Kenny Schachter Remembers Zaha Hadid
The 15th Biennial of Architecture in Venice opened last week with an impromptu retrospective of architect Zaha Hadid, hastily organized since Hadid's untimely death a few short months ago on March 31. What was meant to be an exploration of the research methodologies...
Kenny Schachter Deals in Difficult Times at New York Auction Week, Part II
Loic Gouzer and Amy Cappellazzo wrestle. Photo collage by Kenny Schachter Captain Cappellazzo, the Auctions and the Onward March of May Markets like psyches have their natural, cyclical biorhythms; no one is happy 100 percent of the time and nothing goes up forever...
Kenny Schachter Deals in Difficult Times at Frieze New York and the Auctions, Part I
Christie's Global President and auctioneer Jussi Pylkkanen gestures during the bidding of Pablo Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O), which sold for nearly $179.4 million, making it set a world record for artwork at auction during a sale at Christie's Rockefeller...
Kenny Schachter on the Old Guard, the Upstarts, and Getting Naked at Art Cologne
Stand: Ropac, Halle 11.2 Tony Matelli at Marlborough. Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Cologne If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium was a rollicking 1969 comedy (with Suzanne Pleshette), featuring a busload of Americans touring...
Kenny Schachter on Branded Chaos at Art Basel in Hong Kong
Welcome to Hong Kong, where the bills are stamped with HSBC—one of three commercial banks authorized by the government to issue currency (how annoying is that?)—which is hosting the latest Basel iteration. Soon there will only be Basel fairs, along with Art Central,...
Kenny Schachter Casts Dark Shadows Over Armory Week
Collage by Kenny Schachter. Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter Collage by Kenny Schachter. Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter Dark Shadows “Dark Shadows” was an epic American gothic soap opera involving a bloodsucking vampire. Though it aired weekdays from...
Kenny Schachter on Why Gstaad Is the Perfect Context for James Franco’s ‘Resort Paintings’
Collage by Kenny Schachter. Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter James Franco, Bird 13 (2015). Image: Courtesy of Siegfried Contemporary Hello Magazine, Art World Edition After my recent article on the art and art scene in St. Moritz, returning with a piece on...
Kenny Schachter on London’s February Auctions: The Sky Is Falling—Or Is It?
Collage by Kenny Schachter. Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter The Sky is Falling—Or Is it? Breaking news: stocks take a historic plunge amid a global rout and oil slumps to a 13-year low. Even more shocking is that the art market squeaked by during the latest spate...
Dawn of the Dead
Andy Warhol “Abstract Painting”, circa 1982. Courtesy Anton Kern Gallery, New York. © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts The Foreground Though it feels like it’s been forever upon us, Zombie Formalism is a recent breed of mostly male, mostly generic...
Kenny Schachter on Joe Bradley’s Unlikely Rise to Art World Eminence
Joe Bradley, Untitled (2015). Image: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter Though neither of us could recall the exact circumstances under which we met (endemic to the times), I’ve known Joe Bradley since roughly 2001. I was immediately taken by the artist...
Kenny Schachter on the Debut of Vito Schnabel’s Gallery in St. Moritz
At 1,822 meters in altitude, St. Moritz, in the Swiss Engadine Valley, is among the highest peaks in the Alps and a sporting mecca, having hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1928 and 1948, one of only three cities to do so twice (besides Innsbruck, Austria and...
Kenny Schachter on Peggy Guggenheim’s one-woman fight to champion artists
What’s most magical (and it’s nothing less) about Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict is discovering Guggenheim's voice through her voice. During the making of this documentary about the socialite, bohemian and art collector (1898-1979), 100 hours of tapes were unearthed....
Kenny Schachter on Why Art Basel in Miami Beach Is the End of Art History
Covering Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception 14 years ago I frankly didn’t think there would be any stories left to tell, yet there’s inevitable change and flux afoot though not entirely for the better. Miami is one of the few, if not only, places the art...
Kenny Schachter Gives the Dirty Details Behind the Big New York Auctions
Jim Shaw, Dream Sculpture (2006), Image: Courtesy of Phillips I covered the fall New York art auctions—focusing more than usual on the art itself for a change—for another art publication, and the editors there knew full well in advance that my writing voice verges...
