Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Gallerists But Were Afraid To Ask

The massive expansion of the art market in recent decades has aroused much intrigue about how galleries operate, particularly as critics, artists and independent curators take the lead in opening their own spaces, enhancing the appeal of the gallerist's role. The primary function of the contemporary gallerist continues to be the one established by D.H. Kahnweiler over a century that of a "traveling companion" to artists, one who nourishes the work's development, recording it and ensuring its optimum passage into the world. But in today's economy, the gallerist as cultural entrepreneur and arbiter exercises a professional hybridity far removed from Kahnweiler's day. Here, Andrea Bellini interviews figures from 51 galleries, including Gavin Brown's Enterprise (New York), Massimo De Carlo (Milan), Greene Naftali (New York), Hotel (London), Kurimanzutto (Mexico), Franco Noero (Turin), Eva Presenhuber (Zurich), Johann König (Berlin) and Vitamin (Beijing), eliciting their views on the complexities of art culture worldwide.