Commercial Galleries: Bricks, Clicks and the Digital Future

By Henry Little

Written by an art advisor and former gallerist with an insider' s perspective, this book provides a timely overview of the commercial-gallery sector at a moment of rapid change and expansion. More than any participant in the art market, galleries are seen as mysterious actors with an opaque code of conduct. This book offers a fascinating view of the gallery ecosystem, presenting a systematic diagnosis of key challenges and opportunities facing the sector today.Henry Little discusses the integration of bricks and clicks, addressing the tension between a gallery' s physical premises and its online presence, further asking how the world' s largest galleries have pulled so far ahead both in terms of their physical expansion and their digital offering. In an industry which increasingly rewards consolidation and brand recognition, the book asks how small and mid-tier galleries can hold their own and whether the traditional gallery model may be under threat in an increasingly digital future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lund Humphries
• Release date: Jan 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9781848226418

Book preview

Front Cover of Commercial GalleriesHalf Title of Commercial Galleries

Hot Topics in the Art World

Published in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Series Editors

Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

This series of short, thought-provoking and sometimes controversial books debates key issues of current relevance to art-world professionals working in both the private and public sectors. The texts give wider visibility to some critical areas of professional art-world practice, considering what disruptors are challenging the status quo and how the art world is likely to be transformed over the next decades as a result.

International Series Advisory Board

Georgina Adam, journalist, author and art market Editor-at-Large of The Art Newspaper

Alia Al-Senussi, cultural strategist, patron, academic and lecturer

Touria El Glaoui, Founding Director of 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair (London – New-York – Marrakech)

Jos Hackforth-Jones, former CEO and Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London

Louise Hamlin, Director of the Art Business Conference (London – New York – Shanghai)

Llucià Homs, Director of Talking Galleries, Barcelona

Zehra Jumabhoy, academic, critic and curator

Julie Lomax, CEO at a-n, The Artists Information Company, UK

Franklin Sirmans, Director of the Pérez Art Museum, Miami

Philip Tinari, Director and CEO of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing

Book Title of Commercial Galleries

For Lucinda, thank you

First published in 2023 by Lund Humphries

in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art

Lund Humphries

Huckletree Shoreditch

Alphabeta Building

18 Finsbury Square

London EC2A 1AH

UK

www.lundhumphries.com

Commercial Galleries: Bricks, Clicks and the Digital Future © Henry Little, 2023

All rights reserved

ISBN (hardback): 978-1-84822-637-1

ISBN (eBook PDF): 978-1-84822-641-8

ISBN (eBook ePub): 978-1-84822-640-1

A Cataloguing-in-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise, without first seeking the permission of the copyright owners and publishers. Every effort has been made to seek permission to reproduce the images in this book. Any omissions are entirely unintentional, and details should be addressed to the publishers.

Henry Little has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act, 1988, to be identified as the Author of this Work.

Copy edited by Ismay Atkins

Designed by Crow Books

Set in Caslon Pro and Sofia Pro

Printed in Estonia

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1Origins and Workings of a Gallery System

2The Space: Architecture, Location and Identity

3The Digital Promise

4Tough at the Top: The Gallery Plus

5Consolidation, Collaboration, Continuation

Conclusion

Notes

Further Reading

Foreword

Commercial art galleries form collectively the so-called ‘primary market’ of the art world. They are the locus for trade in artworks on sale for the first time. According to art-market lore, these private galleries were often established by those more interested in supporting their artists than making a profit. Today there is a new model for primary market activity. A significant number of established galleries now have more than one iteration in the same city; others have multiple galleries in a range of international locations (including New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Seoul); some have outposts in celebrated locations such as The Hamptons in Long Island. The galleries are extensive, the interior design is impressive and the auxiliary projects, such as publishing and podcasts, make significant contributions to art culture. This is, as Henry Little echoes in his Introduction, an industry very much in its golden age.

In recent years, the overall value of the art market has remained broadly stable. Indeed, it has had to contend with the fallout from significant world events, such as the pandemic, and more local ones, such as Brexit. And so what is the economic miracle supporting the emergence of these so-called ‘mega galleries’? And what does it mean for the myriad of ‘mid-tier’ and smaller galleries, with often significantly fewer resources? In this new study, art market insider Henry Little adeptly and incisively analyses this little-researched phenomenon, leading us on a journey through the dynamic, ever-evolving underlying factors at work in its emergence, and examines how an industry distinguished by its respect for tradition and convention has adopted a pioneering and energised attitude to digital technology and revolutionised the business of art.

