Art world darling, cool Kenny Schachter @ Art Basel アート界の寵児、クール ケニー・シャクター ＠ アート・バーゼル

Kenny can be called a very nice guy, well-known artist and art junky in the art world, like me. We share numerous artistic practices, have a flair for new art trends or our finger on the pulse of the times. Quando sono arrivato a Tokio, a 26 anni, sono precipitato abbastanza presto, quasi senza rendermene conto, in quello che potrebbe essere definito “il vortice della mondanità”. Ma io non volevo essere semplicemente un mondano. Volevo diventare il re dei mondani, e ci sono riuscito. Io non volevo solo partecipare alle feste. Volevo avere il potere di farle fallire. Every now and then, through our art works or cultivation of our own narrative, we are the trendsetters. 😎
At ART BASEL you have to wear sunglasses. Why? Because I decided so. アート・バーゼル with サングラス https://art-culture.world/articles/art-basel-with-sunglasses/
Myself, because of my parents and Italian relatives, had been influenced more than 60 years by looking at, contemplating in front, experiencing artworks. Visiting in the 1970’s die junge “Kunstmesse Basel” als Gymnasialschüler, becoming a specialist concerning ART BASEL. May I humbly say, Kenny-kun, whom I can call my younger beau, as he’s 2 years younger than me, arrived later but through his eloquent teachings in public and universities, behind-the-scene-articles on artnet and instagram postings ha scalato l’Olimpo dell’arte. Pero, carissimo pinocchio amico Kenny, il chiacchiericcio e il rumore è una roba da donne. Noi abbiamo i pantaloni, dobbiamo dire le cose. Kenny’s Praxis catapulted him into the orbit of the cool-arty-semi-hipster-connoisseurship. A pictorial trope, recognisable vintage-Adidas-track-pants-laissez-faire-outfit, cultivating his “branding” via the anti-conformista-attitude con un sorriso simpatico e dolce personalità.

The public figure Kenny Schachter tries to control the flow of information about his private life, but does not always succeed, because of Google. “Kenny Schachter, a Jewish London-based private art dealer/curator from London who is a son-in-law of the late commodities trader Marc Rich,” quote from “Jewish Dealer Kenny Schachter on the Art World”, November 30, 2013 https://jewishinsider.com/2013/11/jewish-dealer-kenny-schachter-on-the-art-world/ .
Marc Rich via wikipedia, ‘Personal life and death’, quotes:
“Rich married Denise Eisenberg, a songwriter and heir to a New England shoe manufacturing fortune, in 1966. … Another daughter, Ilona Rich, is married to art world enfant terrible Kenny Schachter, and lost her oldest son, Kai, to suicide in 2019.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich . In 2018, Kenny closed his Facebook account and a Wikipedia page about him is probably banned/censured.
In these multiple contexts I will restrict myself in today’s writing, despite the fact, that my art history interested ART+CULTURE readers would like to know the total overview.
It is part of ART+CULTURE’s etiquette and cultivated culture NOT to pry into other people’s private lives. Gossip is not our style. We are discreet, civilised, well educated and therefore highly regarded, reliable and respected in Japan and neighbouring countries.
Funnily enough, Kenny complained in his recent public lecture that in the 90s, gallery owners judged him by his shoes, categorised him, put him in a social class box.
Because of his lamentation about the experience regarding his shoes, the classic “shoe-genre”-topic amongst women, I had some fun by checking my pics taken @ Art Basel 2024.
Like golden, snobbish watches, shoes at Art Basel signal a hierarchical-elite-class-premium-consciousness, Kenny’s included.

