This interview is part of Rosemont Art Advisory monthly newsletter. If you wish to receive our newsletter, please contact her: k.blasiak@rosemont-mc.com
We are excited to feature the world renowned Marian Goodman Gallery, who is also presenting its prominent round up of artists on Art Basel’s online room.
Rosemont Art Advisory sat down with Aebhric Coleman, Director of the Gallery, who kindly shared with us the preview of the gallery’s Art Basel portfolio.
Aebhric provides his insight on the gallery activity during Covid-19 challenging times and how the digital alternative has been opening new audience and horizons.
Please present to our readers your gallery and your artists, which artists can we find in your repertoire?
Marian Goodman Gallery was founded in New York City in late 1977. In 1995 the gallery expanded to include an exhibition space in Paris, in 2014 an exhibition space in London, and in late 2016 a bookstore and project space in Paris. Marian Goodman is known for working very closely with the artists she represents and we are very fortunate to have worked for many years with some of the leading contemporary artists since the 1960s.
Artists including: Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Chantal Akerman, Giovanni Anselmo, Leonor Antunes, Nairy Baghramian, John Baldessari, Lothar Baumgarten, Dara Birnbaum, Christian Boltanski, Marcel Broodthaers, Maurizio Cattelan, James Coleman, Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Tacita Dean, Rineke Dijkstra, Cerith Wyn Evans, Luciano Fabro, David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Cristina Iglesias, Amar Kanwar, William Kentridge, An-My Lê, Steve McQueen, Julie Mehretu, Annette Messager, Sabine Moritz, Juan Muñoz, Maria Nordman, Gabriel Orozco, Giulio Paolini, Giuseppe Penone, Gerhard Richter, Anri Sala, Matt Saunders, Tino Sehgal, Ettore Spalletti, Thomas Struth, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Niele Toroni, Adrián Villar Rojas, Danh Vo, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling, Francesca Woodman and Yang Fudong.
Earlier this year, we announced our representation of the estate of Robert Smithson and the artist Tavares Strachan, both of whom we will be showing exhibitions with later this year in London.
How has your gallery been dealing with the Covid-10 restrictions imposed on the gallery world and cultural institutions?
Very quickly, we developed Viewing Rooms on our website. The first was for our exhibition with Rineke Dijkstra in London, as we had the close the show the day we were due to open to the public on 13th March. It was a wonderful occasion for our team to work collaboratively on producing texts on the artist’s work and we received very positive coverage and feedback. In addition, we have been participating in the various art fairs which transitioned into online-only, including Art Basel Hong Kong, Frieze New York, and the upcoming Art Basel this week.
Which digital tools has your gallery put in place? Have you been generating business through the online tools?
Our website is developed by ArtLogic, which is a strong technology company with good tools for Online Viewing Rooms. As we knew we wished to present our artists’ work in particular ways to ensure the best experience online, our colleagues in New York worked closely with the ArtLogic team to develop new features. We have been continuing to develop these for our new Art Basel viewing room, in addition to a viewing room on the work of Giulio Paolini, both of which launch this week.
In addition, we developed a new twice-monthly newsletter called IN-FOCUS. Marian Goodman had the idea to delve deeply into one artist on the gallery roster at a time. Aiming to show a fuller picture of the breadth of our artists' careers, we feature our favorite stories, podcasts, interviews, artists’ writings and videos from the archive, as well as new and upcoming projects.
Our social media activity has equally increased with a wonderful collaboration between our digital and communications teams in New York, Paris and London. These last months have helped us to work together more in a carefully planned and hopefully thoughtful way.
On the business front, we have seen clearly the results of an increased digital presence and activity. We will be investing more time and energy on this.
How do you see the art market going forward, is it going to be more polarised or democratised?
We are continuing to live through one of the most exceptional periods in modern history. On many social, economic, and human levels, there is uncertainty and complexity about what the future might hold. However, the world was not a binary place before and this will increasingly be the case. We need to embrace the changes that will be necessary and evolve our thinking and practices to adapt to new more complex circumstances.
For the art market, from what we have seen these last months, I am hopeful that it will usher an important period of reflection and change that will strengthen what is most meaningful and valuable about art. On the one hand, we have already seen an amazing spirit of collaboration and communication between galleries in ways that would not have happened otherwise. These excellent discussions, which are equally being had between galleries and art fair organisers, will result in new initiatives to encounter and experience art that are more focused, intimate and carefully programmed. I think both artists, collectors, and the broader public will really appreciate this.
From a business point of view, online viewing rooms benefit from a public display of pricing and we have welcomed this. As people travel less, it is also an important time to be more open in how we communicate and improve our environmental impact and be more sustainable. Digital transformation will play an important part in this.
On a very human level, as each of us has spent many months in our homes, I think collectors will increasingly wish to acquire works that they want to live with and have real value to them. Or bring a special meaning to their places of work. Even for me, going back into the gallery recently to see the large beautiful portraits by Rineke Dijkstra made me feel how important our relationship with artworks can be. Good art can really make you reflect on your place in the world. And we need this.