Galeristes
Anne Martin-Fugier
The author presents in his introduction a saying by Heinz Berggruen: «There are as many types of collectors as there are collectors», and he is right in doing so. For this applies to the world of gallery owners as well. It is therefore impossible to draw up a profile of the specimen. In these Parisian sketches we can find ambitious youths (Emmanuel Perrotin) as well as family dynasties (the Di Meo, Albert Loeb) or late vocations (Jean Brolly). Some react immediately to new fashions, others defend artists over a long period (Guinan at Loeb) even if most admit that the selection at Art Basel has become an essential passage if one wants to survive economically. Beyond this sociological study, what makes these characters fascinating, and in particular the older ones, is the quantity of remarkable encounters they had the luck of having throughout their lives. As we trod along we run into Alfred Barr (the founder of the MoMA), the Viscountess de Noailles, Mrs. Schlumberger in her Rolls, Alain Cuny or Claude Berri…
|  |
Review published in the newsletter #184 - from 16 September 2010 to 22 September 2010
