Tourists buy postcards – famous actors buy a painting by Colin McCahon. Gow Langsford\u2019s directors talk to Kim Knight about the art of selling art to celebrities.<\/p>\n
\n John Gow estimates the visitor stood nearly two metres tall. He was \u201cbuilt like a brick s***house\u201d – and he wanted to know
\n if the art gallery had a back door.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cAre you running security for someone?\u201d Gow asked. <\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d said the man. He couldn\u2019t say who, but he would be back at 11am on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was way the hell out in Pak\u016branga watching my son in a rugby final,\u201d Gow says. \u201cI come dashing into the city, and there\u2019s this big security guy and the diminutive figure of Paul Simon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said \u2018Oh, s***, Paul, I\u2019m running a bit late – I was going to get changed\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon, one half of Simon & Garfunkel and more latterly famous for his solo career, spent almost two hours at Gow Langsford\u2019s gallery in Kitchener St, Auckland.<\/p>\n
Gow won\u2019t say what he bought (\u201che didn\u2019t spend a lot of money\u201d) but recalls the 2009 visit included an encounter with one of artist Michael Parekowhai\u2019s custom-made semi-acoustic \u201cTen Guitars\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was really interested in M\u0101ori carving, and he was interested in a Parekowhai guitar and he played that and sang a bit . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
Musician Paul Simon, pictured with Gail Hoffman (left), plays one of the works in artist Michael Parekowhai’s Ten Guitars series while Talking Heads frontman David Byrne (right) jams in front of a Colin McCahon at Auckland’s Gow Langsford.<\/p>\n
Gow Langsford, founded in 1987, is a contemporary art dealership with galleries in central Auckland and suburban Onehunga – and a magnet for celebrity collectors.<\/p>\n
Since December, it has hosted American talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. Paul Simon went on to become a frequent visitor and other big names the gallery has sold to include musician Lionel Richie (who bought a small bronze work by Marian Fountain) and Australian actor Nicole Kidman, who bought a Colin McCahon painting.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never seen it for sale again,\u201d Gow says.<\/p>\n
Celebrities can rarely be persuaded to buy, he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to engage and want something, and then the process just flows . . .<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are high-net-worth people, and they have an awareness about art, and they know that drives culture. They realise that, when they\u2019re visiting a country, to dig down into what makes a country tick, that seeing its visual arts is a big part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The recent visits are a result of relationships with high-end tourism companies and cultivated connections. Gow says while most have little prior knowledge of the New Zealand art scene, others, including actor Pierce Brosnan, arrive with specific requests.<\/p>\n
Former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan visited Gow Langsford and viewed works by Shane Cotton (left) and John Pule.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was really interested in seeing Shane Cotton\u2019s work, because he\u2019d seen it down in Britomart, and so we had a room hung for him . . . and then we organised a studio visit when they were up in the Bay of Islands.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was blown away by Brett Graham\u2019s whare [showing at the Onehunga gallery at the time], and he was interested in pounamu \u2013 he\u2019d never seen pounamu . . . and then the other painting that really stopped him was a John Pule.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was really raving about it. I said \u2018I\u2019ll box it up and send it to you, mate. And he went, \u2018oh, you know, John, I\u2019ve got so much stuff, and I\u2019m not getting any younger\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oprah Winfrey with a Paul Dibble sculpture and John Pule painting, with Gow Langsford director Anna Jackson (right) at the art dealership’s Onehunga gallery.<\/p>\n
Gallery director Anna Jackson says she had an hour\u2019s notice of Oprah Winfrey\u2019s Sunday morning visit to the Onehunga gallery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got there more or less at the same time her security did . . . and she had prepared a list of things she wanted to see, which was helpful. It was all New Zealand art. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think what people are realising is that New Zealand is more than sport or landscapes. Hallelujah!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t possibly say,\u201d Jackson demurs. \u201cI think our whole business is built on relationships and discretion . . .\u201d<\/p>\n
Permission is sought before the gallery posts word of the visit on social media, Jackson says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Pierce Brosnan, people did turn up as soon as we\u2019d posted it, looking for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Langsford, co-founder and director, says the gallery\u2019s presence at \u201cart fairs all over the globe\u201d over almost 40 years has raised its international profile \u2013 but his recent encounter with musician David Byrne was self-initiated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s an artist who exhibits with Pace Gallery in New York. I contacted them a long time ago about the possibility of exhibiting David in New Zealand. Nothing happened, so I just let it go. And then when I heard he was coming here for a concert [in January], I sent them an email, \u2018the stars are aligned . . .\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There was no reply until a fortnight before Byrne\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said he\u2019d love to come to the gallery. I picked him up from the hotel and we had a good chat. We both went to art school, we both played music. He\u2019s obviously a bit more successful than I am!\u201d<\/p>\n
Byrne does not, however, own a 1962 Fender Stratocaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did sit down and play a couple of my guitars . . . I broke out the good ones! He was very impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still in touch, I\u2019m hoping at some stage, we\u2019ll be able to do a nice exhibition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musician David Byrne (left) on a recent visit to Gow Langsford gallery – pictured with director Gary Langsford and a Steve Carr sculpture.<\/p>\n
Langsford says the interest in recent New Zealand art is part of a global collecting trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could buy a good Renaissance painting for a fraction of the price of a good Jean-Michel Basquiat. Contemporary is where it\u2019s at, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n
Langsford says for wealthy collectors, a $300,000-$400,000 purchase is \u201clike us buying a cup of coffee\u201d. Big spenders want art that\u2019s worth millions – and they like the thrill of an unexpected find.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd there have been some great things come out of New Zealand, international things that people bought 50 years ago or whatever \u2013 Picasso, Lucio Fontana . . .<\/p>\n
\u201cKiwis on holiday in New York or London in the \u201850s and \u201860s and they wander into a gallery and buy two or three things. I wish a lot more of them had done that!\u201d<\/p>\n
More on art & artists<\/p>\n
From troublemakers to tourism boosters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tourists buy postcards – famous actors buy a painting by Colin McCahon. Gow Langsford\u2019s directors talk to Kim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1443,6946,1228,442,498,499,500,6743,91654,430,8486,501,6948,156,1444,2082,1229,231366,221,13635,231367,231369,19701,231368,111,139,69,18218,3074,17357,212065,205689,24035,6037,11227,9182],"class_list":["post-454884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-about","tag-actors","tag-art","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-became","tag-brosnan","tag-celebrities","tag-colin","tag-design","tag-directors","tag-entertainment","tag-famous","tag-for","tag-gallery","tag-gow","tag-how","tag-knight","tag-langsford","tag-langsfords","tag-magnet","tag-mccahon","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oprah","tag-painting","tag-paul","tag-pierce","tag-postcards","tag-selling","tag-simon","tag-talk","tag-tourists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}