Durand Ruel - this was around the time of the French Empire. Leo Castelli -this was during the time of the beginning of the US global dominance. Larry Gagosian - now and here and for how long?
Art in the time of mass production, in the time of overflow of the markets by all sorts of commodities, how difficult is it to maintain a gallery profile and still sell a lot of high profile art. A one billion worth of art per year? Is this a fair estimate or advertising kind story? A $40 million Bombardier Global Express private jet and a personal chef on call at Madison Avenue headquarters - not bad for a world of art, is there many dealers who can afford this, or just Larry Gagosian alone? Gagosian already became a legend. It there any art gallery in the history who has had 11 branches? I guess no one. Can you imagine contemporary art world as it is without Larry Gagosian? It's either too hard either impossible at all. How much money did he attracted to art simply because of his marketing talent, forget the art? Is it half of this billion? Some people fuel industries by their passion and energy some people becoming the faces of the industries. Larry Gagosian is the most important art dealer of today. It's like IKEA of the gallery world, difficult comparison of course. Shall i compare it to Ferrari, bur Ferrari despite all designer efforts is not a really profitable company. Gagosian is already a historical kind of person. Will his artists last long? What going to happen with the highly speculative prices paid for non-proven by time new art? Will the entire pyramid of Los Angeles born Armenian descent crush down one day? It's hard to imagine yet. Mr. Gagosian has a plenty of powerful backers, those people will always have the money, and i guess they going to continue to spend huge amounts on art. But the day Larry Gagosian will go i doubt his gallery will stand - too much of everything is attached to his powerful personality. There will be new dealers and new galleries, but will anyone match Gagosian or we will ever know him as the only emperor of the gallery world.
