S10 E5: Jeffrey Deitch's Los Angeles

[Music] now I've already had a rewarding career representing artists writing the first review of Basquiat being the first person to buy his work being jeff koons dealer during the 90s I've already done very rewarding things like this I'm a stealth bomber I can walk the walk and talk the talk of money people but I'm using the structure to put out some very progressive radical ideas first the challenge was economic survival now it's how do I survive the cost structure I have to compete with galleries that have these power rosters that generate immense amounts of money today and you know I'm running as fast as I can not all collections are created equal not all collectors are perceived equally Geoffrey was always someone a presence he was filling a niche that nobody else was doing and all of a sudden it was like there was so much energy going on he's a unique individual and follow his own dream is everybody else have to catch up to him he's never been commercial I think this is why he perhaps fits so well in LA you know he likes architecture he likes some food he likes film he likes music he likes cars even though his driving is questionable that people find to be threatening a polarizing you know III don't understand it either nobody who knows me is negative it's you know people who don't know me where I'm kind of an abstraction I never considered myself a controversial person at all and I never gotten much feedback like that but i i I became publicly controversial only during this mocha situation for the various circumstances which maybe at some point I'll get into but I'm not going to get into now it became an impossible situation for me and I had to leave [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this program was made possible in part by a grant from an r/a foundation a Margaret a Cargill philanthropy the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs the California humanities in the California Arts Council [Music] [Music] so no all is around someplace so we should get him as well and on this okay what is that that's a can you come and join us we're walking around and just making the list of things that have to be done before we finished and we had talked about painting some of the electrical conduits now cuz wood has to be before all these go up all the oh right and I assume that cameras are going up here they haven't gone up yet they're inside so I remember that the proposal had cameras outside I remember - yeah but there there's a lot that someone can monkey with here I don't even know I don't know what these things are I assume the the painters going to be observant to catch all this have you tested the air conditioning yet yeah we passed inspection last Saturday like we need the light that's part that's the whole architectural statement I see if the shutter should go all the way up okay can that be buffed out or all of us the glass guy a number of things here that where we have scuffs to the corners yes yes they're just the interior walls - do we need to put the refrigerator in for their inspection or just leave it there okay and yeah it needs a little cleaning okay hi is jeffrey Deitch could you ask Brian to phone me when who has a chance if I wanted to make money in art I would just just it just be me and my cell phone and [Music] working you know the all of the works that I've placed with collectors over 40 plus years and the people I've met who might want to buy one of them and putting them together hey that's a much better way to make money the only overhead is my phone bill in some plane tickets okay you know this is a very expensive operation basically I have my own private museum if the goal is really just to to cover the expenses so that I could do the next show hopefully make a little money with a side business of placing an important work of art going from one collector to another there'll be four shows a year two of them will be these thematic shows and two of them will be ambitious exhibitions with major artists some of them or my generation like AI weiwei some with some younger artists who are just at the stage where they can work a big scale and take on the space what I would like to be able to do is to have a structure where I can work with every gallery where they're happy to consign with them to me where we can collaborate we'll see if this structure works our way away exhibition was as ambitious as anything he's done in an American Museum we shipped 6000 stools from his storage in Berlin and a number of massive pieces from China other pieces were produced in New York City a massive logistical project do you still need a brick-and-mortar institution absolutely art is made to be presented in a space either an enclosed building or outdoor plaza yeah art art is not is not made for digital distribution over social media the kind of art that I'm more interested in has a physical presence you have to see it in a space and it might want to come back and see it in a space in different light conditions different contexts with different art around it so absolutely the brick-and-mortar space is as essential as it ever was [Music] we were lucky to be able to build a beautiful space everything I wanted Frank Gehry very generously says he volunteered to design the space for me and it the result is incredible [Music] another shoee are not for me he makes more [ __ ] rather lava though aren't you know and he's booked her to put her over and get someone she's gonna mushroom turn home eh I would have yeah good one ticket by father my father Abba CEO Ginni agam : she generally gets one come here 1 mm by that so where we came yesterday