Rogues Gallery

Fascinating talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival by Philip Hook from Sotheby’s talking about the role of dealers in art.

He admitted himself that despite the title of the talk and his book that not all dealers have been rogues. He talked about how dealers can influence taste either by trading and creating a demand or by championing particular artists and establishing them.

He talked about how Joseph Duveen has influenced the art in American galleries as he bought from impoverished European aristocrats and sold to American moguls who later bequeathed them to the galleries. He was known for using “below stairs intelligence” ie bribing the servants to get information on the families involved.

He quoted Paul Durand- Ruel as an example of a dealer who championed artists and a style. He spotted that the new Impressionist work was not getting into the Saloons and selling so he acted for the artists and organised shows of their work.

As ever with Charleston they had picked a good interviewer in Georgina Adam, a journalist who writes about the contemporary art market. They talked about how contemporary art is commanding higher prices than ever before. Georgina felt this was partly due to younger buyers in the market who are making large sums of money early in life. She set up an interesting discussion about who influences taste now and they both agreed that critics were important but that museums also played a role with prices for artists or a style that has been shown recently going up in the auctions.