Gallery owner larry gagosian on the art world's -blood sport-

Ready to finally go after that Picasso of your dreams? Chances are you might encounter the name Gagosian. Larry Gagosian, a legendary American art dealer. He's talking with Anthony Mason. On any night, he can have art openings in Paris, in London, or at his flagship gallery in New York. That's the painting that the title of the show comes from. Yeah. With 18 galleries around the globe. He's a great curator and a great artist. Larry Gagosian has more exhibition space than most museums. His annual revenues are estimated at over a billion dollars, which, as The New Yorker put it, may make Gagosian the biggest art dealer in the history of the world. The American Dream, Warhol's Sublime, Marilyn Monroe. In 2022, when Andy Warhol's Shot Sage Blue Marilyn set an auction record for a 20th century artist at Christie's, the winning bidder was Larry Gagosian. $150 million. That must have been a crazy moment. When you're bidding at that level, it's just your adrenaline, and it's very exciting. The final price with fees, $195 million. It's a brutal business. It's a blood sport. What do you love about this most? I love the challenge. I love winning. Gagosian represents more than 100 artists and shows the work of Picasso, Warhol, and de Kooning. His clients include billionaire mega collectors like New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, music mogul David Geffen, and cosmetics heir Leonard Lauder. That's why New York is such a great city for an art dealer, because you have all these super competitive, rich guys trying to, you know, in a certain way outdo each other. You know, I got one. Oh, I got a better one. Gagosian, who grew up in an Armenian family in L.A., never had any formal art training. In the 70s, he was working as a parking attendant. Then I saw somebody selling posters. Literally on the street. What made you want to do what he was doing? I saw that, and I said, geez, I could do that. And so I bought basically the same posters, and I'd literally pay a dollar apiece and then put a little aluminum frame on them and put them on a pegboard and try to get as close to 20 bucks as I could, which is a pretty good profit margin. He built it into a business and started having shows. In 1981, a young New York artist caught his eye, Jean-Michel Basquiat. You bought, what, three paintings on the spot? That's right. You know what you're talking about. I bought three paintings on the spot and sadly sold them all. I wish I still owned them. He'd give Basquiat his first West Coast exhibition. That show kind of put your gallery on the map. It was a big deal in L.A. We did the show, and it was, like, mobbed. The buzz was just unbelievable. I'd never experienced anything like that in my gallery. But Gagosian knew New York was the center of the art world, and in 1985, he relocated. How were you received in the New York art world? They didn't like me. I guess they thought I was going to cause some trouble. Well, you kind of did. People kind of slowed me down. I'd rather not go into that litany, but I was roughed up quite a bit by competitors, I think very unfairly. They gave you a nickname. Gogo? Yeah. When I was a kid, my friends had a hard time pronouncing my name, Gagosian, and that's really when it started. But then it became, people associated it with something else. But Gagosian made an important ally, the esteemed dealer Leo Castelli. On a walk together one day, Castelli stopped a nondescript man in the street. So I said, well, who is that? He said, well, that's Cy Newhouse, and I'll never forget his very words, he can buy anything. Newhouse, who owned the Condé Nast magazine empire, would become Gagosian's first big client. At Sotheby's 1988 auction of Jasper Johns' painting False Start, they sat side by side. He didn't want to be seen bidding, so he would literally nudge me when he wanted to bid. And I bid, and I think it was around $17 million. Yes. And he got the painting. Yeah. It was a record for a living artist at the time. It was, you know, like jaw-dropping. That price seems almost quaint today. Do you think there's a billion-dollar painting out there? Maybe. I don't see why not. Young artists, if they're really talented, can sell for a million dollars. I asked Gagosian about the comments of one of his former rivals, Arnie Glimcher of Pace Gallery. Five years ago, he said, this market has nothing to do with art. It's all about how fast one can make money. You know, there's a certain truth to what he's saying, but I don't think it's just about money at all. I don't think, if people didn't love art, you know, I think they wouldn't buy it at that level. I don't think it's just an asset class. And it's not just about money. It's just gotten more expensive to buy really great art. Do you think in any way it distances ordinary people from loving art? No. I think it actually makes art seem more interesting. Wow, somebody spent X amount of money for a painting? Wow, that's fascinating. Gagosian, who's had some high-profile romances, is single and has no children. He's still energized by the hustle. I guess to a degree, I thrive on it. It gives you something to go for. Why do you thrive on it? Because I'm tenacious and because I like to win. What's the win for you? The win is to keep it going. The win is to survive at the top. There's no real finish line. But there is, of course. Gagosian turns 80 in April, and the man who's been called the closest thing the art world has to a Caesar still has no plans of succession for his empire. Can there be a Gagosian without Gagosian? I don't know. That's the question. I don't want to think it's an impossibility. I think it's a serious challenge, but I'm not ready to pass the reins. I enjoy it too much. Are you ever going to be, do you think? No. It kind of means you're never at rest. There's no time to rest, really. It's overrated.