morning to inspect the the stools and he thought that they were too close together and actually it's because this is the first time that he's actually seen this work exhibited in person because when it was exhibited last in 2014 he hadn't had his passport back so cuz he got his passport back in 2015 so he's never able to see it in person until until now [Music] they spent the night just trying to to spread out all of the stools and you can see they're still sort of straightening everything out and what they're doing is they're using this so they're using this string here to straighten it out and yeah so it just has to make sure that it's centered with this line and what we're doing now is we're adding a row because of we had missing stools with the with the shipment welcome here I have you like the way it looks now is so far from I should look but gradually I'm sure is gonna be perfect I think how are you great great we're very excited about this yeah I am very excited it's beautiful beauty is beautiful show and yeah I thought it'd take a lot of patient to make the right so I asked him to redo everything you know we we have to be very precise about how to pull this six audience together it's not easy so we have to make another send from the four middle gradually called now from the corner it's not good these are great those the first time lasts is is so so impressive yeah yeah yeah live there yes but so I just leave eSports Bank is pointy yeah but she's sending me an email soon with the recommendations the best Chinese restaurants no no no but I don't need that I just need the very hungry okay alright well there there are many good places around here okay what that's an even know what doesn't know clinic okay there's a place California cuisine that I like is called Cali no you can't go there's nothing to okay okay I will drive you no no no yeah whether you've had a lunch yeah I did but I'll Drive you there and go far far away okay that's okay I just where's Kathy just I'm taking way way to Cali for lunch okay I'll be right back there was no question that I was going to get involved with the art world and graduated from college was still unclear was I going to be a curator art writer maybe even an artist but it was the business side that drew me the day after my college graduation I drove down to New York City parked on West Broadway in front of the West Broadway gallery building 420 West Broadway and looking for a job and the director Naomi Spector said well our secretary just quit I do need somebody I spent the greatest year of my life working as the all-purpose gallery assistant secretary art handler janitor official greeter at the John Webber gallery one of the most radical galleries in the world but also the center of this international network of conceptual and minimal artists I learned the most from the artists my real mentor was Sola Witt he was really my teacher I remember once I express my enthusiasm to Saul about an artist who ever was about to take on it's all just said is just surface its no structure that struck me so much and with such an education and to this day I always try to look beyond the surface and when painting is just surface no it's not enough it has to have a formal or intellectual or philosophical structure as well so when you see it from a distance it looks like a Versace a design no and then it's very subversive when you actually see it this is the treasure box and they put their treasures in it but he bits is a celebration of this special woodworking craft which is almost a dying craft all constructed without any nails he particularly values this every nice song that's right well they're right I have to see there are a lot of connections between the Italian and the Chinese and this is amazing the crystal cube I warned you not to touch it because the edges are very sharp not easy as the Lord largest glass crystal ever made it's been quite an adventure for me to start in the art world when you couldn't even call it a market it was a community at the John Weber gallery we had only one major collector count honza from Italy the only other regular customer Dorothy and Herbert Vogel the famous librarian postal worker couple who came in every Saturday with a check for $50 on account altogether serious collectors of Contemporary Art in the whole world may be numbered 50 you can find that's individually though there'll be six sets of these and then half the sets have to be sold together and then so far they're going to break up two sets that I can sell individually these are hard yeah these are the only ones that are finished the other one finished yeah well they're but those easy just look exactly the same imagery the it takes as anything when you've just compressed okay so what people will do is they will buy the Roman zodiac sign do it what year are you because my my brothers are okay the dragon that's the going to be the first one to go and it's great if you go to you yeah yeah yeah Susie is very spread you want these are blue is your brother in 1952 yeah that's it yeah that's good many think many things your point for too long okay by now you see how we transaction international so in the 70s it was just about economic survival because there just wasn't that much money around I remember the first time I saw a stretch limousine and Soho I was walking by with John Webber and we just blew our minds and Wow let's find out who this is and if we can went into the restaurant see we could figure it out and get the person to the gallery because this was so astonishing now like you read about the private planes going to the airport for Art Basel and they report we had 