Larry Gagosian

Lawrence Gilbert "Larry" Gagosian (born April 19, 1945) is an American art dealer who owns the Gagosian Gallery chain of art galleries, with three locations in New York City (on Madison Avenue, West 24th St. and 21st St.), two locations in London (on Britannia and Davies Streets), one location in Los Angeles expanded in 2010 by architect Richard Meier (in Beverly Hills), one in Rome and one in Athens. In 2010, two more branch galleries were opened in Paris and Geneva. A Hong Kong gallery location opened in 2011. Working in concert with collectors including Douglas Cramer, Eli Broad and Keith Barish he developed a reputation for knowing how to push prices upwards as well as for staging museum quality exhibitions.

In 2011, the British magazine ArtReview placed Gagosian fourth in their annual poll of "most powerful person in the art world".

Among the artists and estates currently represented by Gagosian are Joseph George, Richard Artschwager, Cecily Brown, Chris Burden, Francesco Clemente, John Currin, Walter de Maria, Bob Dylan, Ellen Gallagher, Douglas Gordon, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Neil Jenney, Mike Kelley, Anselm Kiefer, Maya Lin, Vera Lutter, Anselm Reyle, Yayoi Kusama, Edward Ruscha, Jenny Saville, Richard Serra, David Smith, Philip Taaffe, Mark Tansey, Robert Therrien, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Richard Wright. He also represents the Alberto Giacometti estate in the United States.

Life and career

Gagosian was born in Los Angeles to Armenian parents. He got his start in business by selling posters near the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles. In the early 1980s he developed his business rapidly by exploiting the possibilities of reselling works of art by blue-chip modern and contemporary artists, earning the nickname "Go-Go" in the process. After establishing a New York gallery in the mid-1980s Gagosian began to work with a stable of super collectors including David Geffen, Charles Saatchi, David Ganek and Samuel Newhouse Jr. Bidding on behalf of Newhouse in 1988, Gagosian paid over $17 million dollars for "False Start" by Jasper Johns, a then-record price for a work by a living artist. That record was beaten in 2008, when Gagosian paid $23.5 million dollars at Sotheby's in November 2007 for Jeff Koons's "Hanging Heart" (an artist who happens to belong to the Gagosian gallery's stable).

It has been alleged that, in 1990, Gagosian and Peter M. Brant, formed the Contemporary Art Holding Corporation (CAHC) to buy 62 works of art, "All but four of these were sold immediately, earning $17m, on which $6.7m tax should have been paid."

In 2003, the US government took out a lawsuit against Gagosian and three others for $26.5 million in taxes.

In 2011, photographer Patrick Cariou prevailed against Gagosian, his gallery, and Richard Prince in a major lawsuit over copyright infringement.

In 2011 Gagosian announced the death of artist Richard Hamilton without asking permission of Hamilton's family, exploiting the death of the artist for promotional purposes. The gallery clamed to represent the artist which they did not and Mr Gagosian issued a personal statement implying a close personal relationship with the family which did not exist.

See Also

Gagosian Gallery

External links

• Gagosian Gallery
• Guardian: Larry Gagosian (05/2004)
• New York magazine: Larry Gagosian (05/2003)
• US dealer tops poll as art world's most powerful
• Larry Gagosian, Pulling Art Sales out of Thinning Air, The New York Times, 03/2009