Art Review - January Issue - (Page 92)

Warning : session_start : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : session_start : Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 9 Warning : Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by output started at /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php:9 in /mnt/data/www.nxtbook.com/fx/config_1.3/global.php on line 10 CONTEMPORARY COLLECTING Mark Fletcher Mark Fletcher supports what he calls cultural production, and so he travels constantly between New York, where he lives, and London, where he has a flat, as well as Los Angeles and Berlin. He has built up a network of resources – primarily galleries whose trust he has earned – which gives him the most important commodity in the artworld today: access. “Shows”, he notes, “are sold out largely before they even open.” The ability to secure preferential treatment for his clients is key, for in addition to the traditional duties of the advisor – making nuanced decisions about art objects, their condition and conservation – “there has been an increased focus on helping people get access in the primary market. The auction market is wholly indiscriminate – the only discrimination the auction market has is the chequebook, the ability to pay.” On the contrary, he continues, “The primary market is largely dictated by relationships of trust. It’s a highly imperfect marketplace, and it is very di cult for people to penetrate, especially in the beginning.” An imperfect marketplace, but the right advisor can be the perfect guide. Daniel Kunitz Philippe Ségalot “My clients are very successful businessmen,” says New York-based Philippe Ségalot. “They know what they like, and are very knowledgeable, but can’t be everywhere. So I’m everywhere for them. We signal works on their behalf.” ‘Very successful businessman’ is perhaps an understated way of describing his most famous client, François Pinault, the retail magnate who recently opened his private foundation in the Palazzo Grassi, Venice. “I have worked with Pinault for many years,” Ségalot says. “But every purchase is ultimately his decision.” Ségalot emphasises his ability to know his collectors’ taste and to work, in e ect, as their eyes and ears. When he sees a work that his clients might like, “I simply organise for them to be confronted with it. Words are not important.” Prior to setting up his consultancy business – which, with Lionel Pissarro great-grandson of Camille and Frank Giraud, covers the period from 1850 to the present – Ségalot was contemporary art specialist at Christie’s for five years. Even at the auction house, he says, “where you always have to defend the seller and get the highest price possible, I would be honest. I would encourage collectors to bid at competitors’ houses, and I would bid at our competitors – Sotheby’s, and Phillips – myself. That’s why people trust me today.” Melissa Gronlund advisors Nicolai Frahm “I’m not interested in building collections that will just hang in peoples’ homes,” says the young consultant and private dealer Nicolai Frahm. “My job is to predict art history – to say which artists will become the most important of our generation.” Frahm first began collecting for his family’s art foundation in Copenhagen, and is now London-based, working with high-profile clients whose collections will ultimately become museums in their own right. Frahm helped the UK collector Frank Cohen build his collection; next month, it goes on show in Cohen’s new Manchester museum, the FC MoCA. “In the end you can only work with a number of people, and there are only so many great works of art,” Frahm says. “Better to pay the extra money and get a masterpiece than build a collection of names. I grew up thinking that way – my dad always bought the best.” Melissa Gronlund Mark Fletcher left and Sotheby’s head auctioneer, Tobias Meyer. Courtesy Patrick McMullan, New York Nicolai Frahm right with Je Koons, whom Frahm calls the “Brancusi of our generation” Courtesy Nicolai Frahm Jake and Dinos Chapman, Sex III, 2004–5 painted bronze, 246 x 244 x 125 cm, and the Chapmans’ Disaster of War, 1999, 83 hand-coloured etchings, 25 x 35 cm each. Installation view, Palazzo Grassi, Venice. Photo: Santi Caleca. © the artists p ARTREVIEW 77-96_Contempory Arts.indd 92 7/12/06 21:51:41  Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Art Review - January Issue

Art Review - January Issue

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