Don’t know the rules

In the early 1970s Larry Gagosian had a stall selling posters outside UCLA

By 1976 he moved from his stall into an old restaurant on the westside of LA

Upgrading from posters to prints as he did

By the end of the 70s Gagosian had opened two new spaces

One in Hollywood and the other in New York 


Expanding beyond prints to working with emerging contemporary artists


In his first ten years as a contemporary art dealer, he did well 


Linking up with prominent collectors 


And firmly establishing himself in the scene

But it wasn’t until the late 80s that he truly changed the game

Up until this point the worlds of museums and galleries were very distinct


Museums were highly academic, grand and nothing was for sale

Galleries were commercial, stylish and everything was for sale

Gallerists agreed you couldn’t show museum work in a gallery

Why would you, it’s not for sale…

And it would piss of the museums they thought

So they stuck to that rule of keeping things separate

But Gagosian didn’t feel like an artworld insider beholden to the rules

So he supersized his gallery space

Made it grand and museum like

And borrowed some of the most famous and significant pieces of art from museums

Showing it alongside his contemporary artists

Blurring the two lines between these two worlds

It was a was genius strategy for two reasons

The museum work gave the contemporary art a gravitas and significance

Benefiting his artists like Cy Twombly hugely

And the contemporary pieces encouraged a reappraisal of the older work and artists

Creating a new market for the later works of Picasso and de Kooning

Which Gagosian was then first in line to capitalise on.

Gagosian isn’t everyone’s cup of tea

But he has changed the art world completely

Becoming probably the most successful dealer of all time in the process

A big part of his success came from his refusal to acknowledge one of the rules

And mix the previously separate