Art gallery Quotes
Art galleries and museums are not just venues for displaying art but curated environments where it is selected, interpreted, and managed. Gallery owners and curators are crucial in this process, often specializing in specific genres, styles, or periods. These professionals work in partnership with public and private sectors, cultural departments, art fairs, and private collectors. This page delves into the nuanced perspectives of these art custodians, offering insights that challenge and enrich our understanding of the art world. Join us to explore quotes and captions about galleries, museums, and collectors:
Gallery quotes
Quotes and captions from gallery owners or anyone working in a gallery.
Adrian Ghenie
“We were so used with the idea of being a loser, that we just did it without really an ambition. When we realized, okay, that might be something.
If you feel that you are totally disconnected, that the world is far, that you have no chance and so on and so, organize something. Organize a church, a party, a gallery. Put people together in a group with a name or something, and then try to build a program and send messages. And sooner or later, somebody will receive them and will be curious to visit you, and then you have a connection. And you have to explore that connection, and then in few years, if you do something interesting – then you have a Root.”
• Interview Sfmoma
• Photo Sebastian Kim
Christine Pfister
Pentimenti gallery
“The issue that there is, there was and there will be is that you need somebody to credit your work to bring value to it. The galleries and museums are playing that role. You need to have somebody who says, trust me, it’s creative work and it’s good quality work so that people feel that they can invest their money- from 50 dollars to millions of dollars, it doesn’t matter.
Gallery curating
You need somebody who is going to tell you that yes, you should consider that, and that’s what we do as galleries. We actually credit the work of the artists. It is possible to work without a gallery, but it’s much slower and difficult, you need to be in a certain circle. I don’t see that role of the galleries changing.”
• Art Joan Belmar
• Photo @bmoreart – Interview Gogonzogogo
David Zwirner
“Just selling is one thing, But strategically building a collection is completely different. It’s great when you’re one of the biggest buyers. Great work finds you.”
-David Zwirner, Owner of the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City, London, Hong Kong, and Paris
-“Dealer’s Hand” By Nick Paumgarten on the NewYorker mag November 25, 2013
Dina Mitrani
Dina Mitrani gallery
“The artist’s intention must come through the work. For me, art must have some element of the emotional; it should be moving.”
• Interview Lensculture
• Photo @sominkangphoto
Jose Freire
“You cannot take an Amazon approach to contemporary art, because it doesn’t protect the artist or the value—and you need to protect the artist, and a dealer needs to protect the value of the art they’re selling to their collectors”
• Art Sam McKinniss
• Interview Artnet
• Photo Andrew Goldstein
Kate Werble
“I think initially what I looked for in artists was this juncture between work that had a very physical presence and also had a lot of thought behind it, or it had a very heavy conceptual presence, but neither one was more important than the other.
Importance of the media
I’ve worked with artists who are really into the media that they work within and that successfully translate their ideas to an audience, whatever they might be.”
• Interview on Artnet Kate Werble Gallery
Scott Ogden
Shrine NYC
“Art is a relatively safe bet: you get to look at something wonderful, that you like; but it’s also a commodity. Having a gallery has reminded me that art is a commodity. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just what it is.”
• Interview and photo Artzealous Peter Dreux / Alice Oh.”
Added note by Scott Ogden
“The aspect of “commodity” is the least interesting part of collecting in my eyes. It’s part of art and acquiring works, but if something does not move you visually and in the gut, it’s not something worth considering… at least for me”
Sadie Coles
“In order to retain your artists you need to continue to represent them in a really good way and make sales for them so it is a very competitive business.”
•
“I rely on the strength of my relationship with the artists and hopefully I am providing a useful function in their life you know that they like a dialogue with me and I’m selling to good places I try to place the work really well so it doesn’t come back at auction”
-Sadie Coles – owner and director of Sadie Coles HQ
-Source : Artload on YouTube
Simon Lee
Simon Lee Gallery
“My artists still consider art fairs as a necessary evil, but it is by far from a satisfactory means of presenting work and interacting with a public. And one doesn’t want to lose sight of the fact that it’s not just about sales for the artists; it’s about communication and platforms for disseminating ideas. Certainly, the world is a smaller place, and information travels much quicker because of email and telephone and electronic media, but there is still no substitute for direct engagement with a work of art.”
