Take Damien Hirst out of contemporary art history, and there's an incredible void. Great artists, like great people, have second acts.
— Larry Gagosian
You have to be a little bit cautious when the market gets quite strong because there's a tendency to anoint a genius artist every other day. That would be a word of advice for the collectors out there.
Good jazz has been a big part of my life as far as my interest in music, and... It's kind of weird now with music, the way technology is, with downloading and iPods and electronic distribution, and its kind of - you miss something, I think.
Some people buy art because they're confident that it'll be a good store value, and this is kind of a recent phenomenon.
I believe in the popularizing of art. But when you get right down to it, it's a bit of an elitist world. Not just economically elitist - how many people read poetry?
I'm not in the luxury-goods business. I sell unique objects. I wish I was in luxury goods because then I could just call the factory and say, 'I need 10,000 more of whatever.' But I can't - because then it's not art, it's something else.
The sun never sets on my gallery.
You get to a point where you really can't manage more artists, because representing artists takes a lot of time.
Honestly, I grew up in pretty modest circumstances. We were a middle-class family.
The more people who look at great art, the better for our culture.
My gallery represents a lot of figurative artists.
I have a good visual memory. I'm good with faces, but names - I get in trouble a lot; I can't seem to remember people. People think I'm rude. As a side comment, you know, I'm not being rude: I just kind of blank out.
Nobody really needs a painting. It's something you kind of create value for in a way that you don't with a company. It's an act of collective faith what an object is worth. Maintaining that value system is part of what a dealer does, not just making a transaction but making sure that important art feels important.
I don't think the art market is for everybody. Yeah, of course we have a global gallery. But we're like the one-tenth of the one-tenth of the one-tenth. OK? Not just who's buying but who's really seriously engaged with art.
Physically, it's getting impossible for me to travel that much. I want to support my artists by showing up at their openings, but I can't always be in Hong Kong one minute and Geneva the next.
I don't wear plaid shirts.
I never really took a proper art class in college. I just started reading art magazines and going to galleries. I was really drawn to it.
San Francisco has always been a great city for art collectors.
I've never been on a board, but I just went on the board for Jazz at Lincoln Center. I'm very happy about that.
Naturally, liquidity is a big factor in any market that seems to be a lot of money in the world, and there's a lot of discretionary money.
I've never been what they call a 'pure gallerist.' I find that somewhat pretentious, honestly - I'm an art dealer. I like to show great artists of our time, but I also like dealing. And I think they reinforce each other.
The art world is never going to be popular like the NFL, but more people are buying art and I think that's cushioning, to a great extent, our art-market cycles.
The art market is global now, and there's becoming more of an international consensus about what constitutes good art.
When a great artist gets my attention, I pursue it. If I don't, someone else will, you know what I'm saying?
I was always very focused on how people dressed.