60 landings of private jets today it's it's such a different world some people are very cynical they look at this market oh it's waffle now it's all about money now well a lot of it is about money but the art being produced right now is fascinating [Music] if you had a small one I would have fun okay so the so there are three sizes so this is the institutional so this is going from one correct okay then there's the two meter size which is like those they are two hundred and fifty thousand dollars we will have two available and then there is a smaller size you see that with it's just what you don't get I've I get I'd I'd go for it yeah he's one of the greatest artist looking he is he's easily he's the world's famous most famous artist today yeah well and and these they're they're they're all gonna get snapped up okay great great look at you the art is he here did he come he's been coming in and out he's cuz he's he still has some more installation to do this is our Emmanuel nice to meet you hi and it's so there's much more there than you realize so of course it looks it looks like a kind of Versace but then oh you see was onion but you see it's it's made with surveillance cameras hand cops Twitter symbol button when you look in very complex reflections yeah very good hidden me in Beijing I know he's he's staying in the West now Weiwei yeah yeah so sorry I just said he runs the largest talent agency and you know many other things have been an entertainment company and he's been putting together a phenomenal art collection and we just yeah he he didn't know his zodiac sign but it's the ox which is yeah yeah yeah I spent basically the years from 1979 to 1988 developing and then co-managing the first department in a bank that was focused on the art market advising collectors advising the States families that inherited art and then building a large business lending again start with a nice salary with a big expense account ability to travel anywhere I wanted access to the back rooms of every major gallery to the inside working as the auction houses entry to the homes of many great collectors I was able to get a great education in the insides of the art market but after almost 10 years it was time for me to open my own business which I did in 1988 almost all the major clients came with me no no no this is so this is the least expensive and this is it's five hundred thousand five hundred and eighty thousand the tea is five hundred and then the marquetry that's a different price that's a million dollars if this is something that was in every Chinese peasant home okay you see it's a perfect design for with the three legs you could not improve upon it he's so on top of it you should have seen him here with the array of this and the range yeah yeah he's totally on everything he's on top of no no you can't do this you have to do that though for this he'd be working in an armed Marvel quarry for the porcelain piece he's working with ceramic workshop but for example would they they couldn't do a test run on this it would have to make it to make a mistake that's correct you're absolutely right so there's tremendous skill that goes into this yeah it's totally salad it 100% salad this is a business it's all for sale and yeah but I like that I like that's a great way to engage the public but see that irony is we were working together in moto and Carolyn was on the board and and so the irony you see in a museum show was supposed to be all non-commercial however like an example when we did the Earth's Fisher Show it wasn't really a commercial show a lot borrowed from collectors but then I calculated just on the pieces that were available I think Larry Gagosian made ten million dollars so that's the crazy irony that that museum shows that the taxpayers pay for all this and art dealers use it as a showroom that's the system so here it's just very direct Geoffrey hosted one of my shows in New York at the original Deitz projects we did a show called sex abyssion which I did a series of twelve peeps and the theory was that you would go into the booth and there was a model that was in in this kind of world so then we did a book about that following it and she was all my gallerist I was one of the few fashion designers if I ever have a gallerist I known for a long time I lived in New York happened to live like two blocks from the gallery and I would just go to the gallery almost every day I probably saw over a number of years every show he ever did and you know I just was part of the part of that gallery in New York during its formative years and you know loved Geoffrey so the energy saw the shows saw the Machine close up I wanted to create a space where everyone was welcome where somebody coming to New York City from Los Angeles from any place where should I go the answer was oh go to Dodge projects so many creative people wanted to participate in do projects so many people wanted to be in this and the word is spreading around to art schools around the country what we're about is trying to provide a platform or new creative community that's what we do in the gallery I had noticed that when I visited Studios almost every artist showed me the new paintings the new sculpture and then I want to show you something and they'd show me a notebook and this is the project I really want to do I wish I had the resources and the opportunity to do that and again and again I saw artists had dream projects without the ability to realize them so I said this is what we're gonna do we're gonna start tight projects it won't be tight gallery I would offer each artist $25,000 production money and we would present their dream project and the