The Art World’s Leading Man
AS LATE WINTER gave way to spring, which melted into summer, gallerist David Zwirner, accustomed to jetting to international fairs, biennials and exhibition openings, waited out the pandemic at his getaway house in Montauk, on the far tip of Long Island. For Zwirner, who commands an art empire that brought in nearly $800 million last year, with spaces in London, Paris and Hong Kong as well as three in New York, the tiny hamlet of Montauk is usually his happy place. He comes here to disconnect from the 24/7 demands of the global art world and surf some of the biggest swells on the East Coast. “I’m one of those guys who likes to separate work from home,” he says.
But Zwirner hasn’t caught too many waves this summer. “Now I work eight, nine hours,” he says over a lengthy video chat, wearing a navy-blue polo shirt at his desk, the brilliant light, which has drawn generations of painters to the area, pouring in through the large windows behind him. “I see the waves. I’m not going out. I’m on Zoom, on this, on that. In the beginning, it was clear we had to be extremely focused because the business model itself was under assault. I mean, when you have physical galleries on three continents and they’re all down, you’ve got a problem. You have to step up.”
Luckily for Zwirner, who had shrewdly targeted digital efforts for growth last year, he could take that step without completely losing his balance. As cities shut down and the world migrated online, most galleries flailed. Pace and Gagosian, two of Zwirner’s biggest rivals, quickly announced furloughs. Everyone had a website, sure, but purely digital exhibitions were a rarity. Art is meant to be experienced in person, and the contemporary art community is an inherently social one, with a nonstop calendar of packed openings followed by collegial dinners. In short order, Zwirner pivoted online, forging new ways of presenting and selling. Still, with economic recovery unsettlingly uncertain, he and his competitors are confronting existential questions about the future of the art world.
The silver-haired 55-year-old is a rare example of a second-generation gallerist who forged his own distinct path. His father, Rudolf Zwirner, operated a prominent gallery in Cologne, Germany, on the ground floor of the family home. “I could not go into the house without seeing what was in the gallery. His viewing room was essentially the first
