Without Heirs, Larry Gagosian Finally Plans for Succession

It’s exhausting to think about an artwork world with out Larry Gagosian in it. The mega supplier, who began within the Nineteen Seventies by promoting posters on the road, represents a few of the most vital artists of our time (Cy Twombly, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Prince), however has additionally come to represent — and set the tone — for a horny gallery scene of museum-quality exhibits, glamorous exhibition openings and excessive costs.

Whereas privately held, his firm’s income is broadly estimated at about $1 billion. As one collector put it, there are two individuals within the artwork world who require solely a primary identify: Larry and Andy (as in Warhol).

However individuals within the artwork world have lengthy questioned how Gagosian’s empire will survive with out Gagosian himself. Each one among his 19 galleries in seven international locations bears the stamp of his shrewd style in artwork, his spare, elegant aesthetic. Gagosian is a powerful — considerably opaque and infrequently prickly — character with clear opinions. And he turns 78 in 2023, elevating the query of a succession plan.

Now Gagosian lastly appears to be forming one. Within the final yr, he assembled a board of administrators to assist him assume by the way forward for his enterprise. Along with seven of his key associates and Gagosian himself, the board options 12 outdoors members from numerous industries, all of them collectors. These embrace Evan Spiegel, the chief govt of Snap; the artist Jenny Saville; the financier J. Tomilson Hill, who’s the chairman of the Guggenheim Museum; Glenn Fuhrman, a financier who based the Flag Artwork Basis; and Delphine Arnault, the manager vice chairman of Louis Vuitton who additionally serves on the manager committee of its father or mother firm LVMH, run by her father Bernard Arnault, one of many world’s high collectors.

“I don’t know who will take over for me,” Gagosian mentioned in an interview. “It’s tough to have a legacy enterprise, notably when there’s no household. However we’ve a particularly profitable enterprise and we wish to see it dwell past me. This appeared like a step in that path. I’m not considering stepping down or slowing down. It creates a mannequin for the gallery to maneuver ahead and it additionally enriches it proper now.”

Lately, speak has intensified round what a Gagosian Gallery enterprise will look post-Gagosian. His friends within the area — David Zwirner, Hauser & Wirth, Tempo, Acquavella, Nahmad — are household companies, with a youthful technology who may doubtlessly succeed the founders.

Reviews have additionally just lately appeared in artwork publications, saying that Gagosian was on the market or contemplating an funding from LVMH or the Arnault household’s holding firm.

Gagosian firmly denied these studies. “There isn’t any dialog occurring and I’ve no plans to promote the corporate,” he mentioned. “I personal 100% of it, I’ve no buyers and my enterprise shouldn’t be on the market. I like to manage what I’ve received.” On the identical time, he mentioned no firm would responsibly exclude such a risk down the road. “If any person swooped in and wished to make a significant funding,” he mentioned, “I believe anyone would take heed to that.”

As to how the brand new board will have an effect on his concrete plans of succession, Gagosian mentioned it’s going to inform how he approaches the longer term. Exactly what type that future takes stays unsure. Gagosian has a number of high-ranking deputies who assist him run issues already. None of his executives have emerged as a transparent successor, though the veteran artwork supplier Andrew Fabricant, 67, whom Gagosian employed in 2018, now performs a number one function. (Gagosian referred to as him “an incredible strategic thinker.”)

Gagosian mentioned he has assembled the board as a type of mind belief, with no particular mandate or finish sport, besides to contemplate questions comparable to “What are you able to say about our enterprise and extra broadly the artwork market?” and “How will we transfer ahead as a enterprise? What are the challenges, what are the alternatives?”

Throughout the early locked-down months of the coronavirus pandemic, Gagosian mentioned he did some critical fascinated by the longtime way forward for his enterprise and how one can let go somewhat extra — though he added that he continues to work as exhausting as he’s ever labored.

Getting comfy with delegating and dealing extra collectively has been an acquired talent. “I resisted as a result of perhaps I’m somewhat extra of a lone wolf — I’m a really entrepreneurial man, I’m unbiased in my considering,” Gagosian mentioned. “However over the previous few years it has given me extra time to work on issues I’m notably curious about. I’m fairly happy to see how effectively the gallery capabilities. It’s taken a whole lot of stuff off my desk and given me time to work extra conceptually and to spend extra time with artists. It freed me up. I can’t think about going again to the way in which it was earlier than.”

Saville mentioned she was completely happy to function the “artist’s voice” on the board.

“It’s very a lot about discovering alternatives for artists, brainstorming about the place artwork is transferring,” she mentioned. “I don’t know if different galleries have outlived their determine. The concept is to create one thing which supplies the gallery a whole lot of longevity, with the start of a form so it may possibly dwell past Larry.”

The trustees, who’re compensated, are anticipated to serve three-year phrases, at which level they may rotate off until Gagosian asks them to remain on. The board — which is able to meet twice yearly — had its first assembly final Might and the second final week.

“It was a technique to attain out to individuals in different areas, individuals who had been insiders and individuals who had been coming from a distinct perspective, and simply type of broaden the mind pool on the gallery,” Gagosian mentioned. “It appeared like an incredible group of those who I’m comfy with, that I have already got friendships and relationships with. On the final assembly, we needed to name it after about three and a half hours — individuals had been nonetheless desirous to contribute extra. From my perspective, it’s been very enriching.”

At the newest board assembly, the members mentioned what artists actually need in a gallery, “what’s an artist searching for?” Hill mentioned. “What’s a Stanley Whitney searching for or a Rick Lowe or a Jordan Wolfson — why would they go to Gagosian versus different galleries?”

The extra outdoors board members — all of them collectors — embrace the screenwriter and director Sofia Coppola and Dasha Zhukova Niarchos, an entrepreneur and investor.

“There isn’t any query in my thoughts that when Larry is not, Gagosian Gallery will proceed,” Hill mentioned.

On the identical time, the educated, hands-on “Larry” who Hill described working with during the last a few years stays tough to duplicate.

“Within the ’80s, I might go to his gallery as a result of I’d at all times be taught one thing,” Hill mentioned. “And within the ’90s, I noticed issues I couldn’t imagine I used to be seeing. My first publicity to Rubens oil sketches was a present Larry did of Rubens oil sketches.

“I purchased my first Francis Bacon from him,” Hill continued, including that he additionally purchased his first Picasso, a portray of Picasso’s lover Marie-Thérèse, from Gagosian.

“I’d seen it within the retrospective of portraiture on the Museum of Trendy Artwork,” he added. “It turned out it was owned by the actor Steve Martin. Steve, who had an incredible relationship with Larry, mentioned ‘Larry, if you could find a purchaser for this over the following week, I’ll promote it.’ That’s Larry.”