Jeffrey Deitch: the Optimistic Impresario

While waiting in a doctor’s office a few weeks ago (or perhaps months…) for Vero to get out of her third evaluation this year, I caught a quick glimpse of the New Yorker. For the life of me, I can’t remember if it was a cover or a full color photo somewhere in the interior of the magazine, but somehow the Yorker begged further investigation. I didn’t have time to fully absorb the content (hence my confusion on the placement of the photo, and whether it was prominently splashed on the cover or hidden amongst type-written paragraphs detailing cultural trends and political diatribes) but I do remember reading about Jeffrey Deitch’s optimism.

The photo showed a bespectacled, well-dressed, somewhat diminutive man holding a few dozen balloons at the end of what appeared to be some kind of walkway or dock. The headline read “A Fool for Art.”

I believe I read the first paragraph, in which I learned that Jeffrey Deitch had indeed designed his own perfectly circular eyewear, and had worn his signature frames for the greater part of the last 20 years. While watching an interview with Deitch on the Art Newspaper’s video channel, it reminded me of the long-forgotten article that I hadn’t had time to read.

In the interview, unfortunately hyphened Art Newspaper reporter Anna Somers-Cocks politely grills art dealer Jeffrey Deitch on his economic projections on the art world, his relationship with visual images, and the personal brand of optimism that won him that special mention in the New Yorker.

Anna Somers-Cocks congratulated Jeffrey Deitch on his New Yorker profile (which she no doubt read thoroughly and knew whether or not the photo was on the cover or simply splashed on the interior of the magazine) and described him as a multi-faceted figure in the art world, widely professed as an art dealer, an art consultant and a prominent art impresario.

Jeffrey Deitch: For Love or Money?

Jeffrey Deitch has a decidedly karmic approach to understanding art collection. He speaks candidly about energies, about the balance of give and take, essentially giving the “what goes around comes around” answer to the question of how to foment an art culture.

The kinetic excitement that this middle aged, 1980’s-coiffed white man exudes comes out of what appears to be a very pure, very invigorating, deeply seated passion in visual art. Jeffrey Deitch appears to be one of these people that have discovered their task, cemented their singular interest, and dedicated themselves to using this passion to fuel a great, positive impact on the members of his or her surrounding community.

In Deitch’s case, his community is the art industry. Deitch has declared the art world no longer simply a market, but an entire industry incorporating countless businesses supported by the visual community. According to Deitch, art collection is not just a business: it is a platform for cultural interchange.

Where others have taken to viewing art collection as a purely financial endeavor (Deitch does not deny the profitability in this viewpoint, calling art collection the most solid intergenerational asset of the modern world, though he does call profiteers of today’s unusually buoyant art market “lucky”), Deitch sees art collection as a deeply personal process. Jeffrey Deitch seems a thoughtful matchmaker, taking into consideration all aspects of a piece of art and a potential buyer, eager to create a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with the buyer rather than a one-time financial transaction.

Jeffrey Deitch’s faith in the art market doesn’t allow him to predict a crash. In simple terms (citing liquidity conditions, a potential credit crunch, and old world supply and demand qualifications) Jeffrey Deitch supports his claim, though he leaves the viewer wondering if his infinite love for visual art, that art that fuels his entire being and his entire life, wouldn’t allow him to be objective in predicting the future of the art world.