Capital)
Contemporary art
Antoine de Galbert

Paris
Inheritance
Contemporary art, Primitive art
Christy and Bill Gautreaux

Kansas City, Kansas or Kansas City, Missouri
Energy (Crestwood Midstream Partners)
Contemporary art
Yassmin and Sasan Ghandehari

London
Investments (real estate and industrials)
Impressionism, Postwar and contemporary art
Ingvild Goetz

Munich
Inheritance (mail-order retail)
Contemporary art
Noam Gottesman

New York
Hedge Fund
Postwar and contemporary art
Laurence Graff

Gstaad, Switzerland
Jewelry
Modern and contemporary art
Kenneth C. Griffin

Chicago
Hedge Fund
Post-Impressionism
Florence and Daniel Guerlain

Paris
Inheritance (perfume)
Contemporary art, especially drawing and sculpture
Agnes Gund

Kent, Connecticut, New York, Peninsula, Ohio
Inheritance
Modern and contemporary art
Nathalie and Charles de Gunzburg

New York
Investments
Postwar and contemporary art
Francesca von Habsburg

Vienna
Philanthropy (founder and chairwoman, TBA21)
Contemporary art
Christine and Andrew Hall

Palm Beach, Florida
Financial management
Contemporary art
Diane and Bruce Halle

Arizona
Tires (discount tire company)
contemporary sculpture, Latin American art
Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein

Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Inheritance
Old Masters
Janine and J. Tomilson Hill

New York
Investment banking
Postwar and contemporary art, Renaissance bronzes
Marguerite Hoffman

Dallas
Private investments
Chinese monochromes, illuminated medieval manuscripts, Postwar American and European art
Maja Hoffmann

Zurich
Inheritance (pharmaceuticals)
Contemporary art
Hong Ra-hee and Lee Kun-hee

Seoul
Electronics (Samsung)
modern and contemporary international art, Traditional and modern Korean art
Susan and Michael Hort

New Jersey, New York
Printing
Contemporary art
Alan Howard

London
Hedge Fund
Impressionism, modern art
Frank Huang

Taipei
Computer hardware
Chinese porcelain, Impressionist and modern painting
Dakis Joannou

Athens
Construction
Contemporary art
Edward ““Ned”” Johnson III

Boston
Finance (Fidelity Investments)
19th- and 20th-century American painting, furniture, and decorative arts, Asian art and ceramics
Viatcheslav Kantor

London, Moscow
Fertilizer (Acron Group), president of the European Jewish Congress
contemporary Russian art, Russian and Jewish art of the 20th century
Nasser David Khalili

London
Real estate and investments
Aramaic documents, enamels of the world, Hajj and the arts of pilgrimage, Islamic art, Japanese art of the Meiji period, Japanese kimonos, Spanish damascened metalworks, Swedish textiles
Alison and Peter W. Klein

Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
Real estate (Peter Klein Real Estate)
Aboriginal art, Contemporary painting and photography
Jeanne and Michael L. Klein

Austin, Texas, Santa Fe
Oil and gas exploration and production
Postwar and contemporary art
Jill and Peter Kraus

Dutchess County, New York, New York
Investment management
Contemporary art
Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis

New York
Finance and investments
French furniture, Modern and contemporary art
Ananda Krishnan

Kuala Lumpur
Finance and investments
modern art
Grazyna Kulczyk

Poznan, Poland
entrepreneur (Stary Browar Commerce, Art and Business Centre), Investments
Postwar and contemporary Polish and international art
Pierre Lagrange

London
Hedge Fund
Postwar and contemporary art
Barbara and Jon Landau

New York
Entertainment
19th-century French and English painting, Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture
Steven Latner and Michael Latner

Toronto
Real estate
Modern and contemporary art
Joseph Lau

Hong Kong
Real estate
Modern and contemporary art, especially Warhol
Thomas Lau

Hong Kong
Real estate
Modern and contemporary art
Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder

