THIS WEEK'S HOT TOPIC
Just when we thought galleries were downshifting for the summer, Pace Gallery dropped a bombshell that threatened to thrust the whole sector into transmission failure.
Last week, the 66-year-old gallery announced plans to cut 50 artists from its roster and 50 employees from its staff. The dramatic move—the kind of which we seldom see from operations of Pace’s stature—stemmed from the gallery’s “broken” and “unfixable” model, CEO Marc Glimcher said in a statement. "The art world has changed dramatically over the past decade, and the mega gallery model of constant expansion and rising prices in the primary market to keep up with increasing costs is no longer sustainable, and no longer serves us or our artists.”
Even before affected staff members were notified, the news had gone wide, sending much of the art world into a dizzying existential crisis. If an industry pillar was forced to cut roughly 30 percent of its artists (from 135 to 85) and 20 percent of its staff (from about 250 to 200), as the New York Times reported, then what kind of aftershocks could the thousands of other, smaller galleries expect?
But maybe that’s not the right question to be asking. A better one might be this: Does the announcement tell us something about the fate of galleries, or just galleries of Pace’s size?
Pace is among the four “mega galleries”—alongside Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner—that sit atop the art world pyramid. The scale of these operations is unprecedented—and, in Pace’s case at least, untenable. At some point in its ascent, Pace outgrew its corner of the market and started to look less like a gallery and more like something else. Arne Glimcher, who founded the gallery in 1960, put a finger on it in the Times: The mega gallery “is the difference between a corporation that uses art to expand,” he explained, “and an art gallery that is only about art.”
Monopolies are bad for markets, and that’s especially true for art, which depends on diversity and fluctuation to move forward. The closer we get to decentralizing the market, the healthier the art will be—and that benefits us all.
3…THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE ART WORLD IN THE SUMMER
1
The art world quiets down in the summer; it always has. After Art Basel in Switzerland (the newest iteration of which kicks off next week), many collectors go on vacation or focus on other things, and in turn, many galleries assume abbreviated summer hours. Sales slow down, and gallerists are gifted time to plan out the next calendar year.
2
The summer group show is a staple of the art world. Galleries gather a smattering of artworks, sometimes from artists on their roster, other times from staff members or friends of friends, and stage a big, often thematic, exhibition. Some may criticize summer group shows as being hastily procured or second-fiddle to the main programming, but many keen galleries use this exhibition format to make a compelling statement about their program or explore a newly discovered artist's oeuvre. Don't write these shows off!
3
In the summer, the art world disperses from the city to destination exhibitions, sculpture parks, seasonal institutions, and special projects. If you’re in the Tri-State area and need to beat the heat, get up to Storm King and wander the meadows studded with Mark di Suvero’s dynamic steel sculptures. Elsewhere in upstate New York, don’t miss The Campus (a collaboration between Bortolami, James Cohan, Kaufmann Repetto, Anton Kern, Andrew Kreps, and kurimanzutto) just outside of Hudson. Across the Atlantic, the annual Royal Academy Summer Exhibition remains one of the art world's great seasonal traditions, where market stalwarts like Tracey Emin and David Hockney have shown alongside never-before-exhibited artists. Summer may be quieter, but it's also when some of the most enjoyable ways of seeing art emerge.
A NUMBER TO KNOW
$73,200
The final price of a New York Knicks championship ring sold at a Heritage auction last August. It commemorates the first of two times (so far) that the franchise has won the NBA title: 1970 and 1973.
The result nods to how important star power and its absence are to sports memorabilia. In theory, there should be no more valuable memento from a given league or season than a championship ring. The only way to earn one, after all, is to win the ultimate prize. This particular piece of hardware belonged to the late Hall of Fame guard Dick Barnett, who played a key role on both Knicks title teams.
But Barnett’s ring isn’t actually the most expensive piece of Knicks memorabilia sold at auction, according to the market intelligence platform ARTDAI. A jersey worn by franchise icon (and current Knicks TV commentator) Walt “Clyde” Frazier in Game 3 of the 1972 finals went for $109,800 (with fees) in a Heritage sale this past February. (Ironically, courtside tickets for games three and four at Madison Square Garden this week are reported to cost between $90,000 and $160,000 each, according to various outlets.)
What’s interesting is that Frazier’s squad lost that game and, later, the series to the Los Angeles Lakers. Which means that, in a one-on-one face-off, bidders fought harder for a nylon jersey worn by a massively popular star in a losing effort than for a championship ring (with an actual diamond!) worn by an excellent but less beloved player.
The results here aren’t scientific. Still, they suggest that if the Knicks knock off the San Antonio Spurs for the franchise’s third championship in the days ahead, any object personally affiliated with multi-time all-star guard, team captain, and true Gotham hero Jalen Brunson would probably outperform anything similar from any of his teammates at auction someday. Most New Yorkers in the art and collectibles trade are desperately hoping we get a chance to find out.
—Tim Schneider / The Gray Market
ASK: ACCESS SOPHISTICATED KNOWLEDGE
John B. ASKed: What's the best $1,000 a new art collector can spend?
Josh Baer for NoReserve: Well, that is a low number—but not impossibly low. Rather than the usual blah blah about “buying something you love,” I think you’re looking for something more specific.
For me, my favorite piece of art I own is the least valuable one. It's an editioned, 1968 work by Joseph Beuys, arguably the most important European artist since WWII, called Intuition. I think I paid $500 for it once upon a time. Versions of this same piece may now cost a bit more than your target, but I have seen them in your price range sporadically.
It goes to show that you don’t need millions to collect pieces by a master. Spend on quality and history; you won’t regret it.
Have your own question for the NoReserve team? Reply to this email or reach out to us on Instagram, @no.reserve. Readers whose submissions we choose get a special prize—six free months of our paid newsletter, The Baer Faxt.
2 MINUTES WITH…
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is the only resource of its kind in Arkansas, but that hasn’t stopped the institution’s leaders—including founder Alice Walton—from striving to best serve its community. The museum just opened a new, 114,000-square-foot expansion, which The Baer Faxt had the pleasure of previewing earlier this month. The results came back positive. Below, hear Rod Bigelow, Crystal Bridges’s Executive Director, and Austen Barron Bailly, Deputy Director, Curatorial Affairs, discuss the advantages of being a regional museum and how the expansion reflects these strengths.
Kalshi: Join the market for real-world outcomes. Trade on what you already follow—economics, politics, and more. No house, peer-to-peer trading, and cash out anytime. Start with a free $10 here. Put $10 to Work.
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