But in just a few short years they’ve been able to rally an entire metropolis to adapt
Posted in General on 30. Aug, 2010
“But in just a few short years they’ve been able to rally an entire metropolis to adapt its schedule to theirs,” he added.Of the decision to place Sir Nicholas above Mr Lowry, Mr Weich added: “No one can compete with Moma in terms of money. But in sheer numbers of visitors, Tate is the largest contemporary museum in the world. And if you look at authentic attempts to be innovative and evolve what a contemporary art museum can be – for example, with its website – I think Tate is at the forefront.”Gallery owners such as Victoria Miro, who represents Grayson Perry and Chris Ofili; Sadie Coles, whose artists include Sarah Lucas; Maureen Paley; and the Haunch of Venison team, Harry Blain and Graham Southern, have all seen their influence rise.Jay Jopling, who has just opened a giant new White Cube gallery in St James’s, London, in addition to his existing gallery in Hoxton, leaps into the top 20 at 19.Gallery directors and curators including Iwona Blazwick, of the Whitechapel; Ralph Rugoff, the American who has taken over at the Hayward; and Hans Ulrich Obrist, the curator at the Serpentine, have all risen in the power stakes. When I got to 15, he said, “What do you want to do?” I just wanted to cycle – to be a professional rally cyclist. But he said, “That’s not a real job” (which it would be nowadays); so I left school on a Friday and on the following Monday I started work at Cree & Fletcher, one of the wholesalers where he used to buy some of his draperies and shirts and things in Nottingham’s Lace Market I never had an interview, he just rang up Mr Fletcher. There was always creativity around me, but we never discussed art, or my going to art school. In those days, unlike now, there would be 30 people in the audience, so we saw Chanel when she was still alive and the famous Yves Saint Laurent show when he did the homage to the Vietnam War.
They were always held in these beautiful houses; it was my dream to open a shop in a house.
I was born in a small town just outside Nottingham called Beeston. My father had a very strong personality – very happy, always coming up with jokes, inventing things. Even on the beach, he would pick up a pebble and draw a picture on it with his pencil. When I was 21, my wife Pauline, who was teaching fashion design at Nottingham School of Art, would take a selection of her students (and me) twice a year to see the couture shows in Paris. The designer: Sir Paul Smith
I’ve always been attracted to houses. Other British-based entrants include David Adjaye and Rem Koolhaas, architects; Simon de Pury, auctioneer; and James Lingwood and Michael Morris, from the art commissioning body Artangel.
The top 20 * 1: Fran?s Pinault, collector and the owner of Christie’s* 2: Larry Gagosian, dealer and gallerist* 3: Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate* 4: Glenn D. Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York* 5: Samuel Keller, director of ArtBasel fair* 6: Eli Broad, collector and philanthropist* 7: Charles Saatchi, collector and gallery owner* 8: Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, founders of Frieze art fair, London* 9: Bruce Nauman, artist* 10: Jeff Koons, artist* 11: Damien Hirst, artist* 12: Brett Gorvy and Amy Cappellazzo, directors of Christie’s international post-war and contemporary art department* 13: Robert Storr, curator and academic* 14: Iwan Wirth, dealer and gallerist, Hauser and Wirth* 15: Marian Goodman, dealer/gallerist* 16: David Zwirner, dealer and gallerist* 17: Gerhard Richter, artist* 18: Marc Glimcher, dealer and gallerist* 19: Jay Jopling, dealer and gallerist, White Cube*20: Mike Kelley, artist. Artists included this year include Tracey Emin, who is to represent Britain at the next Venice Biennale, Gilbert and George, Gavin Brown and Anish Kapoor.Mr Weich said: “Even though Rugoff and Obrist aren’t British, [the fact they have come to work here] does indicate the pull that London has as a growing and important art capital.”The importance of sponsorship is recognised, with UBS and Deutsche Bank winning a place, and the increasing use of the internet has secured Google 100th place. Damien Hirst has dropped from pole position to 11th, but Charles Saatchi, the collector, and Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, who founded the Frieze art fair, are in the top 10.Mr Saatchi, whose holdings of contemporary American art have just gone on show at the Royal Academy, is at seventh place, up from 19 last year “He’s very hands-on. He’s really tuned in to what’s going on,” said Mr Weich.Mr Slotover and Ms Sharp rose from 33rd to eighth on the back of the huge pull of the fair they founded with considerable ?n in London three years ago.