The sky is falling on the art market, or is it?
In last week’s New York auctions of Impressionist and Contemporary art, $2.3bn was transacted in two weeks and though less than the last spate in May ($2.7bn, a record high), nevertheless it was above the $2.1bn presale estimate. Any diminution in value this season...
Vice in the Art World: Kenny Schachter’s Adventures at the London Auctions and FIAC
Postwar and contemporary art auction at Christies. Image courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Auctions Vice Media dropped into my house in London a short while ago to shoot for an upcoming series on the art market that they’re in the midst of producing for HBO; I was...
Kenny Schachter On the Good, the Bad, and the (Very) Ugly of London Frieze Week—Part I
Kamel Menour at his booth at Frieze London 2015, with works by Camille Henrot. Photo: Linda Nylind. Courtesy of Linda Nylind/FriezePhilip Roth with portrait by Kitaj. Image: Courtesy of Stephen Ongpin Gallery The Good, Bad and (Very) Ugly of Frieze Week Picking up...
Kenny Schachter Lays Bare the New Auction Season—Who’s Up, Who’s Down
I know this sounds like a set-up for a Richard Prince joke painting but it’s true: I went to a shrink to help cope with anxiety issues last week and when he found out what I did for a living, all he could ask about over the course of the next hour was art market...
UNLIMITED AMMO: THE SALE AND AFTERMATH
Nothing Captures the Essence of a City and Its Citizens Like the Things That They Are Enticed to Buy, Fear, Respect, or Be Amused By. We Consider the Hook, the Artifice, the Sale and Aftermath of a London & Los Angeles Driveby, All Through the Lens of Robert Landau....
Killed Deals, Crashing Markets, Flailing Flippers: What Does It All Mean? Kenny Schachter on the Summer Past and the Season Ahead
Leonardo DiCaprio and Kenny Schachter in the late 1990s. MARCO BRAMBILLA Could we be in for a rough ride this fall in the high-flying, gravity-defying top end of the contemporary art market? That was the billion-dollar question on the lips of the summer art crowd from...
The great debate: why galleries could take even more money from their artists
Magnus ReschA Twitterstorm erupted in the US last month over the findings of survey of 8,000 art galleries based in the US, UK and Germany. Cultural researcher and Larry’s List co-founder Magnus Resch found (no surprise here for those in the know) that running an art...
Kenny Schachter On What’s Really Going on at the Top End of the Art Market
Andy Warhol, One Dollar Bill (Silver Certificate), (1962). Courtesy Sotheby's.Sotheby’s July 1 Contemporary Evening sale. Photo: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The school year for the international art world stretches from Frieze London in early October to the London...
Kenny Schachter On Why Art Basel Left Him Mentally and Physically Damaged
Eric Fischl. Photo: Kenny Schachter. Art Basel 2015 was a story both thrilling and catastrophic, ending with a real bang. Literally. But before I get to that, and the fair, I made a quick stop in Zurich prior to going up to Basel to see some art and art people....
Kenny Schachter On How Kenny Schachter on How Art Dealing Has Become Joyless, Boring, and Mean-Spirited
Kenny Schachter as the art court jester. Image: via Kenny Schachter. I began writing diaristic pieces for artnet.com more than 20 years ago, so it’s only fitting that I return to roost in 2015, where it all began. Only now the chronicle is beginning to...
Kenny Schachter’s New York Auctions Diary: Big-Game Hunters, Flipping In-N-Outers, and Passionistas
Photo: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter The megalith known as today’s art market has more personalities than noted 1970s schizophrenic Sybil. A recap of the hyped-up, rocket-fueled auction sales this past week might be better served in the form of an animated cartoon, but...
Polke Dance: In New York (Part 2)
Kenny Schachter wearing Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s Phantom (2015) at the New Museum. On my second day in New York the snow was so heavy that I feared I would be forced to spend a terrifying night at the museum with “Surround Audience,” the New Museum’s just-opened...
