Life as a Medium: Jeffrey Deitch talks to Massimiliano Gioni

Article
To mark the release of a new book, « Live the Art », Jeffrey Deitch sat down on Thursday with the New Museum’s Massimiliano Gioni as part of the New York Public Library’s LIVE from the NYPL series. The two art world heavyweights pondered and reminisced over Deitch’s legendary career to a sold out audience. Those in attendance were left with a personal and professional portrait. The highs and lows of his life in the art world reflect major risks taken, and an evolution in art, its presentation and its audiences over the years.

Connecting with communities
As he’s always maintained, Deitch Projects was “never meant to be a gallery.” His goal was to give opportunities to artists to create their “dream projects.” With a budget of $25,000, each artist was given studio space, assistants and materials to create a site-specific project for the space. If the work sold, profits would be split down the middle, if not, Deitch would retain the work for his collection. He insists the aim of his work with the project space was never to make as much money as possible, but rather to “connect with communities” of creative people. By giving them a platform, their community would be enhanced and their creativity furthered.

At the intersection of art, fashion, music, film…
The multidisciplinary nature of Deitch’s interests has shaped his scope and aesthetic from the beginning. From Rolling Stones concerts and discotheques to modern dance and fashion shows, his understanding of what can create and constitute art is broader than most sentinels of the high brow; thus, his penchant for performance, no matter how controversial. He says he sought to “set a position against the ‘insider professionalism’ of the art world. To keep things more open and loose.” Over the years the work he’s chosen to present has indeed been met with criticism by many on the more conservative end of the art world spectrum.

Making a monster
Deitch states blithely, yet with some pride, that he invented the professional art advisor. Having approached several major New York City banks in 1979 with the idea of creating a department to foster and facilitate investment in art by both clients and the banks themselves, he ultimately chose CitiBank. He then spent a decade creating the department and “developing connoisseurship” that would serve him well for the rest of his career. He admits he was only just slightly ahead of the collectors he worked with at the beginning. He traveled the world and sought the expertise of trusted allies to gain the knowledge necessary, notably Bill Rubin, former curator at MoMA.

Why MoCA?
Deitch accepted a newly-created curatorial position in contemporary art at MoMA in New York in the early 90s, only to have it taken away from him by an “important critic” who threatened to wreak havoc on the institution if Deitch were appointed. When Eli Broad suggested he direct the MoCA in Los Angeles, the idea of creating fully developed museum exhibitions of contemporary art for the public piqued his interest once again. After curating important shows in LA, and raising visitor numbers to record highs, however, “internal issues in the museum made it extremely challenging.”

Time for new models in contemporary art
Citing the creation of the New Museum in New York in the 1980s, and what he tried to do recently at MoCA, Deitch believes wholeheartedly in the constant creation of new models for galleries and contemporary art museums. Just as Deitch Projects changed the game in the 1990s, new platforms are again necessary. The “audience is hungry for participation, to be part of the dialogue,” he insists. New kinds of structures - larger ones - need to be created to accommodate growing interest from a growing public. He even looks to large-scale music festivals, like the notoriously wild Coachella, as points of inspiration. With this he also maintains that “the academic elite can no longer control the dialogue.”
Now, with statements like that, you’d almost think he’s about to go rogue…again. And with a biography with so many chapters - with such experience, connections and know-how - the question remains: what will Jeffrey Deitch give us next?