Marc Spiegler Got It All Wrong
Hyperallergic published an opinion piece criticizing former Art Basel global director Marc Spiegler’s New York Times guest essay, “Art Galleries Are Not Okay,” arguing that it frames the gallery crisis through market priorities rather than the needs of artists. The author contends that Spiegler, who led Art Basel from 2012 to 2022, helped build a profit-driven system that encouraged galleries to act like multinational corporations and then writes about its instability as if he were merely an observer. The essay references Pace Gallery CEO Marc Glimcher’s claim that the gallery system is “broken beyond repair,” and contrasts today’s market dynamics with earlier periods such as the 1980s East Village scene and the 1990s Culture Wars, when artists were portrayed as central to art’s survival. It also cites Art Basel’s 2013 arrival in Hong Kong and a remark attributed to collector Uli Sigg about blue-chip galleries pursuing China’s market, while criticizing the fair for not addressing repression and censorship affecting Chinese artists.
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This story was covered in Blockbuster Museums, Hot Markets, and Missing Masterpieces