Palm Beach, Florida, Paris, Wainscott, New York, Washington, D.C.
Cosmetics (Estee Lauder Companies)
20th-century decorative arts, Antiquities, Archaeology, arms and armor, Austrian and German Expressionism, Contemporary art, medieval art, modern masters, Old Masters, postwar German and Italian art
Leonard A. Lauder

New York
Cosmetics (Estee Lauder Companies)
Cubism
Barbara Lee

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Investments
Contemporary art by women
Liz and Eric Lefkofsky

Glencoe, Illinois
Venture investments
Contemporary art
Barbara and Aaron Levine

Washington, D.C.
Law practice
Conceptual art
Margaret Munzer Loeb and Daniel S. Loeb

New York
Hedge Fund
feminist art, Postwar and contemporary art
Eugenio López Alonso

Los Angeles, Mexico City
Beverages (Jumex)
Contemporary art
Jho Low

Hong Kong
Finance and investments
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art
Maramotti Family

Reggio Emilia, Italy
Fashion
Art informel, arte povera, Contemporary art, Neo-Expressionism, New Geometry, transavanguardia
Maurice Marciano

Beverly Hills, California
Retail (Guess)
Contemporary art
Martin Z. Margulies

Miami
Real-estate development
Modern and contemporary art
Donald B. Marron

New York
Private equity
Modern and contemporary art
David Martinez

London, New York
Investment management (Fintech Advisory)
Modern and contemporary art
Susan and Larry Marx

Aspen, Colorado, Marina del Rey, California
Investments and real estate (retired)
Postwar and contemporary art, especially Abstract Expressionism and works on paper
Dimitri Mavrommatis

Paris
Investment banking and asset management
Modern and postwar art
Raymond J. McGuire

New York
Finance
African American and African art
John S. Middleton

Philadelphia
Manufacturing
19th- and 20th-century American art
Leonid Mikhelson

Moscow
Gas (Novatek)
Impressionism, modern art, Old Masters
Nina and Frank Moore

New York
Neurosurgery
Art of the last 20 years
Catriona and Simon Mordant

Italy, New York, Sydney, Australia
Investments
Global contemporary art
Victoria and Samuel I. Newhouse Jr.

New York
Publishing
Modern and contemporary art
Philip S. Niarchos

Saint Moritz, Switzerland
Shipping and finance
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art, Old Masters
Genny and Selmo Nissenbaum

Rio de Janeiro
Investments and real estate
Minimalist art
Takeo Obayashi

Tokyo
Construction contracting, engineering, and design
Contemporary art
Daniel Och

Scarsdale, New York
Hedge Fund
Modern and contemporary art
Maja Oeri and Hans Bodenmann

Basel, Switzerland
Inheritance (pharmaceuticals)
Contemporary art
Thomas Olbricht

Berlin
Doctor of medicine
Contemporary art, stamps, Wunderkammer objects
Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo

Naples, Florida
Investment fund
Dutch and Flemish Old Master painting
Michael Ovitz

Los Angeles
Technology, finance, and investments
African art, Ming furniture, Modern and contemporary art
Bernardo Paz

Brumadinho, Brazil
Mining
Contemporary art
Andrea and José Olympio Pereira

São Paulo
Investment banking
Modern and contemporary Brazilian art
Marsha and Jeffrey Perelman

Wynnewood, Pennsylvania
Manufacturing
Postwar and contemporary art
Ronald O. Perelman

New York
Finance
Modern and contemporary art
Lisa and Richard Perry

New York
Fashion and investments
Color Field, Minimalist art, Pop art
Amy and John Phelan

Aspen, Colorado, New York
Investments (MSD Capital)
Contemporary art
François Pinault

Paris
Luxury goods (Kering) and auctions (Christie's)
Contemporary art
Victor Pinchuk

Kiev, Ukraine
Investment Advisory group (EastOne Group)
Contemporary art
Sabine and Hasso Plattner

Heidelberg, Germany
Software (SAP AG Software Company)
East German art, Impressionism
Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli

Milan
Fashion
Contemporary art
Véronique and Louis-Antoine Prat

Paris
Inheritance (manufacturing)
17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century French drawings
Lisa and John Pritzker

