Jerry Saltz recently sounded a death knell:
These days, the art world is large and spread out, happening everywhere at once. A shrinkingfraction of galleries’ business is done when collectors come to a show. Selling happens
year-round,at art fairs, auctions, biennials, and big exhibitions, as well as online via JPEG files and even via collector apps. Gallery shows are now just another cog in the global wheel. Many dealers admit that some of their collectors never set foot in their actual physical spaces.
The beloved linchpin of my viewing life is playing a diminished role in the life of art. And I fear that my knowledge of art—and along with it the self-knowledge that comes from looking at art—is shrinking.
Artists and dealers are as passionate as ever about creating good shows, but fewer and fewer people are actually seeing them. Chelsea galleries used to hum with activity; now they’re often eerily empty. Sometimes I’m nearly alone. Even on some weekends, galleries are quiet, and that’s never been true in my 30 years here. (There are exceptions, such as Gagosian’s current blockbuster Basquiat survey.) Fewer ideas are being exchanged, fewer aesthetic arguments initiated. I can’t turn to the woman next to me and ask what she thinks, because there’s nobody there.
Sarah Nardi nods:
Warhol said that an artist is someone who produces things that people don’t need to have. That’s hard to argue with. I need water. I need to exhale after I inhale. But I don’t need to have a painting on my wall. No one does. But a sense of connection, I believe, is something we all need.
And art serves as a way to form those connections—to ourselves, to each other, and to the world. We need galleries for that. We need thoughtfully curated shows, the juxtaposition of wildly different points of view, and—most importantly—access to living, breathing, working artists. We need to see them standing next to their work, enjoying a well-deserved glass of wine.
So let the champagne crowd toss back their bubbly and move on. And let the faceless collectors appraise pixelated shadows projected on the virtual wall. Galleries serve a larger purpose than sales. Beyond their role as a place where work is sold, they are physical spaces that help foster a culture of real, meaningful connection. They are, as Saltz writes, “social spaces, collective seances, and campfires where anyone can gather.”
(Photo by Celine Nadeau)
The Dish 