Part of being a good art world journalist is having your ear to the ground to pick up on important news as it happens. Which is just one reason why I'm not a journalist, let alone a good one. My back hurts when I try to get my ear that low. Nevertheless, I do hear things, and I heard today that Becky Smith has announced that she's closing her Bellwether Gallery.
My first thought was to get on my blog and gloat because I'd never seen anything even remotely decent at Bellwether and Becky was standoffish in e-mail to me the one time I wrote to her. But then I thought that schadenfreude does not become me; I shouldn't be happy to hear of someone else's misfortune that way. It's not right.
Then I read Becky's closing statement as quoted at the Awl:
I always tried to have a distinct voice and point of view, represent as many women as possible, curate from my values and not my taste and get behind artists whose brilliance and concepts were apparent in their craft.
And I realized I couldn't let it go. I can only hope that everyone who curates from their values and not their taste goes the way of Bellwether. Artists whose concepts are apparent in their craft? May they all get jobs driving street sweepers.
I didn't share her tastes very much, but it's sad to lose the diversity. Hopefully she'll re-emerge somewhere, maybe back in Billburg as just a private dealer. Her connections after all these years have got to be worth something.
The reason I'm happy Becky's gone (probably not for good) is we don't really know if you shared her taste or not, because she admits not using her taste. She used her values. As in, "this artist is a woman therefore I'll show her work, whether or not I think it's any good." Or "this artist has intriguing concepts [assuming one doesn't get out much], therefore I'll show their work, even if it isn't any good."
Check my previous review of a Bellwether show: Just click on the "Becky Smith" tag. Anyone who would show Julieta Aranda is better off in another line of work. Somewhere they can give back to society, like dry cleaning or organ donation.
I noticed that statement particularly, and was confounded by it. I found it bizarre that she actually bragged about suppressing her taste in favor of her values--isn't 'taste' what legendary dealers are supposed to have? And how can you have values which conflict with your taste? Does she mean to say that she would actually show art that she doesn't like, simply because it is in line with some value or other? How can she adequately represent art like that? A dealer has to have some genuine enthusiasm for what they show!
For all her vaunted 'values,' the word on 'How's my Dealing?' is that she doesn't pay her artists in a timely manner. It looks to me like she just overreached herself. Possibly if she'd stayed in Williamsburg she'd still have a gallery.
Well, you know, there are values, and then there are values Important values are things like knowing that art should be ugly, vapid, vain, and thought-provoking (for people lacking thoughts). Unimportant values are things like honesty, loyalty, and good faith. Important values: Stealing from artists (by not paying them for their work) while simultaneously stealing from collectors (by selling them overpriced junk). Unimportant: Human decency.