Check: Maurizio Cattelan @ Gagosian New York 2024
https://art-culture.world/articles/maurizio-cattelan-マウリツィオ・カテラン/

Analytical-social-studies-of-the-global-art-world comes to the conclusion that hardly anything has changed in terms of the exclusivity of these pretentious “On-Cloud-sneakers-cheaply-made-in-Vietnam-for-20-US$-sold-for-200-US$-quick-to-break”. The Guido aka Jep Gambardella in me may get a laugh, for obvious reasons.
The photographs are excerpts, detail of ordinary snap-shots that have now been trimmed for ART+CULTURE, filtered out as part of the picture. Have fun with them.
🤣 All because of Kenny! lol 🤣

Check: Sex Unlimited Potency: Premium Economy by Anna Uddenberg
セックス・アンリミテッド・ポテンシー：プレミアム・エコノミー by アンナ・ウッデンバーグ
https://art-culture.world/articles/anna-uddenberg/

Obviously, as I’m an academic authority on War Criminal Léonard Foujita…,
2021年5月8日の認知症予防。「ロベール・デスノス、藤田嗣治、藤田ユキ、藤田君代。レジスタンス 対 戦争犯罪人。」Dementia Prevention on 8th of May 2021. “Robert Desnos, Tsuguharu Foujita, Youki Foujita, Kimiyo Foujita. Résistance vs War Criminal.”
https://art-culture.world/articles/robert-desnos-tsuguharu-foujita-youki-foujita-kimiyo-foujita-resistance-vs-war-criminal/
and my frivolous body of work “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Dogs, Even” (1998-2006, oil on canvas),…
デュシャン、A・シュワルツ と 亜 真里男「The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Dogs, Even」 (1998-2006) @ フリーズ ロンドン 2003 と ミヅマアートギャラリー 2004
Duchamp, A. Schwarz と Mario A “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Dogs, Even” (1998-2006) @ Frieze London 2003 ＆ MIZUMA ART GALLERY, Tokyo 2004
https://art-culture.world/articles/duchamp-mario-a-the-bride-stripped-bare-by-her-dogs-even/
partly shown at the 1. FRIEZE ART FAIR in London 2003, at the MIZUMA ART GALLERY booth (contemplated by collectors Charles Saatchi, Pet Shop Boys Neil Tennant, LVMH Bernard Arnault & Hélène Mercier, Eva Presenhuber) I do really like Kenny’s fusionist work “NFT-GAZ-DUCHAMP” (2021) the most.

Prominently exhibited on the exterior wall of German Galerie Nagel Draxler (formerly located in Köln, now Berlin) booth during Art Basel 2021. In this sense a natural, evolutionary process after his reciprocal influences, collaborations with Zaha Hadid, Paul Thek and Vito Acconci.
“NFT-GAZ-DUCHAMP” superbly transmits the Walter Benjamin’s “aura”, owing to the fact that this picture is looking back at us. Marcel Duchamp glows with his returned gaze over the vastness of time – and with a certain severance, alienation from the art industry. The art market is actually estimated at US$65 billion. In “NFT-GAZ-DUCHAMP” we feel the exposure of incom­mensurable values. The art work as an asset class and whether art-historically (Japanese painter/war criminal, later becoming French, “Léonard” Tsuguharu Foujita’s commercial success in Paris), NFT-aesthetically, or ready-made intellectually, thought-provoking values coexist in Kenny’s work, all inviting and thwarting our efforts to weigh, reconcile, or unite them. Duchamp’s aka Kenny’s mischievous smile itself tends towards the oxymoron parallax. Mocking “Western Modernism” through Parisian “Eau & gaz à tous les étages”, mocking “Western Conceptual Art” through “Sur Marcel Duchamp. Eau & gaz à tous les étages.” Paris, Éditions Trianon, published in the year of my birth. Binding and resolving “Western Art History”‘s contradictions, – as Picasso was partly of Arabic origin, Picasso is NOT a WHITE painter -, explain their emer­gence, and shape them into new stimulating ideas. Alternatively to allow art’s contradictions to break over us, dissolve us, and then account for that personal experience to the best of one’s ability.