deal was if we sold it we would recoup the $25,000 and split the rest and if we didn't sell it I would keep the work for my own collection and it turned out even though I thought I'd end up keeping almost all the work from the beginning we can selling the piece many of the projects we put on we're totally uncommitted there was nothing at all to sell but I always believed that if you create some momentum and create excitement the kind of earth collectors who I want to deal with they're going to show up attracted very interesting people and we did some fantastic things there are a number of people prominent in Los Angeles who got very engaged with what I was doing at Deitz projects they wanted to bring this to Los Angeles and they thought my approach was the fresh community oriented approach that was perfect from mocha at this stage when I went to mocha I made a tremendous sacrifice I had a thriving business millions every year and I shut it down 100 percent gave up all the artist relationships gave up the collector advisory relationships started off great with the painting factory shows like art in the streets everybody we have a beautiful sunny day to celebrate the opening of Artemis reefs this is the first major historical exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art ever presented in an American Museum art in the streets was so widely embraced by a wide public but was shocking to certain members of the establishment who said street art belongs on the streets not in a museum I realized there were people in the community who didn't want me there and would not stop until I was eventually driven out eventually it was untenable and I needed to move on I'm on a new chapter now and when I opened a new chapter I don't wipe out what came before I just go to a new place it's exciting for me [Music] but it's all gonna go public there's a next spring all right yeah do that for books and her work coming out yeah but that's still under embargo right you can't talk about it [Music] now let's step in good to see you yeah we met last night good to see you again yeah Paige you met paints in here Joe got Stefan yeah yeah every day he would he would go to a cafe on Ron Green Street and hang out there for a while then he'd walk over to my place and just absorb everything and meet people [Music] [Music] yeah it's also a little bit like Vienna 1910 it's very modernist with this material yes it's really really good yes it's one of the best pieces poeple ever did its yeah and he did the wife cast in the middle of Union Square station in New York and so you know I couldn't see anything and then we took the mask off there are 250 people yeah I lucked out I I had no I had never even heard of Los Feliz and this is well Gaetano Pesci the mountain sofa and then the modular that's Gaetano pesha and this is Sascha browning that's Jordan who is our neighbor Jordan bought the house three houses away yeah and then for those who haven't been here before this is a special table that verse Fisher made for the house with Cary Grant and then images of me from Robert Longo's men in the cities that is Man Ray from 1920 this ball is called obstruction and it's one of the great pieces of the historical avant-garde and so 1920 so first it's you know this this relates to what Weiwei is doing is I I think this may be the first accumulation piece and no after this comes Armand and so much way way here then it also see it fuses a kind of sense of pop it's wid so it's it's kind of one of the earliest pieces of pop art in a way okay now this is the big mystery so one of the greatest artists of the 20th century at the household name and the the second clue is that everything is done with a mechanical process the third clue is that the date is approximately 1954 okay so it's an very early Andy Warhol and it's it's going to be in the Whitney Museum for the big borehole show people who say well Andy Warhol he was just an illustrator in the 50s no he was really working already to trying to reinvent how to make a painting yeah what I did Citibank I people with the Contemporary Art because I loved it and found people who shared my interest but it was not about investment people collected it because they believed in it it was not a financial asset whatever we were interested in buying it was available they would there was more supply than demand now it's an extreme situation because of all these art blogs some of these blogs have a million readers so without exaggeration there are a million people who know the top ten emerging artists in Los Angeles it's hard to know how do we deal with this but that's where we are now Rashidah would like to acquire a work of yours and we talking well let's call up a telex I'm coming we had a party Friday no there were what 500 people here no no Jeffrey no let's start with a tour ok and so the agenda is well first Rashidah and the family she works with they're interested in buying another version oh great laughs amazing so we're gonna see that in New York next week this is a work from the series I did with Bret Easton Ellis this one's particularly great I always felt like frozen yogurt would have been like a problem from a movie about my life if any of there ever was one it actually began as a project related to sunglasses we want him to create a kind of garden atmosphere based on the fabric SPF 18 fantastic cover designed like a high school yearbook for a fictitious high school called as if it comes time for a long time we made all my paintings at Warner Brothers do you want to talk about these self-portraits I started to notice that instagram became this tool everybody sort of had the tools to become