Lecture: From E.-F. Gersaint to David Zwirner, 15 Dec 2016, Berlin

From E.-F. Gersaint to David Zwirner – The contribution of art dealers to the creation of value in the artistic game

Links: Schwerfigur: Adel Abdessemeds Installation Décor verkaufte David Zwirner 2012 an Francois Pinault. Quelle: designboom.com; rechts: Zuschneidung: dem Hund ist es zu verdanken, dass die rechte Hälfte von Watteaus Ladenschild des Gersaint von 1720 sechs Zentimeter breiter geblieben ist als die linke. Quelle: Privat.

Venue: FOKUM – Forum Kunst Markt

Thursday, 15/12/2016, 6:15pm, room A 111, Architekturgebäude der TU, Straße des 17. Juni 150/152, 10623 Berlin.

It was Parisian dealer E.-F. Gersaint who invented the annotated auction catalog around 1740; the New York David Zwirner Gallery presented 55 artists at exhibitions and art fairs all over the world this year. How do dealers change the appreciation for artists and their works of art through their activities and innovations? What is the role of dealers in the generation of aesthetic value compared to other art market players? And how do they affect the price structure and measurable added value?

Michael Hutter studied Mathematics and Economics in Munich, Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA, and received his PhD in 1976 at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. His habilitation 1986 was on „Die Produktion von Recht“. 1987-2008 he held the chair for ‘Theory of the economy and its social environment’ („Theorie der Wirtschaft und ihrer gesellschaftlichen Umwelt“) at Universität Witten/Herdecke. 2003/04 and 2007 he held research posts at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. 2008-2014 he was Director of the department of ‘Cultural sources of Newness’ („Kulturelle Quellen von Neuheit“) at the Berlin Social Science Center (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung, WZB) as well as Research Professor for Knowledge and Innovation at the Institut für Soziologie der Technischen Universität Berlin. He is Professor Emeritus at the WZB since 2015. Among his most recent publications are „Ernste Spiele. Geschichten vom Aufstieg des ästhetischen Kapitalismus“ and „The Rise of the Joyful Economy. Artistic Invention and Economic Growth from Brunelleschi to Murakami“.