Kenny can be called a lucky non-Japanese artist, as the Japanese art market is very strong, diversified and vibrant. The monthly auctions demonstrate the broad collector’s universe, existing cutting-edge collectors with their own museums, as well as mega-rich collectors like MAEZAWA Yusaku, who are Japanese trendsetters in the global art market. Kenny was able to place and monetise his NFT (see the attached screenshots) at one of the Japanese auction houses, something he would not have been able to do in the U.S. or Europe. Kenny can thank us, the Japanese art protagonists. My personal contacts with the trendsetting auction house SBI did the rest. Kenny has a guardian angel here in Tokyo. And we all hope that he will soon be able to realise his solo show, which has already been officially announced, at BLUM gallery, in the Asian trendsetter district of Harajuku.
The Japanese media introduced his NFT artistic practice, check this article from 13th of August 2022:
Why “NFTism” is life itself: Interview with Kenny Schachter
Yayoi Shionoiri, an art lawyer, spoke with Kenny Schachter, an artist, curator, writer, and NFT proponent, about the importance of NFTs in the continued evolution of the art world.
https://www.tokyoartbeat.com/en/articles/-/why-nftism-is-life-itself-interview-with-kenny-schachter

Source_https://www.instagram.com/p/CVfqULkhVmx/?img_index=4

Source_https://www.sbiartauction.co.jp/en/results/detail/101/155

SBI Art Auction
29 – 30 October 2021
Modern and Contemporary Art + NFT

LOT 155
ケニー・シャクター Kenny SCHACHTER

Money, Money, Money
2021
Digital video 2’23”
ED. 1

Non-fungible token ERC-721 on Ethereum L2 chain Polygon
Token ID: 68308589
Minted on October 8, 2021
Estimate: ¥1,000,000 – 1,500,000 ($9,100 – 13,600)
落札価格 Price Realized： ¥ 2,300,000 JPY

コンディション：本作品を第三者に再販売する場合、本作品の再販売価格の10％に相当する金額を本作品のアーティストに支払うものとします。支払い方法につきましては発行元へお問い合わせください。オンラインカタログの作品ページ下部にNFTコンディションレポートを掲載しております。

ARTIST’S STATEMENT
NFTismは本当にお金となんの関係もなくて——伝統的なアートの世界で普及している諸々の確信をよそに——それが実際にかかわりをもつのは、つくり手とコレクターに加え、ディジタルアートを支援するあらゆる立場の人々が参加するコミュニティなのだ。この歌はアートとアートの世界の新しい時代の夜明けを祝う。はい、それとマーケットも。
NFTism really has zero to do with money—despite popular traditional art world beliefs—it’s really about the community of makers, collectors and those that support digital art in any and every capacity. This song celebrates the dawn of a new era of art and the art world. And yes, the market too.

Money, Money, Money
I’m so sick and tired of the NFT divide
Just you wait for the shifting tide

I’ve never seen anything so polarizing, stigmatizing
All the despising, analyzing, galvanizing
Merchandising, moralizing, patronizing
It’s mesmerizing! Nothing short of a social uprising!

All the pushback about crypto crime
Laundering, tax evasion then there came Grimes

The currency whipsaws with a whole lot of volatility
Sit back, enjoy the ride and drop the hostility

But what about the history of digital art?
Let’s not forget what gave nifties their start

Forget the grift it’s no more or less
Than what you find in the art world
No cause for distress

Yes Bitcoin mining sucks lots of juice
Just wait for EHT 2 to end the abuse

Energy consumption’s on everyone’s mind
Airplanes—oil paints—shipping crates
Are you all blind?

The NFT market has shrunk from the past
So make some, buy some it’s still a blast

This is no more about money than any old painting
Relax! Stop fighting! No need for fainting

I’ll admit, it’s not all well and good
The state of the metaverse
Isn’t as fun as it should

And don’t judge the market by the likes of Beeple
Lord knows there’s so many better people

The genie’s out of the bottle
The ETH is in the ether
Get out in front don’t end up beneath her
https://www.sbiartauction.co.jp/auction/detail/101/155

Another, well known art work by Kenny Schachter:

Check this out:
世界一のアートディーラー、New York City ラリー・ガゴシアンを巡って
World’s No.1 Art Dealer, Larry Gagosian from New York City
https://art-culture.world/articles/larry-gagosian/

先日、ラリー・ガゴシアンが私のところに来て、親友の一人が急病で亡くなったと言った。彼が持っていたものは？彼は、”ああ、看護婦の絵とバスキアのドローイングとウォーホルのかなりいいやつだ “と言ったんだ。