Jeffrey Boloten and Juliet Hacking, March 2023

Acknowledgements

I’m deeply grateful for Jeffrey Boloten’s care and attention in the process of soliciting the proposal for this book, as well as for the kind support of Juliet Hacking throughout. To you both – thank you. Likewise, Lucy Myers and her team at Lund Humphries have been generous, thoughtful and considered in their approach, offering wise and constructive critique which greatly improved the manuscript.

One of the great joys of writing this book was talking shop with some of the great art dealers and market personalities of the day. My sincere thanks for their time and wisdom go to: Selvi May Akyildiz, Stefania Bortolami, Kirsty Carter, Niamh Coghlan, James Cohan, Adrien Delestre, John Duff, Joe Elliott, Will Elliott, Larkin Erdmann, Saskia Fernando, Michael Findlay, Shireen Gandhy, Emma Gilhooly, Sasha Gomeniuk, James Green, Ebony L. Haynes, Paul Hedge, Lawrence Hendra, James Holland-Hibbert, Noah Horowitz, Taka Ishii, Joe Kennedy, Toby Kidd, Johann König, Luigi Mazzoleni, Tony Meier, Philip Mould, Rory Normanton, Stephen Ongpin, Prateek and Priyanka Raja, Ricardo González Ramos, Magnus Resch, Pablo Rodriguez-Fraile, Jerry Saltz, Kenny Schachter, Richard Scott, John Swarbrooke, Calum Sutton, Jonathan Travis, Charis Tyndall and Hugo Wheeler.

Above all, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Jeremy Hodkin, editor of The Canvas. Between my own interviews and the excellent work he has done over the past five years I found ample primary-source material. Jeremy’s far-reaching conversations with the great and good of the art-dealing community are an astounding resource which merits greater discussion by future writers.

I have been reading the work of Georgina Adam and Melanie Gerlis since my time as a young, hopeful gallerist. I have attempted to follow the great example set by their publications in this series and their books have accompanied me throughout as the gold standard for concise, cogent art-market commentary. Both were supremely generous in the advice they gave and the warm support they offered. Thank you.

I benefited significantly from the early feedback of several dedicated readers: Lucinda, Ed, Michael, Guy, Charlie and Daniel. Thank you to all of them for humouring me so patiently. My special thanks to Harry who, with his innate curiosity and editorial insight, gave extensive comments that immeasurably improved the text.

Art dealers are endlessly fascinating. I hope the reader may share my enthusiasm for the subject in the pages that follow.

Introduction

In the years since the economic crash of 2008, a spectacular divide has emerged in the commercial gallery world. By anecdotal consensus, it seems the highest tier of commercial galleries, the so-called ‘mega-galleries’, are generating vast fortunes by adopting technologically advanced sales systems, establishing fearsome real-estate footprints and expanding the very definition of a commercial gallery into bold, new territory. In this group we find the fully branded galleries: Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace and David Zwirner. Beneath this apex, in size and influence, we have two further established groups. Jeremy Hodkin, editor of The Canvas, an art-market newsletter, breaks these into the ‘legacy’ galleries, such as Barbara Gladstone, Lisson, Paula Cooper and Marian Goodman, and the ‘next-gen mega-galleries’, such as Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac and White Cube.¹ All are typically considered commercially and critically successful; their challenge is more supply than demand, while facing fierce competition from other galleries for the best artists. These businesses are presumed to be generating annual sales worth anywhere from US$100 million to a US$1 billion. Such is the outsize success of these businesses that David Zwirner has called it an ‘industry in its golden age’.² Little public information is available, however, so separating reality from public relations messaging can be challenging.

While the polished top tier receives outsize attention from the press and collectors, the real workhorses are ‘mid-tier’ galleries, usually with only one, two or three exhibition spaces and a roster of 10 to 40 artists. These represent the classic squeezed middle and generate anywhere between a million and US$100 million in annual