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Larry Gagosian, often hailed as the most influential figure in the art dealing world, has not always enjoyed unblemished success in his ventures.
Back in 2016, Gagosian launched a gallery in San Francisco, strategically positioned near the SF MoMA. However, the endeavor didn’t go as planned.
“It completely flopped,” Gagosian candidly shares in a recent profile by Elle Decor. “No one showed up. It was so disheartening. I’d travel there for an opening, and the place was empty. I thought, What am I doing here?”
In the magazine’s latest issue, he also reflects on the closure of his former gallery in Geneva, which opened in 2010. “I didn’t quite understand the Swiss,” he admits with a shrug. (Rest assured, Larry, you’re not the only one.)
Currently, Gagosian oversees 18 venues worldwide, including his notable Beverly Hills gallery. He’s now gearing up for the launch of a new space at 980 Madison Avenue in New York.
He’s coming full circle with a planned street-level gallery at the same UES spot where he first opened in 1989. Gagosian had office space and galleries upstairs in the same building, but he’s being displaced after Bloomberg Philanthropies bought up most of the property.
“It was pretty devastating,” Gagosian, whose office had been at the address for nearly 40 years, tells the Hearst magazine.
He’s moved his staff to Chelsea and elsewhere, but, “To me it was very important that I stay in the building… I’m excited about being on the street. Artists in particular thought [being upstairs] was a little off-putting. So we’ve eliminated that. We’re much more transparent now.”
His sushi restaurant Kappo Masa remains downstairs.
Last month in LA, Gagosian held his annual exhibition timed to the Academy Awards by putting up a show of new Jonas Wood paintings of tennis courts.