Gallerist David Zwirner on the Art Crash

 

Art, General Culture

This article contains gallerist David Zwirner’s thoughts about the current state of the art market; and I’m still a bit undecided how to react to it, even though some sort of laughter is probably the best reaction.

For example: “Art should be the most democratic of all endeavors, but these days it’s not.” A great statement, right? Except it’s coming from Zwirner, so it sounds like extreme cynicism.

And this has got to be my favourite: “It bugs me tremendously that the white-cube gallery is this intimidating, turnoff-ish kind of environment.” Zwirner is so powerful and infuential, he could cover his whole gallery in red velvet or in orange 1970s wallpaper, and people would still come - so if he doesn’t like the white-cube gallery setting why doesn’t he change it?

But the main problem, of course, is that talking to David Zwirner about the art boom and crash is like talking to the CEO of Bank of America about the financial crisis (it’s the Wall Street Journal, after all).