Marianne Boesky: art dealing

I found this article in Portfolio magazine to be an interesting inside profile on NY gallerist Marianne Boesky. It paints a picture of an often brutal, frustrating, back stabbing world of art dealing.

"Last September, as Marianne Boesky frantically prepared for the biggest night of her career—the opening of her new Manhattan gallery—she faced two serious problems. First, Michael Ovitz called. The onetime Hollywood superagent told her he was selling a painting she’d sold him four years earlier at auction. What stung her was not just losing the commission on the resale of the painting, but that Ovitz seemed to be very publicly dumping her..."

It is amazing how many factors can tie into a value of a painting and how damaging it can be for a client to turn around and resell the painting back to auction, thus leaving the original dealer/gallerist out. Not only do dealers need tabs on where their art is going but the artists also need to be informed and have trustworthy dealers working for them.

Boesky talks about her relationship with contemporary painter Lisa Yuskavage -

“'...Collectors love to compete,' says Boesky. 'It’s part of why they collect—they want to score. You have to make them feel like they worked for it.' The downside of turning a starving artist into a $1 million-per-canvas annuity is that artists can drop dealers at any time. Two years ago, Yuskavage split with Boesky, leaving her gallery. It was a double blow for Boesky—like getting fired from her job and losing a friend simultaneously...

The story also gives some background info on Boesky's start in the business, which I enjoy hearing because it isn't often that you hear about a gallerist's failures and bumps in the road along with their journey to success.