John
LeKay. How do you find London in general and the art
scene in particular?
Kenny Schachter. I find London lovely, a wonderful
atmosphere, beautiful architecturally, and great for
kids. As to art, I
have
basically alienated myself, or have withdrawn more
particularly from day to day participation from the
goings on of the art world. Partly it is a loss of
passion I once had for ferreting out talent, working
with emerging artists, and hitting the trenches visiting
spaces. Economically, it makes no sense as a business
model to transport low costing works to England with the
high cost of shipping; not to mention the lousy status
of the dollar vs pound. I must admit it felt liberating
to start afresh, cutting loose the artists I represented
(for only a few years in my New York Vito Acconci
designed space) and returning to my roots as being a
less rooted roving art curator and writer. I will still
do cutting edge shows in my new space on Britannia St
opening in June with a large scale Vito Acconci show
(across from Gagosian's new gallery), but I will mix it
with design and other ad hoc goings on. also, I am now
focusing on working with specific works on secondary
market, rather than with the makers themselves.
JL. Do you think your lack of involvement with gallery
detracts from the experience of visiting a Kenny
Schachter space?
KS. For nearly 15 years 6 or 7 days a week I gallery
sat, and I no longer have it in me. I'm not Mother
Teresa, though I did almost give my life in East London
when I got mugged bringing a show here, and sat the very
next day albeit with a security guard. I still give so
much to put on the shows I do, the recent William Pope
l. show being a great example (and, uh Kembra Phaler,
too), and, the art fairs are like my Willy Loman-esque,
grass roots style arts activity, which I still do
largely on my own. in fact, I'd rather do away with the
requisite for a fixed gallery and go back to being a
peripatetic wandering Jew. That's I was always born to
be. there has been a lot of rhetoric bad mouthing art
fairs by the very dealer that participate in them,
JL. How do you
respond to this phenomenon?
KS. Moving to Europe and leaving my constituency behind I
decided early on to blanket the international fairs as the
only way not to loose continuum with my business activity,
also, there's a new one every other day so its not hard get
accepted to a few (ok, so the Kazakhstan one didn't go as
well as planned). A recent article in New York’s Village
Voice on art fairs elicited these responses from the world’s
trendiest gallery owners who, it should be pointed out, all
participate in multiple fairs worldwide year in and year
out: "I'm never inspired there", "depressing", disgusting",
"Fairs are sickening", “I can't stand them” (Village Voice,
Feeding Frenzy, by Jerry Saltz January 28,
2005). Bullshit! Art fairs are neither demon, nor godsend,
they just are and they are (so pervasive) for some very
compelling reasons that have forever shifted the landscape
of shifting art. They are ideal places to see a lot of
diverse art under one roof, and professionally, they offer
new paradigm to maximize profits in the art business (a
brave/foolish remark in a world that hypocritically shuns
discourse on profit motive but has a love affair with
money). There are certainly more fairs now than ever before
spanning the globe, the latest outposts being China and
Russia, not including the 4 or 5 sub-fairs that transpire
simultaneously during just about each and every incarnation.
Despite the art world’s famously ambivalent relationship to
the general public and even disdain for some of its own
patrons, fairs have succeeded in presenting a gateway for
the general public to enter into the world of art. This is
in contrast to the commercial galleries where you are
ignored, scanned head to toe and pigeonholed, or just plain
put ill at ease and made to feel self-conscious. Fairs are
accessible—though, growing ridiculously expensive for
entrance fees, until MOMA (in New York) announced revised
admission fees upon reopening, and don’t forget the heavy
levy of Saatchi’s County Hall too!
JL. What about the art experience.
KS. They also
offer a relatively welcoming environment for people to
experience art. In the past these events were geared more to
the trade, and veteran collectors; whereas now, with
extensive newspaper and media coverage that brings these
fairs before the public eye, the collective curiosity is
typically piqued enough to lure many in who would never
contemplate passing by a gallery. Art fairs are akin to
historical events like the Armory exhibition of 1914 where
there were lines around the block and when art was part of
the social discourse. This is in contrast to the general
practice of gallery business that goes to no effort to
cultivate new audiences other than immediate collectors.
Dealers that participate in just about every damn fair
should shut the fuck up and stop criticizing them all the
time. art seems more focused on money now than ever before,
even since the days when a plate-hurling Schnabel was
considered an art star, any thoughts?
In the recent
past people have paid lip service to a kind of pluralism
prevalent in the art world, i.e. a multiplicity of
simultaneous strands of art production, in contrast to
simpler times when movements were easier to codify. Versus
the 1960’s period of Pop and Abstract Expressionism, in the
90’s there was figurative painting, abstract painting,
political/social art, conceptual and scatter art,
feminist/gender works, and on and on. Nowadays, the
universal school of art is economics—economicsism, if you
will; and, the prince of this new bottom line aesthetics is
Richard Prince, among others. At a Christies conference in
New York recently the subject was the unfathomable
twenty-five (yes, 25!) upstart hedge funds that have
developed in the last year or so with art underpinning the
investments. Is this the dawning of the Apocalypse, or a
time when art is not just art anymore but an asset class?
There is more than one “financial” index tracking historical
trends in different categories of art and with a click of
the mouse you can view a chart of Frank Stella’s painting
performance in relation to the past or . the overall
contemporary art market. Make sure you bring that along
prior to raising your paddle at the next Sotheby’s sale. The
question is, how thick will the new “artvestors” collective
skin be when another recession hits. A recession they will
gasp, surely nothing can depress the $3.5m Dumas market? In
the early 90’s, a time most participating in today’s market
now either forgot or were not present for altogether,
artists lost sometimes more than 60% off the going prices
for their works not to mention some artists that were dealt
a fatal blow to their markets from which they never
recovered. In art, despite the charts, graphs, indexes,
hedge funds, etc., when there is a downturn—liquidity
doesn’t only contract, it can evaporate overnight. What are
you going to do when your $8.25 million Damian Hirst is
worth only, say $4-5m. There’s a lot of room for a
correction in numbers like that for an artist shy of his
40’s birthday, but hey, give them what the want and
seemingly need. Did you hear how much his last sculpture
went for?
JL. What plans do you have for the future?
KS. I am pursuing a new build (apartments and commercial
space) on Hoxton square with Zaha Hadid, her first in
England despite working here for more than 30 years, and,
besides trafficking in secondary market goods, considering a
car mag and art market newsletter. in pursuit of the
publication, I have asked Hadid and prince to design actual
cars that we would try and produce concept versions of and,
regarding the market activity: if you can't beat em....