A Truffle Pig Heads for the Piers: In New York (Part 1)
People look at works of art displayed during the The Armory Show in New York (photo: dpa) There should be a rule in art journalism: always lead with Damien Hirst. Hirst is having a fuck-all, wildly ambitious (over-produced?) show to coincide with his...
Polke Dance: Kenny Schachter in New York (Part 2)
Schachter wearing Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s Phantom (2015) at the New Museum. The first part of Shachter’s Armory Week report is here. On my second day in New York the snow was so heavy that I feared I would be forced to spend a terrifying night at the...
A Truffle Pig Heads for the Piers: Kenny Schachter in New York (Part 1)
Razvan Boar, Ass Smile, 2015. There should be a rule in art journalism: always lead with Damien Hirst. Hirst is having a fuck-all, wildly ambitious (over-produced?) show to coincide with his soon-to-be-released tell-all book, written with help from James Fox, who...
L.A. Wildcatters, a Davos Doomsayer, the London Auctions, and the Future of the Art Market
Simcho Che I am convinced that the art market is in an extended bull run the likes of which have never been seen before. Sure, nothing goes up forever, but we are experiencing fundamentals fostering the fever to buy more art at ever escalating prices. A qualified...
‘I Coulda Been a Contender’: Kenny Schachter on L.A. Wildcatters, a Davos Doomsayer, the London Auctions, and the Future of the Art Market
Simcho Che. I am convinced that the art market is in an extended bull run the likes of which have never been seen before. Sure, nothing goes up forever, but we are experiencing fundamentals fostering the fever to buy more art at ever escalating prices. A qualified...
Excerpt for an upcoming book
It’s Snowing Art Advisers: Best Of 2014, And Predictions For 2015
The Best of London in 2014 Let us put aside the oodles of money, the stupefying levels of celebrity worship and the trend of early retiring art brats and focus on the good stuff: the art, the artists, the museums, and the galleries, like it’s 1999 instead of 2014....
It’s Snowing Art Advisers: Kenny Schachter’s Best of 2014, and Predictions for 2015
Installation view of Korakrit Arunanondchai, 2557 (Painting with history in a room filled with men with funny names 2), 2014, at Carlos Ishikawa. The Best of London in 2014 Let us put aside the oodles of money, the stupefying levels of celebrity worship and the trend...
“You Definitely Need To See This Work In Person”: At Art Basel in Miami Beach
© Art Basel For weeks I’d been telling myself, and anyone who would listen, that I was going to skip the 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. It had been a busy fall. October’s Frieze London fair is at least on my home turf, but then there were whirlwind trips to...
‘You Definitely Need to See This Work in Person’: Kenny Schachter at Art Basel in Miami Beach
Miami Beach.For weeks I’d been telling myself, and anyone who would listen, that I was going to skip the 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. It had been a busy fall. October’s Frieze London fair is at least on my home turf, but then there were whirlwind trips to...
Meet London’s Subway Gallerist
Subway Gallery (Foto: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter) I paid a visit to the Subway Gallery situated in a 1960s-era kiosk under London’s Marylebone Flyover, in a subway station run by a vintage Westernwear-wearing cowboy, artist, and gallerist personifying British...
Meet London’s Subway Gallerist
Exterior of the Subway Gallery, London. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Photo: Courtesy of Kenny Schachter I paid a visit to gallery situated in a 1960s-era kiosk under London’s Marylebone Flyover, in a subway station run by a vintage Westernwear-wearing cowboy, artist,...
How Awkward Is It to Sit Next to Larry Gagosian at David Tang’s Birthday Party?
The entrance to the Dorchester Hotel in London (photo: dpa) I was a last-minute stand-in for an ill guest at David Tang’s 60th-birthday party on Tuesday at the Dorchester Hotel, where he is also the proprietor of the restaurant China Tang. It was a celebrity...
How Awkward Is It to Sit Next to Larry Gagosian at David Tang’s Birthday Party?
David Tang. Photo: KGC-42/? Corbis. All Rights Reserved. I was a last-minute stand-in for an ill guest at David Tang’s 60th-birthday party on Tuesday at the Dorchester Hotel, where he is also the proprietor of the restaurant China Tang. It was a celebrity smorgasbord...
