Gagosian is making a big play in Brazil with a show of force at ArtRio. Katya Kazakina says the world’s premier gallery is bringing 80 pieces by 30 artists to attract the country’s new wealth:
“The population of people collecting seriously has exploded in the last five years,” said Allan Schwartzman, who has been advising Bernardo Paz, a mining magnate who founded Inhotim, a 5,000-acre contemporary-art park in the country’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais.
Gagosian is taking 80 pieces by 30 artists to ArtRio. The gallery’s selections cover a broad spectrum of prices and periods, from a $10,000 photograph by New York-based artist Roe Ethridge to Picasso portraits with asking prices between $10 million and $15 million.
Alexander Calder priced between $5 million and $10 million will vie for buyers with four Warhols, including a 1965 Campbell’s soup can and a 1986 self-portrait in a fright wig, valued between $1 million and $10 million. The gallery will display some works in a booth at the fair; others will be included in a separate sculpture exhibition, also part of the fair.
Gagosian Plans $130 Million Package For Brazil Art Fair (Bloomberg)