Artist: Kenny Schachter (American)
Title: The Larry Joke, 2018
Medium: Prints and multiples, Digital Pigment Print
Edition: Edition of 150
Size: 57.8 x 88.3 cm. (22.8 x 34.8 in.)
Price: Price on Request
Movement: Contemporary Art
Markings: Hand singed by the artist, recto.
CONTACT GALLERY ABOUT THIS WORK
https://www.artnet.com/artists/kenny-schachter/the-larry-joke-a-ubHkityT5FyDDghqHBtFyg2

In this context, the following quote, taken from artnet news pro “Intelligence Report” Fall 2022, might be of interest, too.

Quote:
Although Oliver, 32, is far from a household name, her solo shows have all sold out and her auction sales have generated $436,504 since 2020, according to the Artnet Price Database. About a third of the 95 lots by Oliver at auction have been offered at Japan’s SBI Art Auction, dubbed by Garcia Gil “the House of Flippers.” (A representative for SBI said they were unfamiliar with this moniker, and that clients frequently refer to them as “the House of the Trendsetter.”)

“We cannot stop the flippers in Japan,” Garcia Gil recalled telling Oliver. “Instead of trying to fight them, let’s join them. I’d rather take you to a global auction. If I position you within an art movement, everyone wins.”

taken from:
https://media.artnet.com/image/upload/v1666818893/Artnet%20Intelligence%20Report%20Fall%202022/artnet_news_intelligence_report-fall_2022_1_la3pav.pdf

Compare with:
アートマーケットと現代アート・フリッパーについて Art Market and Art Flippers
https://art-culture.world/articles/art-market-and-art-flippers/

Kenny is currently spending his vacances sur la Côte d’Azur. He is probably in the Principauté de Monaco looking for new collectors to make deals with. Dolce Vita by diverting himself as undercurrent widow hunter… 😎 lol

現代美術コレクター、兼オークションハウス・クリスティーズ社長フランソワ・ピノー氏のコレクション展 in モナコ公国
Contemporary Art Collector, Christie’s Auction House Owner François Pinault Shows His Collection In The Principality of Monaco
https://art-culture.world/articles/pinault-collection-ピノー・コレクション/

“You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? You talkin’ to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to?”

Kenny in da house.
Kenny in da Casino de Monte-Carlo, in the nucleus of money-gambling.
Kenny loves to be in the money-spotlight.
My-Basel-neighbour-Japanese-drop-out-pretentiously-playing-the-rich-European-aristocrat-for-the-Americans-but-in-reality-poor-with-no-talent-spoiled-kids-plus-boring-double-breasted-suit-with-conservative-business-shirt-with-a-necktie-even-in-hot-summer-sweating-paleo-establishmentarian-old-liner-pomado-guy-failed-auctioneer-in-Switzerland-Simon de Pury, meme-lazy-comfort-zone-spoiled-arrogant-American-girl-always-overestimating-herself-pitiful-pathetic-immature-à-la-poubelle-Jerry Gogosian and Kenny smart-ass-lecturing about the future of the art market. Well, to put it bluntly, 5 years ago they could not prognosticate the future in the Asian art market. In this sense… pretentious (“world building”), self-referential (“good branding”) talking as epiphenomenon. But hey, these 3 honourable, pitiful personages are working (translate: have to work) in the entertainment and leisure industry… to survive!
As a bonmot, I still do remember well Kenny saying “You saved my life” in collector Dakis Joannou’s Slaughter House on Hydra.

For most ART+CULTURE readers, as non-experts, noninitiates, I would like to emphasise that these 3 people are only interested in the “Tableaux”. Tableaux (i.e. painting objects) as an art market commodity. Furthermore, it should be made clear here that Jerry (incl. Saltz) & Kenny are not travelling to the documenta Kassel or to the Venice Biennale to see art, to experience art. They are mainly interested in art market gossip. Means, their knowledge about contemporary art is one-sided, somehow limited.