San Francisco
Hotels and investments
Modern and contemporary art, photography
Penny Pritzker and Bryan Traubert

Chicago
Real estate, hotels (Hyatt), and financial information
Contemporary art
Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
entrepreneur, Inheritance
Modern and contemporary Arab art
Qiao Zhibing

Shanghai
Entertainment industry
International contemporary art
Cindy and Howard Rachofsky

Dallas
Investments
Postwar and contemporary American and European art, postwar Japanese and Korean art
Emily and Mitchell Rales

New York, Potomac, Maryland
Tool industry
Modern and contemporary art
Steven Rales

Washington, D.C.
Tool industry
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo

Turin, Italy
Industrial manufacturing
Contemporary art
Bob Rennie

Vancouver, British Columbia
Real estate
Contemporary art
Louise and Leonard Riggio

Bridgehampton, New York, Palm Beach, Florida
Retail (Barnes & Noble)
Modern and contemporary art
Ellen and Michael Ringier

Zurich
Publishing
Contemporary art, Russian avant-garde art
Linnea Conrad Roberts and George Roberts

Atherton, California
Finance (KKR)
Contemporary art
Aby J. Rosen

Southampton, New York
Real estate
contemporary photography, Modern and contemporary art
Hilary and Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

Palm Beach, Florida
Author, Private equity (distressed companies)
modern and contemporary art, especially Chinese and Vietnamese, Surrealism
Eric de Rothschild

Paris, Pauillac, France
Banking
Modern and contemporary art, Old Masters
Rubell Family

Miami
Real estate and hotels
Contemporary art
Betty and Isaac Rudman

Dominican Republic
Imports and manufacturing (home appliances)
Latin American art, numismatics, Pre-Columbian art
Dmitry Rybolovlev

Moscow
Fertilizer
19th- and 20th-century painting
Charles Saatchi

London
Advertising
International contemporary art
Joseph Safra

Geneva, New York, São Paulo
Banking
Impressionism, Old Masters
Lily Safra

Geneva
Inheritance
19th- and 20th-century art
Sainsbury Family

London
Supermarkets
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art, world art
Elham and Tony Salamé

Beirut, Milan
Fashion retailing (Aishti)
Contemporary art
Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani

Dhaka, Bangladesh
Conglomerate interests (Golden Harvest Group) and philanthropy (Samdani Art Foundation)
antique silver, design, Modern and contemporary South Asian and international art
Marieke and Pieter Sanders

Haarlem, the Netherlands
Corporate-law practice
contemporary American and European art, Dutch art, sculpture
Vicki and Roger Sant

New York, Washington, D.C.
Energy
New York: contemporary art, Washington D.C.: late 19th-century art focused on Nabi
Fayez Sarofim

Houston
Investment counseling
19th-century American art, Coptic art, Modern and contemporary art, Old Masters
Louisa Stude Sarofim

Houston, Santa Fe
Investments
Modern and contemporary art, works on paper
Tatsumi Sato

Hiroshima, Japan
Manufacturing (radiators)
antique textiles, Contemporary art, Primitive art
Christiane Schaufler-Münch and Peter Schaufler

Sindelfingen, Germany
Industry (refrigeration compressors)
Postwar and contemporary art
Chara Schreyer

Los Angeles, San Francisco
Real estate
Modern and contemporary art, photography, and sculpture
Helen and Charles Schwab

Atherton, California, San Francisco
Investment firm
Modern and contemporary art
Marianne and Alan Schwartz

Birmingham, Michigan
Law practice
19th-century and early 20th-century European and American prints, Old Masters
Uli Sigg

Mauensee, Switzerland
Media
Contemporary art, especially Chinese
Peter Simon

London
Retail (Monsoon)
Contemporary art
Elizabeth and Frederick Singer

Great Falls, Virginia
Internet education
Modern and contemporary art
Carlos Slim Helú

Mexico City
Telecommunications, finance, and retail
modern art, especially Rodin, Old Masters, pre-Columbian and colonial Mexican art
Eric Smidt

