Page 3 -  Conversation: Rosenberg + Kaufman .... / March

JW: What are the major differences in owning and operating a gallery today that didn�t exist in the past?

FK: One that leaps to mind is the use of the internet (laughs).

JW: Well I can certainly attest to that (laughs).

FK: The Internet has changed a lot of things because art that once was regional doesn�t necessarily have to be anymore.  It has offered a new media for sending material around that didn�t exist before and made everything from that perspective broader.  Still, it�s very difficult to gauge from an online image what a painting feels like in person. I think it has worked better for the more graphic work and also for photography.

JW: Well, it�s certainly beats taking around a sheet of 35 millimeter slides.  At least with the online images you get a much cleaner, bigger and ultimately better view of the work.

FK: But there�s also the immediacy.  A client will call up and say, �Can you send me an image of that painting I saw by David Stern?� And we respond, �How do you want it? What size? How many D.P.I.?  And that�s much more useful because everything takes far less time.

JW: How about you Stephen, what differences have you seen over the years?

SR: One of the things I�ve seen, at least in our experience, is that there is more sharing of information and artists among galleries.  Obviously some of that is our job in working to promote people�s careers. We�re always interested in getting artist�s shows in other venues and cities. The other thing is that, here in New York, we�re working much more closely with some of our colleagues than when we started out. Galleries were more independent back then. I also happen to believe that this has come about as a reaction to a fairly difficult boom and bust economic cycle that this country has been in for the last 20 years. So what has become important is getting a person�s work out and visible rather then whether you�re getting the most return you possibly can.

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JW: That�s interesting because I�ve been talking to some of the few surviving members of The New York School such as Philip Pavia and Paul Jenkins and I�m reviewing the new book out on Milton Resnick.  You talk to these guys and get a real sense of what an intimate place the art world in New York was back in the 40s and 50s.  But then in the 60s and especially the 70s it all got blown out and really big.  What you seem to be saying is that the art world is once again becoming more of a tight-knit community in New York. Is that a fair analysis?

SR: I think parts of it are becoming closer even on the blue-chip high end.  We�ve seen, in the last few years, mergers like Pace and Wildenstein. That never would have happened 30 years ago.  But I don�t think there�s the same sort of camaraderie that once existed among artists with the exception, perhaps, of what�s going on in Brooklyn right now. But I do think there is a true sense of camaraderie among people who wanted to be regarded as serious about what they and/or their galleries are doing.  We�ve been very interested in that portion of the 50s that included artistic and social cross pollination. One of the things that we�re trying to do, and Fran can better speak to this, is to host a number of readings at the gallery over the last several years.

JW: That�s true; there was a lot of that among artists, writers and even jazz musicians.

FK: That�s actually something I�m quite interested in pursuing - the interaction between jazz musicians and painters.

JW: Is that the program Stephen mentioned?

FK: No, the music program is something that�s germinating rather then existing at the moment. Our gallery assistant is a young man named David Schotzko and he is an extraordinarily talented musician. He did a performance here last season which was only the second or third time we�ve done music; we�ve done literature of various kinds for a long time. But the gallery was full and it was fantastic. What we�re planning is to have music that is related the artist that we�re showing. So, David will be choosing a musical program that relates to the art.

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