In the context of ART+CULTURE’s sensitiveness, let me introduce you on this occasion a typical situation / occurrence during this Art Basel fair 2024.
I had an engaging dialogue in German language with the most powerful woman in the global art market, very sympathetic Cheyenne Westphal (Global chairwoman of Phillips) at the booth of PACE.

Later I found Kenny talking to auctioneer and chairman of Sotheby’s Europe Oliver Parker at the White Cube booth.

Refer also to my text about Japanese TERASE Yuki:
Sotheby’s Harsh Reshuffle: After Amy Cappellazzo and Kevin Ching, Next Prominent Figure TERASE Yuki Bites the Dust
サザビーズのコンテンポラリーアート部門アジア地区部長・寺瀬由紀氏を巡って
https://art-culture.world/articles/terase-yuki-寺瀬由紀/

Sotheby’s, Phillips… top representatives from the auction houses showing up in Basel at the propriate booths.

Kenny catapulted into the ultimate stratosphere of global art world gossip when he publicised his companionable relationship with Inigo Philbrick, aka Eleve of White Cube art dealer Jay Jopling, in the New York Magazine Vulture, an American entertainment news website, March 2020. Art Flipper Philbrick bet big on Rudolf Stingel, with a “support purchase” at a major auction house, and also because Kenny “probably”, nota bene: just my guess!, whispered the planned solo show of Stingel at Swiss Fondation Beyeler in the village of Riehen (close to the German boarder at the Dreiländereck) in his ear.

I had positioned myself on the opposite side.
Knowing Rudolf personally, I had of course seen his “Picasso” (“Untitled” 2012) work in the Art Basel fair, contemplated at “ART LOVERS : STORIES OF ART IN THE PINAULT COLLECTION” in Monaco 2014, visited the Stingel’s solo exhibitions at the Fondation Beyeler and, by Japanese architect ANDO Tadao beautifully restored, ‘Palazzo Grassi’, which belongs to collector François Pinault, owner of Christie’s Auction House.

Stingel’s art market crash was foreseeable.
The rest is history and wanna-be-deep-pocket-Indigo ended up in prison.

For my dear ART+CULTURE readers may I filter out the following quote, as it explains in detail how “flipping” art works is being practiced.

Quote:
“Philbrick had a close-knit group of friends and supporters he regularly traded with who were steadily driving up prices from one deal to the next. Often it was “secondary market” works (what car dealerships might call “pre-owned”), since galleries in various ways make it difficult to buy works of coveted “primary market” art (art that has not been previously sold, sometimes hot off the easel) by giving early access to their established collectors. These are people trusted not to flip the art and instead play along to the subtle and incremental holding game lest its value shoot up unsustainably quickly and then deflate. In practice, this often means that only insiders can reliably make money in an art market.
Sometimes you’d have to do clever things to get access. Philbrick would use a network of art advisers and proxies — even actual actors playing an art-interested version of their recognizable selves to starstruck gallerists — to buy works that might not be for sale directly to him, only to flip them.”

Full text @
MAR. 16, 2020. The Art World’s Mini-Madoff and Me Boozy nights and high-stakes art trades with Inigo Philbrick.
By Kenny Schachter

https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/inigo-philbrick-art-dealer.html

We currently have the plight of humanity vividly before our eyes. The war between Russians and Ukrainians and the war between Palestinians and Jews. To put it simply: wars by stupid people for stupid people.

There is a lack of consensus.
There is a lack of consensus on history.
There is no consensus on the stupidity of old men.
There is also no consensus on art history.
My task is to find and shape this consensus.

Through the public (but also secretive/camouflage) person of Kenny Schachter, I am trying to explain and document an important part of contemporary art by way of example. This ART+CULTURE archive will help Japanese art historians to form a consensus to the best of their conscience and knowledge. So that the generations after us will be able to understand Japanese art history in the proper context.

High aspirations, aims and goals that seem impossible to reach. A time when anything is possible, for as long as the creative mind is open and the child within awake and ready to play the game of life.

Noblesse oblige. Next time, dear Kenny-kun, Alexandra Foulkes and me will pick you up with The Queen’s, Her-Majesty’s-favourite-car @ Trois Rois.

Warm hug,
gbaselguy
Independence Day in the USA 2024