Anyone with a high income can build an impressive art collection, but only noble minds can build an impressive book collection. So far.
This month, Gagosian launched a notice for those interested in building a rare book collection, led by its rare book specialist, Douglas Flamm, who has worked with rare books for 25 years and with the gallery for seven.
“Throughout my career, I’ve always worked to build collections, either from scratch as an entire library, or more organically over time, filling in the gaps,” Flamm told Artnet News. “We’re making it a more formal part of the business.”
For Flamm, much of the joy of dealing with rare books is in the hunt. The new review focuses on artists and movements from the 20th and 21st centuries, but is certainly not limited to that. A client is able to dictate the type of artists they are interested in, and Flamm will sniff out the right books accordingly. “It’s not related to the artists we represent. There’s a bit more freedom to work with the client who is happy to have more material on the artist they’re interested in,” he said. The board is currently open and taking on new clientele across the Gagosian shop website.
Perhaps part of this freedom comes from the fact that Larry Gagosian knows that the gallery’s finances are not tied to their publishing arm (although they have published over 600 titles, making Gagosian one of the largest art book publishers in the world). As acknowledged in Patrick Radden Keefe’s New Yorker profile by Larry Gagosian this week: “In financial terms, books are ‘a loser’… But they’re typically lavish, and artists and collectors love them.”
Flamm agreed, noting that “so many artists do things independently, so they’re not always on everyone’s main radar. So there is a sense of discovery. He added, “I have so many people coming to me with the wrong edit or in the wrong condition, and I really want to help them navigate it.”
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