Power Shifting From Galleries to Artists?

The NY Times has an interesting article about the departure of Damien Hirst from the Gagosian Gallery.  Overt the past few days there has been news and rumors of several top flight artist breaking away from perhaps the most powerful gallery and gallery owner.

Some think that the top tier of contemporary artist now hold the power and can start to take advantage of their fame directly or in different ways than an exclusive gallery agreement.  This was shown to be the case several years back when Damien Hirst sold works directly through Sotheby's London.

The NY Times reports

Some see Mr. Hirst’s announcement — and other similar defections from prominent galleries — as part of a larger art world trend. Mr. Gagosian is unquestionably the most powerful art dealer out there, representing an ever-growing stable of star artists, including Takashi Murakami, Ed Ruscha and Cecily Brown, as well as estates like those of Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg and Henry Moore.

But “these superstar artists are self-propelled machines,” said Tobias Meyer, director of Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide and its principal auctioneer. “Just as actors left their studios in the 1950s, artists have become bigger stars than their galleries. The world is their oyster, and they know it.”

Ann Temkin, chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, said, “What’s certainly clear is that the amount of money at stake is something that is unprecedented.”

She added, “At some level it’s become a different game.”

Mr. Hirst is partly responsible for that, having been one of the first to start playing publicly by different rules. In 2008 he snubbed Mr. Gagosian, along with Jay Jopling, the owner of Mr. Hirst’s London gallery, White Cube, and held a giant auction of primarily new works at Sotheby’s in London. For sale were 223 Hirst artworks, including his signature dead animals floating in giant glass tanks of formaldehyde; giant glass cabinets filled with diamonds or cigarette butts; and paintings with butterflies pinned under glass.

“Even if the sale bombs, I’m opening a new door for artists everywhere,” Mr. Hirst said in an interview before the auction.

Source: The NY Times