Los Angeles
Tool industry
Contemporary art, New York School
Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley

New York
Real estate
Contemporary art
Susana and Ricardo Steinbruch

São Paulo
Textiles (Vicunha Textil)
Modern and contemporary art, especially Brazilian
Judy and Michael H. Steinhardt

Mount Kisco, New York
Investment firm
Classical antiquities, Judaica, modern art, especially drawings, Peruvian feathered textiles
Gayle and Paul Stoffel

Aspen, Colorado, Dallas, Palm Springs, California
Investments
Contemporary art
Norah and Norman Stone

California, Napa Valley, California, San Francisco
Psychology, law (retired), and private investments
Contemporary art
Julia Stoschek

Düsseldorf, Germany
Industry (automotive supplier)
Contemporary art, especially time-based media
Iris and Matthew Strauss

Rancho Santa Fe, California
Private real-estate investments (M.C. Strauss Company)
Contemporary art
Sylvia and Ulrich Ströher

Darmstadt, Germany
Real estate, financial assets, and private equity
contemporary German painting, German abstract postwar art
Suh Kyung-Bae

Seoul
Cosmetics (AmorePacific)
contemporary Korean and international art, Traditional Korean art
Brett and Daniel S. Sundheim

New York
Hedge fund (Viking Global Investors)
Contemporary art
Lisa and Steve Tananbaum

West Palm Beach, Florida, Westchester, New York
Asset Management
Postwar and contemporary art
Lauren and Benedikt Taschen

Berlin, Los Angeles
Publishing
Contemporary art, especially American, German, and British
Budi Tek

Jakarta, Indonesia, Shanghai
Philanthropy (Yuz Foundation and Yuz Museum)
International contemporary art, especially Chinese and Western
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani

Doha, Qatar, London, New York
Inheritance and investments (Qatar Investment Authority)
Postwar and contemporary art
Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

Doha, Qatar
Inheritance
Modern and contemporary art
David Thomson

Toronto
Media
Modern and contemporary art, Old Masters
Jane and Robert Toll

Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Luxury homes (Toll Brothers)
American art, French Impressionism
Robbi and Bruce E. Toll

Rydal, Pennsylvania
Luxury homes (Toll Brothers)
20th-century sculpture, American art, Elizabethan and Jacobean painting, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism
Myriam and Guy Ullens

Verbier, Switzerland
Private equity and food industry
Contemporary Chinese art
Dean Valentine

Beverly Hills, California
Media entrepreneur
Contemporary art
Walter Vanhaerents

Brussels
Real estate and construction
Contemporary art
Alice Walton

Fort Worth
Inheritance (Wal-Mart)
American art, Contemporary art
Wang Jianlin

Beijing
Real estate
Impressionism, Modern and contemporary art
Wang Wei and Liu Yiqian

Shanghai
Investments
Chinese art, scrolls, and porcelain, Contemporary Chinese art
Wang Zhongjun

Beijing
Film production (Huayi Brothers Media)
modern art
Jutta and Siegfried Weishaupt

Laupheim, Germany
Industry (fuel technology)
Postwar and contemporary art, especially Abstract Expressionism, Zero, and Pop
Alain Wertheimer

New York
Fashion
Asian art, Modern and contemporary art
Abigail and Leslie H. Wexner

Columbus, Ohio
Retail (L brands)
contemporary American art, Modern European art
Reinhold Würth

Niedernhall, Germany, Salzburg, Austria
Industry (hardware)
medieval art, Postwar and contemporary art
Elaine Wynn

Las Vegas
Hotels and casinos
Modern and contemporary art
Stephen A. Wynn

Las Vegas
Casino resorts
Modern and contemporary art
Tadashi Yanai

Tokyo
Fashion retailing (Uniqlo)
Modern and contemporary art
Yang Bin

Beijing
Automobile dealerships
Modern and contemporary Chinese art
Anita and Poju Zabludowicz

London
Technology and real estate
Contemporary art
Jochen Zeitz

Cape Town
Investments
Contemporary African ar