Of Spec-u-lectors and Drug-Dealing Art Advisers: At the New York Auctions
An elevator painted like the 1963 portrait 'Liz #3 (Early Colored Liz)' by US artist Andy Warhol during a preview of a contemporary art auction at Sotheby's in New York (photo: dpa) In The Graduate, the hapless protagonist is given career advice in a single word:...
Of Spec-u-lectors and Drug-Dealing Art Advisers: Kenny Schachter at the New York Auctions
Jeff Koons’s Balloon Monkey (Orange) (2006–13) outside Christie’s last week. In The Graduate, the hapless protagonist is given career advice in a single word: Plastics. Today, that word would be art. Just as in the ’60s there appeared to be a great future in plastics,...
French Connections: Kenny Schachter at FIAC
FIAC. LILI ROSBOCH FOR ARTNEWSOn the heels of the Frieze art fair in London, I was off to FIAC in Paris, a breather before November’s monster modern and contemporary art auctions in New York. FIAC, which has been spiffed up over the past decade and returned to its...
French Connections: At FIAC in Paris
(c) Marc Domage On the heels of the Frieze art fair in London, I was off to FIAC in Paris, a breather before November’s monster modern and contemporary art auctions in New York. FIAC, which has been spiffed up over the past decade and returned to its exquisite digs in...
Frieze London: Oktoberfest in a Cutthroat Art World
Photo: Courtesy Frieze London It must have been an omen of sorts. When I arrived at the extravagant new London headquarters of Phillips auction house last week to preview the house’s inaugural sale there, I was greeted by the slapstick sight of a smartly dressed...
Oktoberfest in a Cutthroat Art World: Kenny Schachter at Frieze London
An untitled work by Sigmar Polke from 1998, which sold for £1.06 million ($1.69 million) on a £600,000–£800,000 ($955,000–$1.27 million) estimate at Christie’s London. It must have been an omen of sorts. When I arrived at the extravagant new London headquarters of...
Collectors v. Dealers: Mutual Antagonism, Growing Mistrust
Collector, curator and art world gadfly, Kenny Schachter just published on his Facebook page a telling email exchange between a young collector and a dealer. Schachter is put off by the dealer’s arrogance. The title of the post could have been: “Dealer to Collector:...
From Artaud to Artnet: Philippe Vandenberg’s Beautiful Misery
‘Art is a wound turned into light’, as Braque said.‘The image I create is an attempt to come and fill the lack inherent in life.’ [1] Vandenberg’s kamikaze is a more beneficent art world suicide bomber packed with explosives embedded in canvas, densely laden with...
Flaming Wades on Wheels: Kenny Schachter at the Le Mans Classic
The Le Mans Classic car race, on July 5, 2014 in Le Mans, France. (Courtesy of Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images) As a coda to the art season, I thought I’d take a palette-cleansing trip to the biennial Le Mans Classic to check out the races and pick up an...
The Naked Truth About Basel: A Diary
‘Trademarks’ (1970) by Acconci. (Courtesy the artist and Greider Contemporary) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor...
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Art World: A Mea Culpa
‘Untitled’ (2013) by Israel Lund, which sold for $125,000 on a $30,000–$40,000 estimate at Christie’s last month. (Courtesy Christie’s) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and...
Play-by-Play, Day-by-Day: A Recap of Frieze and the Auctions
Xin Li. (Patrick McMullan Company) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The...
Won’t See You Tuesday…
Unimaginable in today’s art market: buyerless artworks by stars Alex Israel, Wade Guyton and Richard Prince, laid to rest. (Rendering by Kenny Schachter). Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect...
Art & Money: The Great Divide
A delicious Lucien Smith pie painting. Photo: Salon 94. Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition...
Day Tripper: Kenny Schachter at the London Day Sales
An untitled Kippenberger from 1996 that sold for about $703,000 at Christie’s. (Courtesy Christie’s) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and...
Avoidance Behavior: Gallery-Going in St. Moritz
Andy Warhol’s eye-popping 1986 self-portrait, at Caratsch.Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition...
Further Adventures in the Wade Guyton Market
‘Untitled’ (2006) by Guyton.Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The opinions...
