Rogues Gallery/Philip Hook
Philip Hook was a director of Sotheby’s and has written an an engaging and informed account of art dealing over the last 500 years. It is both anecdotal and thematic. It is particularly interseting on the relationship between the art dealer and the collector but he also refers to the artist, museum, auction house critic, and art historian. The picture that emerges, as stated in the title, is that these art dealers sale close to the wind in an unregulated world. For example, he describes how the greatest art dealer of his day Joseph Duveen bribed Maurice Rothschild’s butler so that he knew whether he was suffering from constipation or not before presenting a new painting to him. More dishonestly art historian Bernard Berenson received a secret commission of 25% of profits from Duveen and other dealers for authenticating pictures. He even authenticated one picture as both a Titian and Georgio depending on the market value of either.
A question often posed in this book, is whether the legendary art dealers – Durand-Ruel, Vollard, Kahnweiler – created or profited from a new movement. The answer is probably both. Vollard for example bought all 32 canvsases of the young Edouard Manet recognising his talent but he did not understand Cubism as well as post-Impressionism just as Durand-Ruel only really understood the Impressionists and Kahnweiler Cubism but not Dadaism and Surrealism. Duveen maximised the declining wealth of old Europe where collections had gathered dust over centuries by marketing it to the new wealth of North America. He was not a connoisseur but a brilliant exploiter of markets. All of these dealers were in their different ways superb salesmen. Kahnweiler, who had the closest relationship of any dealer with Picasso, was extremely autocratic. He lost his business twice: the first time in Paris as he was a German in World War One and the second time in World War Two in Germany as a Jew.
There is a interesting chapter on Peter Wilson, the chairman of Sotheby’s, who re-branded the auction house from a depot for the deceased and debt ridden to a vibrant lively organistion at the epicentre of art dealing. Surprisingly ,though it did not happen on Wilson’s watch, he does not mention the cartel arrangement with Christies which resulted in a $45m fine and chairman Alfred Taubman receiving a 10 month sentence. Nor, though he is as interested in money as any art dealer, does he discuss the high charges to both buyer and seller that the auction hoses impose. Hook likes sayings and he might be mindful, of one a dealer told to me ‘with a dealer the price can only going down, with an auction up’. Another saying I like is “Pretty sells”.
Artists can be notoriously difficult. That is why dealer prefer to deal with dead ones. Ken Howard is not just a brilliant depicter of light but an ebullient and engaging man. I am sure his personality is one of the reasons for his success as everyone likes him and he does not suffer from the jealousy and pettiness that many artists do.
Hook also describes the great collector: Dr Alfred Barnes and Peggy Guggneheim who was also a dealer are featured. I liked the reply of Peggy Guggenheim when asked how many husbands she had ‘mine or others?’. Eccentricity and art dealing go hand in hand. One Felix Feneon was an active terrorist and bicycle aficionado as well as an accomplished dealer. Many had alternative career paths – Roy Miles started life as a hairdresser. The great American dealer Leo Costello whose dealing did straddle two periods – abstract and pop art – was once a tie salesman. Many were of course artists. Henri Matisse’s son Pierre was a dealer but the two did not get along. The father had a low opinion of art dealers, the son did not appreciate his wood cuts which were recently exhibited with enormous success and acclaim.
If I had one criticism to make that would be that the history does not extend to the present day. It would be interesting to have Hook’s review of such modern collectors as David Bowie or art dealer Leslie Waddington or how the Halcyon Gallery have created a market in the art work of musicians Ronnie Wood and Bob Dylan. The book closes with a cynical linguistic analysis of how art dealers have become curators, works are no longer acquired but sourced. This is informed but a review of the contemporary art market would consummate the study, e.g. the forgeries in the modern Russian market and elsewhere; the new big buyers , the Chinese; and finally Hook’s predictions to the future of art dealing in the Internet world.