their own brand and I started to use this logo in this image in association with all of my work and all night there was a little embarrassing I have to admit because putting your face out there and this way is is should we wait well I remember I had done a studio visit with the MFA student studios and I noticed there was a young man who was following us around I Diana for the and a nicely and that was Alex I think were you only a freshman at that time oh yeah it's been half my life Jeffrey that's even at my age I'm 66 years old I'm actually still able to look at the current scene and figure out what some of the most interesting trends are and put it together with an aesthetic and intellectual framework around it let me tell you a little bit about the people exhibition it's largely inspired by one of the most remarkable exhibitions and books in recent art history Mike Kelly's the uncanny was an exhibition and book project that explored of a counter history of sculpture sculpture coming from mannequins wax museums very different history than the history of sculpture coming from Rodin Giacometti the more conventional notions of sculpture and you see it's this counter history that has inspired so many the interesting artists today actually there is only one piece in the show that is more traditionally made that's Thomas house agos the other very interesting aspect of this and the essence of the uncanny is this confusion deliberate confusion between who is alive and what is an object so this work by narses sister is wonderful to have in the forefront then we added something very important for the show this live model from Vanessa Beecroft because the whole installation is inspired by a Vanessa Beecroft performance where all the models are lined up in a kind of formation like this facing the front so those are the two important references Mike Kelly son Kenny and Vanessa Bikram I always work for a long term over developing ideas and this set of ideas about contemporary approaches to figuration whether it's in a performance mode sculpture painting that's one of the next shows coming unrealism it's all about contemporary representations of the figure [Music] hey this is my spirit yeah yeah looks pretty good doesn't it well a few things that so the Kiki Smith is awesome right that's the Andi monument yeah so this is this sort of neighborhood of Jeff Rob Ashley Bickerton did you see the Quran Davis I want to show you the Quran David because she's a great artist see look look at this and you see she has so much humanity herself and she's able to transfer that humanity into an inanimate object so it's settled one of the our seniors one of the really outstanding artists well since I knew Jeffrey I always thought he was a classic so he's never gonna disappear he's never going to leave so despite his movements New York LA museum gallery I curate or I own thought Jeffrey is Jeff Jeffrey is forever so I'm happy because this is my first day in this gallery since the open and again I recognize certain elements that were the same as New York and in the exhibition I see his identity that is the one of collecting groups of works that have a common denominator and titling them with some very clever concept to be honest I do not follow the articles for superstition I always been away from the scene so I don't even think locally but I believe that wherever contemporary are is Geoffrey should be a nice great [ __ ] see because it see people can relate to people yeah your food she's perfect she knows she knows exactly what to do yeah yeah that's it that's that all you need is that instruction yeah yeah yeah this is what we do we do amazing yeah wait what's a second we're good are we ready to light so there are two tasks for you okay one is just to monitor this and the other is in the unlikely event that someone like picks up a french fry or something just monitor the Josh Klein's okay thanks yeah so then stay in this area you know you need to get together yeah [Music] okay okay I just I just wanna yeah I wanted okay okay okay okay so so we don't we have you know we like don't don't get too close okay so we want to keep some distance away from this as it's dangerous dangerous this is this is an amazing thing it's amazing this is crazy yeah wild Oh who's this artist this is narcissist or nurse or sister narcissist er and one of the artists I started off not what narcissist collection narcissist er that's not that's the artist crazy [Music] so what of you because it's not totally stable what we did is we put some little shims underneath uh-huh yeah doesn't know if you're in the art world you know who jeffrey Deitch is I had some work at Pio Pico which is a gallery here in LA you know in one of the back rooms and apparently Jeffrey was walking through the space he was meeting with another artist and when he walked into the space this back space he saw my work and was struck by it and wanted to include my work it's interesting to see how he goes from one position to another and how he's able to sort of maneuver and make things work in the way that he wants them to work yeah it's just like super super interesting to see him come back and open this amazing huge space and yeah it's just it's crazy first the gallery in Los Angeles is more grown-up than what I did in New York City I started the New York gallery when I was in my late 30s I am 66 years old now different stage of life so it's less about the big social platform of its I think I've had my fill of gigantic parties that where the place is trashed afterwards and we have to spend three days cleaning up don't need to do that anymore Saturday is an active day at the