X-Rated: On the Hunt for a Guyton, Wary of the Self-Gazump
An untitled painting by Wade Guyton in ‘Empire State’ at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome in April. (Photo by Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha...
What Goes Up Must Go Up: A Sneak Peek at Kenny Schachter’s Fall 2013 Gloom, Boom & Doom Report
A Kandinsky being handled at Christie’s London last week. (Photo by Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he...
Nothing But Time, Paul Thek Revisited, 1964-1987
Kenny Schachter is a private dealer and curator living in London. His latest curatorial project is a show of Paul Thek’s work at Pace Gallery that will be on view from September 25th to November 9th at 6 Burlington Gardens. The show, Nothing But Time, Paul Thek...
Ecstasy at Kunsthaus Zurich
Installation view of ‘The Hubert Looser Collection.’ (Photo by Lena Huber/© Kunsthaus Zürich) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is...
Jay-Z, Baby
Pace is the place for art’s celebrity arms race Turning up today is Jay-Z and band with plenty of fawning art stars in hand like self absorbed kids playing in sand No matter your chops nothing will stop the gallery from showing you the art world from blowing you There...
Kenny Schachter’s Basel Diary, Part 2
Lucio Fontana canvases at Helly Nahmad's Art Basel booth. No more disclaimers this time around, let’s just jump back into the thick of it, starting—where else?—with more dinners and parties, of course. During the relentless march of fairs and biennials, the art world...
It’s Groundhog Day at Art Basel 2013
The scene at Art Basel 2013. Forget about you, dear reader, how will I manage not to bore myself to tears with this? Art Basel feels like round 87 in a long, drawn-out boxing match and I shudder to think that I have to put fingers to the keyboard so quickly after the...
A Dealer’s Diary of Frieze Week NYC
The crowd at Jeff Koons's opening at David Zwirner Gallery The art fairs that have proliferated in every town and time zone the world over have come to take up such a signficant portion of how I view art that remembering my bearings at one—am I in Brussels this week,...
An Auction House Morality Tale
Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ. The opinions expressed here are his own. Some...
You Can Ring My Bell: Kenny Schachter at an Art World Quiz Show
Oliver Barker, Quizmaster. (Photo by Lucy Ward) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ...
Off to the Turtle Races: Kenny Schachter, Our Man in Maastricht.
Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek, and he is a contributor to the British edition of GQ and Swiss money manager Marc...
Art Cologne – A Premature Call
In 2009 I wrote about the death of the Cologne Art Fair, having served on the selection committee for 2 years prior, but it was a premature call. It’s still a great place to see art without the usual European and American art mongering suspects breathing down your...
Status Anxiety: Kenny Schachter Dives into Facebook’s Art-World Trenches
Kenny Schachter’s Facebook profile image. In the age of hunched-over iPhone overachievers, Facebook has birthed a hybrid form of participatory art chat, a free-for-all dialogue sometimes charged with a level of meanness that would do an HBO series proud. These heated...
Miami Art Week 2012
A rainbow ring in the clouds over Art Basel Miami BeachNews reports leading up to the 10th iteration of Art Basel Miami Beach were more concerned with where to find the parties rather than the art. But the insurance value of the art clocked in at $2.5 billion, so...
A Trip to Beijing With Zaha Hadid
Patrik Schumacher, director of Hadid Architects, and Hadid. (Courtesy Kenny Schachter) Kenny Schachter is a London-based art dealer, curator and writer. His writing has appeared in books on architect Zaha Hadid, and artists Vito Acconci and Paul Thek. He is also...
Toxic Shock: Kenny Schachter on the Final Two Episodes of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Amy. (Courtesy Bravo) Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. Last time around we set him up for a GChat with a real, live Gallery Girl, and thought...
The Adventures of Amy: Kenny Schachter (the Hans Ulrich Obrist of Awful) GChats With a Real Live Gallery Girl
Amy. (Courtesy Bravo) Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. With Episode Five, we detected that he was, in his way, warming to the show a bit,...
Free at Last: Kenny Schachter on Episode Five of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Two of the Gallery Girls meet the Sucklord. (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. Episode four had him mad as hell, and all but...
