Heyoka Magazine.
How do you find London in general and the
art scene in particular?
Kenny Schachter. I find London lovely,
a wonderful atmosphere, beautiful
architecturally, and great for kids. As to
art, I
have basically alienated myself, or have
withdrawn more particularly from day to day
participation from the goings on of the art
world. Partly it is a loss of passion I once
had for ferreting out talent, working with
emerging artists, and hitting the trenches
visiting spaces. Economically, it
makes no sense as a business model to
transport low costing works to England with
the high cost of shipping; not to mention
the lousy status of the dollar vs pound. I
must admit it felt liberating to start
afresh, cutting loose the artists I
represented (for only a few years in my New
York Vito Acconci designed space) and
returning to my roots as being a less rooted
roving art curator and writer. I will still
do cutting edge shows in my new space on
Britannia St opening in June with a large
scale Vito Acconci show (across from
Gagosian's new gallery), but I will mix it
with design and other ad hoc goings on.
also, I am now focusing on working with
specific works on secondary market, rather
than with the makers themselves.
HM: Do you think your lack of involvement
with gallery detracts from the experience of
visiting a Kenny Schachter space?
KS. For nearly 15 years 6
or 7 days a week I gallery sat, and I no
longer have it in me. I'm not Mother Teresa,
though I did almost give my life in East
London when I got mugged bringing a show
here, and sat the very next day albeit with
a security guard. I still give so much to
put on the shows I do, the recent William
Pope l. show being a great example (and, uh
Kembra Phaler, too), and, the art fairs are
like my Willy Loman-esque, grass roots style
arts activity, which I still do largely on
my own. in fact, I'd rather do away with the
requisite for a fixed gallery and go back to
being a peripatetic wandering Jew. That's I
was always born to be. there has been a lot
of rhetoric bad mouthing art fairs by the
very dealer that participate in them.
HM:
How do you respond to this phenomenon?
KS: Moving to Europe and leaving my constituency
behind I decided early on to blanket the
international fairs as the only way not to loose
continuum with my business activity, also,
there's a new one every other day so its not
hard get accepted to a few (ok, so the
Kazakhstan one didn't go as well as planned). A
recent article in New York’s Village Voice on
art fairs elicited these responses from the
world’s trendiest gallery owners who, it should
be pointed out, all participate in multiple
fairs worldwide year in and year out: "I'm never
inspired there", "depressing", disgusting",
"Fairs are sickening", “I can't stand them”
(Village Voice, Feeding Frenzy, by Jerry Saltz
January 28, 2005). Bullshit! Art fairs
are neither demon, nor godsend, they just are
and they are (so pervasive) for some very
compelling reasons that have forever shifted the
landscape of shifting art. They are ideal places
to see a lot of diverse art under one roof, and
professionally, they offer new paradigm to
maximize profits in the art business (a
brave/foolish remark in a world that
hypocritically shuns discourse on profit motive
but has a love affair with money). There are
certainly more fairs now than ever before
spanning the globe, the latest outposts being
China and Russia, not including the 4 or 5
sub-fairs that transpire simultaneously during
just about each and every incarnation. Despite
the art world’s famously ambivalent relationship
to the general public and even disdain for some
of its own patrons, fairs have succeeded in
presenting a gateway for the general public to
enter into the world of art. This is in contrast
to the commercial galleries where you are
ignored, scanned head to toe and pigeonholed, or
just plain put ill at ease and made to feel
self-conscious. Fairs are accessible—though,
growing ridiculously expensive for entrance
fees, until MOMA (in New York) announced revised
admission fees upon reopening, and don’t forget
the heavy levy of Saatchi’s County Hall too!
HM: What about the art experience.
KS.
They also offer a relatively welcoming
environment for people to experience art. In the
past these events were geared more to the trade,
and veteran collectors; whereas now, with
extensive newspaper and media coverage that
brings these fairs before the public eye, the
collective curiosity is typically piqued enough
to lure many in who would never contemplate
passing by a gallery. Art fairs are akin to
historical events like the Armory exhibition of
1914 where there were lines around the block and
when art was part of the social discourse. This
is in contrast to the general practice of
gallery business that goes to no effort to
cultivate new audiences other than immediate
collectors. Dealers that participate in just
about every damn fair should shut the fuck up
and stop criticizing them all the time. art
seems more focused on money now than ever
before, even since the days when a plate-hurling
Schnabel was considered an art star, any
thoughts?
In
the recent past people have paid lip service to
a kind of pluralism prevalent in the art world,
i.e. a multiplicity of simultaneous
strands of art production, in contrast to
simpler times when movements were easier to
codify. Versus the 1960’s period of Pop and
Abstract Expressionism, in the 90’s there was
figurative painting, abstract painting,
political/social art, conceptual and scatter
art, feminist/gender works, and on and on.
Nowadays, the universal school of art is
economics—economicsism, if you will; and, the
prince of this new bottom line aesthetics is
Richard Prince, among others. At a Christies
conference in New York recently the subject was
the unfathomable twenty-five (yes, 25!) upstart
hedge funds that have developed in the last year
or so with art underpinning the investments. Is
this the dawning of the Apocalypse, or a time
when art is not just art anymore but an asset
class? There is more than one “financial” index
tracking historical trends in different
categories of art and with a click of the mouse
you can view a chart of Frank Stella’s painting
performance in relation to the past or . the
overall contemporary art market. Make sure you
bring that along prior to raising your paddle at
the next Sotheby’s sale. The question is, how
thick will the new “artvestors” collective skin
be when another recession hits. A recession they
will gasp, surely nothing can depress the $3.5m
Dumas market? In the early 90’s, a time most
participating in today’s market now either
forgot or were not present for altogether,
artists lost sometimes more than 60% off the
going prices for their works not to mention some
artists that were dealt a fatal blow to their
markets from which they never recovered. In art,
despite the charts, graphs, indexes, hedge
funds, etc., when there is a downturn—liquidity
doesn’t only contract, it can evaporate
overnight. What are you going to do when your
$8.25 million Damian Hirst is worth only,
say $4-5m. There’s a lot of room for a
correction in numbers like that for an artist
shy of his 40’s birthday, but hey, give them
what the want and seemingly need. Did you hear
how much his last sculpture went for?
HM: What plans do you have for the future?
KS: I am pursuing a new build
(apartments and commercial space) on Hoxton
square with Zaha Hadid, her first in England
despite working here for more than 30 years,
and, besides trafficking in secondary market
goods, considering a car mag and art market
newsletter. in pursuit of the publication, I
have asked Hadid and prince to design actual
cars that we would try and produce concept
versions of and, regarding the market activity:
if you can't beat em....