gallery so a number of people have told me sorry I couldn't make it last week during your opening weekend but we're coming today so I am expecting some good visitors and also Saturday's the traditional day to visit a gallery do serious collectors museums people with whom I've already developed a relationship the mission with the gallery here is to develop some new relationships with Los Angeles collectors and over time build confidence good morning introduce people to the vision that we are trying to articulate and I'm confident that we will inspire people and make some sales okay I'm so fortunate that Frank Gehry is he put it volunteered to handle the design isn't this just great this is Los Angeles yeah that's for my collection so this is what this whole projects about the ability to do some museum level shows here so I can have fun yes and hopefully we can sell enough so that I can keep going because it's expensive to do it like this I want to get that opossum Oh Josh Klein he's the best okay so I bought one of these for my own collection yeah so we have foundational artists like Koons Kiki Smith when Hanson then the next generation like Frank Benson the younger generation yeah and you know what this is about so he he's very interested in you know concerned about what's happening in our country in our economy and focusing on a kind of young man who was it was it was a waiter at the Texas Roadhouse right so this is an actual person he had a casting agent go to Baltimore and he this guy was cast and then body scanned oh and then all the elements are 3d printed I think this is really important work and this is what I bought for myself you can buy the whole thing yeah which I would recommend this it's these two they're fifty thousand each this one's 60,000 okay if you bought all three we try to make some that make some deal what's that you know is that me yeah this poor old no this because this is an odd piece these yeah these are on these these are not that saleable really you want to see a great Haring LA - yeah show you something in the back yeah okay okay which which is reasonably priced at a million and a half and so you can make a judgement of what this should be yes and I think that Barbara had that at that and somewhere over that you know her she is something well also these are estate prices so you want to see the look the show first or oh I'll have Cougar let's go back and he'll get the hairy right over built built would like to see the Keith Haring LA to so it's gonna take a look at this and we can bring the other one out okay isn't this incredible look at the back to because important to see this is this is the Keith Haring la to and you know I love that you know the really that the great work it's on found would like this and I love the street quality okay so we're gonna put it up for you so the other thing that I'm doing here is I want to have a serious back room yeah which not too many people are doing in Los Angeles you really can't see things like this year Larry this actually needs a really long view like if you seriously wanted to see if we would set it up so you can see it from 30 feet away so this has a real street of media quality so the origin of this piece is you remember the fear route East or Midtown your windows yes okay so the artists love to hang out there and I I can as Rudi Gernreich said fashion goes out of fashion okay art doesn't fits good and so yes so Keith was commissioned yeah you can see there are many figures here this is an important part of Keith's work of bringing LA too into it and you see on the LA two tags right right something that where Keith had this genius it's well it's listed as Keith Haring la2 says this is different because this is Keith's concept to bring in LA to to work on the painting in which he directs and it's it's less it's not an even collaboration like rural Basquiat and also see I love this hovering between abstraction figuration and the tagging he's got three elements here this is a million and a half dollars this is what we do may I take a shot of course he hasn't been here yet Jesus Christ okay okay yes this is uncanny a lot a lot of interesting things go on here just by my longevity I guess I am part of the establishment but that's not where I see myself at all it would be tragic if the art world art market structures itself just to cater to people who give big money to museums who buy mega art at private foundations I'm all for connecting with people who love art and want to do something big and are in a position to do something big to support it so there I've always been one who believes artists for the people I'm very inspired by this statement that Gilbert and George great London artists used art for all everyday there were dozens of people coming in and saying oh how much do we have to pay they didn't realize that commercial galleries are free the only thing I can do at this stage I just I'm just myself and I do what I do think that I can offer is all this experience and a curatorial vision and luckily enough artists want to be part of that [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this program was made possible in part by a grant from an r/a foundation a Margaret a Cargill philanthropy the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs the California humanities in the California Arts Council

Channel: KCET

Views: 8,409

Rating: 4.8055553 out of 5

Keywords: kcet, southern california, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, Artbound, art, culture, conetmporary art, dealer, curator, Ai Weiwei

Id: cWb_5pQa3dc

Length: 54min 8sec (3248 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2019