Playing to the gallery
Tour de force: Richard Serra’s huge ‘Promenade’ is erected in Paris’ Grand Palais as part of the annual Monumenta exhibition, 2008. Correct me if I’m wrong, but an artist has not, as of yet, actually cured cancer – though many certainly behave as though they have. I...
I’m (Especially) Mad as Hell: Kenny Schachter on Episode Four of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
Terence Koh and Holzer. (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. His most recent recap, of episode three, had us convinced that the...
The Gold Standard: FERRARI AND PICASSO
We are facing an unprecedented confluence of international macroeconomic conditions that have collided with the unintended result of pushing prices for rare and desirable collectibles far into the stratosphere. Never before have these forces raged with such ferocity...
Gallery Gossip Girls: Kenny Schachter on the First Two Episodes of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
(Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the new Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in on the show’s first two episodes. Stay tuned for further musings on the program from Mr....
Logical Volume Identifier: Kenny Schachter on Episode Three of Bravo’s ‘Gallery Girls’
‘Gallery Girls.’ (Courtesy Bravo)Seeking a professional opinion on the Bravo reality series Gallery Girls, we asked the London-based art dealer, curator and writer Kenny Schachter to weigh in. After his recap of the first two episodes, we weren’t entirely certain he...
A Streetcar Named Desire
Laptop on desk, photo of the family, Carrera RS (911 and 964 variety), 930 Turbo…Yup, just your normal everyday office. Kenny Schachter’s working environment is a shrine to Porsches and modern art.My car obsession, bordering on a fetish, sprang from being an alienated...
Kenny Schachter’s ART Basel Wrap-Up
Got off to an early start this year prior to the onset of the ART Basel fair(s), at 5am, and headed off to Zurich for a jump on the proceedings. I received more .pdf’s offering pre-fair fare than on any prior occasion, which can’t foreshadow a good thing for sellers...
Crazy Sexy Cool
Alia Al-Senussi It is no secret that young people are generally attracted to things that are shiny, new and edgy. Contemporary art is no exception to this rule. There is a new generation of art enthusiasts breaking through from the Western world but also from the...
Say Yes to the Art Boom
Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1992. $ 1,248,000. Sotheby’s New York, May 10, 2005. $14,082,500. Sotheby’s New York, Nov. 9, 2011. Why do so many art people seem to be hoping for an art crash? Why can’t they accept that in these uncertain, unstable times art has...
Kenny Schachter Reports from ART Hong Kong
I made my first trip to Hong Kong to visit ART HK 12, the 5th iteration of the fair, recently majority purchased by ART Basel. Now there is Basel Miami, Basel Switzerland, and Basel Hong Kong, a concept similar to that of Disney theme parks in Los Angeles, Orlando,...
Fair fatigue at Art Cologne 2012
A beauty shot of Kolnmesse, site of Art Cologne 2012 In 2008 I wrote an obituary for the Cologne Art Fair, and guess what? It’s still dead. Call it fair overload. Markets are driven by a degree of psychology: when stocks go down, the good, bad and ugly all get dragged...
Celebrity Protection Ltd.
In 1974, art dealer Tony Shafrazi spray-painted Picasso's Guernica, which hung in the Museum of Modern Art, with the words "KILL LIES ALL" (probably a typo in the heat of the moment). It is believed that Shafrazi was protesting something or other and as a result,...
My other car… is a coffin
This is about death, cars, outsider art, and the power of contemporary art to suck it all in and spit it all out. I took my wife and four boys on a world-wind trip to Ghana to visit the Joseph Ashong (aka “Paa Joe”) Workshop outside Accra, a folk artist specialising...
Article for an Upcoming Conde Nast Car Publication
We are facing an unprecedented confluence of international macroeconomic conditions that have collided with the unintended result of pushing prices for rare and desirable collectibles far into the stratosphere. Never before have these forces raged with such ferocity...
Requiem for an Engine
VMAX JUNE 2 Why are wheels being soda blasted ? They are chromed , no cost for refurbing wheels ? That alone could add thousand or so ? What's the guarantee offered ? Dyno sheet from engine ? VMAX JUNE 2 Charged twice for dyno £880 No piston or liners listed ? ...