Page 7 - The Faces
P. 7
And what about the New York art market itself?
Art is very expensive today, and it’s all about the condition and the provenance. And people just buy the typical stuff - I overheard a lady at an art fair walking over to a dealer and asking him how much that particular painting will increase in value. He pulled out an iPad and showed her prices of previous auction results for
similar works of the artist. It started in the 1980s when people started to buy art for someone else. No one would have done that before, you would have bought some- thing you wanted in your house and what you liked. This really changed — now peo- ple store it in their freeport and it must be “typical”. On one occasion I saw someone not buying a beautiful Chagall still-life because their client wanted something “typical”, and of course, Chagall is ponies
“There were no galleries here (in SOHO) - galleries were on the ” Upper East Side and among them was Leo Castelli, he was the king.
[7]