• Interview Randian Magazine
• Photo Ocula art
Jonathan LeVine
“The gallery may become more of a creative agency involved in multiple types of projects as well as focusing on artist management and sales. We are all still figuring it out as social media and the world rapidly changes.”
• Interview My Modern Met
• Photo Joe Russo and Maud Frisenfeldt
Elena Soboleva
Online viewing rooms
“Conceptualizing and making work specifically for this space and making work in a way that is better adapted at being shown online.”
Sculptures, online higher value
“The higher value works we tend to sell online actually are sculpture. It’s partially because of the video and ability to really capture the texture and in the round quality of the object in a much stronger way than just a PDF or JPEG can.”
printmaking
“Then, of course, for the lower end, we do work with our artists on monoprints, a lot of different printmaking. That just tends to, if it’s in the lower bracket obviously, be very accessible.”
Artwork scale
“Another thing is that online has a tendency to sort of erasing hierarchies that are existing. I think you know we even did a project of viewing room based on this idea of playing with scale. Because a tiny work can get the same attention as something that is completely vast.”
-Director of Online Sales, David Zwirner, New York
“Selling Art Online: Are Galleries Prepared?” | Barcelona Symposium
Marcel Katz
“There must be a strong presence of ambition, drive, dedication, and work ethic in the artist. I need to know the artist is self-motivated. I am an agent and a dealer, not a babysitter. An artist needs to be resourceful on his own so I can efficiently do what I need to do.”
-Marcel Katz, agent and art dealer The Art Plug
Thaddeus Roppac
“When a market runs hot, it also pushes up moderate and poor quality. And the market is running hot at the moment. But it’s also abstract and absurd to see a painting by Gerhard Richter fetching so many millions. But this level of things is banal. Money is banal. The museums are unimpressed, and sometimes they’re downright disgusted by what happens on the market.”
• Interview Spiegelonline
• Photo Peter Rigaud
Art museum quotes
Captions and quotes about art museums and art institutions:
Justine Ludwig
“When you are a woman or a person of color and you go to an art museum and you don’t see work by artists who represent you, it becomes clear that you are not afforded the same opportunities.”
• interview Spike art magazine / Kevin Ruben Jacobs
• photo Nik Kuman
Stefan Kalmár
“We are no longer a public institution in the traditional sense but a business that fulfils a public role”
•
“The museum director of today is busier soliciting funds and generating commercial revenue while manoeuvring often conflicting interests than actually thinking about the civic purpose of their own organisation. This situation was never a choice of our own making, but the conflicting interests and economical demands at play in contemporary arts organisations have resulted in some bizarre institutionalised antagonisms—tearing the public sector apart from the inside, moving us further away from our civic role and founding principles—at exactly the moment when we are needed most.”
– London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts director
– The Art Newspaper 1st Oct 2019
Art collector quotes
Quotes and captions about making an art collection and being a collector today:
Julia Stoschek
“The third aspect of the core of the concept of the collection. This sounds very easy but I can tell you it is not:
I’ll try to acquire key pieces, masterpieces, large-scale installation and important groups of work because I want to capture the heart of an artist oeuvre and I want to bring together a coherent body of works”
-Julia Stoschek, private collector
“On Collecting” | DLD conference
Claus Busch Risvig
“There has to be some friction that irritates my eye. It must not be too pretty. Instead, it must trigger something that will challenge and push me. I am not only driven by aesthetic but in equal part the story that the artwork carries. For example, I am often preoccupied with works that have a political aspect. Works that comment on our current situation. I am not a member of any political party, but my choice of politically charged artworks are, perhaps, my way of expressing my political engagement with the world.”
The Collectors Agenda
Fredrik Karlsson
“I would be lying if didn’t take the aspect of eventually losing money when selling into consideration. I have always been that way, no matter if it is a chair, sofa, watch, or art, I want to know if the piece has the potential of increasing in price or being stable. I don’t buy the works because I want to make money – it is my hobby and passion after all – but a good return will always be a bonus since, sometimes, you have to sell, which is hard, and a good return might make that decision a little easier.”
-Art Collector in focus” 2017 Artland