Extract
[...] Finally, we will conclude by trying to make hypotheses on the future of the art dealer, and on the permanence of his status. Becoming an art dealer, is it the result of a sensitivity relative to art, or that of a fortuitous arrangement of encounters? To begin with, the author sketches in the first part of the book his past as a young adolescent confronted closely with the art world, during encounters with what was to become, or were already the great artists of the 20th century. [...]
[...] For even artists who have succeeded in making an international career without the help of these dealers, it remains that after the death of the artists, they can still have a non-negligible social, popular, and pecuniary value to their works. It is therefore necessary to question the real status of these dealers, or even the nature of their skills. But also to question the status of those who make the rain and the good weather on the work of the artists. Are they impostors who came from nowhere? What life paths lead art enthusiasts to the profession of gallerists, and/or dealers? How does the art dealer make his choices? [...]
[...] An event will put Pierre Nahon on the right track in terms of collecting. He begins, in fact, during his adolescence, his collection of works of art with the purchase of a watercolor by Francis Picabia, the monetary value of which, although significant in the eyes of the adolescent, represents a substantial sum due to the boy's savings over several months. Finally, it is not less important in terms of the value of the object, the watercolor market, but especially that given to Francis Picabia. [...]
[...] The book in question is titled: A Dealer and His Artists 1973-1993, For the gallery. This essay by Pierre Nahon, both collector, gallerist and above all art dealer, was published by PLON editions. Written in the style of a bibliographic narrative, or even a diary, it retraces through anecdotes of life, and through his experience highlights the intrinsic links to the relationship between the artist and the dealer, and vice versa. This five-part work, written in parallel through his encounters, works and key artists, will show how the art dealer operates in the construction of the artist's career. [...]
[...] It will be the same for Pierre Nahon and the elaboration of his gallery in 1973 at Beaubourg. Visionary, he will have anticipated the phenomenal success of the new realists 10 years before the inauguration of his gallery by buying works that were abhorred by the public at the time, such as César's compressions, Arman's accumulations, IKB by Yves Klein, but also Jean Tinguely's mechanisms. Bought at the time as a mouthful of bread, they are today the 'stars' of any current exhibition, and are the subject of a colossal budget in the case of an acquisition first by a gallery, then in recognition by a museum in the case of a temporary or definitive exhibition. [...]
