Art Is Contagious

despite everything i’ve heard this

evening i think i have the best job in

the world

[Music]

i’m an art consultant i get to build

collections using art it’s like lego

blocks to small children except for i do

it in pictures

i get to build amazing collections like

the one outside here

but what i want to talk to you about

this evening is how you can get infected

by the art bug

i was eight years old i was in new york

with my parents

i had a very beautiful dress on i

remember

i walked into a large museum

and in front of me i saw this klaus

oldenburg’s floor burger from 1962 it

was vast i had never seen anything like

it it was called a sculpture what is a

sculpture sculptures are supposed to be

these big things made of metal

i looked at it i was completely confused

and transfixed and you know what

happened it moved me

and it moved me not because it was

important i didn’t know it was important

in fact it’s very important klaus

oldenburg is significantly important

the reason i loved it is it was so

different it smelled so different

so there was a shift in me most

definitely and ever since

i’ve loved americans and hamburgers

next

is actually a rather nasty story of how

i failed at my job i was 16 years old

tremendously fashionable i thought full

of art knowledge i thought

i was walking down

i had 100 pounds in my back pocket it

was my first art investment and remember

i am an art dealer at 16 years old i was

not i can assure you so i’m walking down

the portobello road i open a shop door i

walk in there enormous bins i ramble

through the bins and i pluck out what i

thought was a masterpiece at least i

thought it was what everybody else would

think would be a total masterpiece it

was a beautiful conte drawing of jesus

christ

i mean really beautifully drawn perhaps

in a perfect gold mirror i knew if i

bought it home everybody would love it i

knew that if i bought it inexpensively i

could sell it really expensively it was

the perfect thing i thought that

everybody else would think so i made the

acquisition i negotiated hard it was 35

i ran home with it i presented it to my

parents who at the moment or at that

time were hosting a rather significant

um art dealer and they all looked a bit

grim

they kind of looked at me it was flat i

had no heart connection with this thing

i was assessing it by absolutely the

wrong values

so those are the two moments where i

recognize that one i probably had a

career in this although that was a

failure

and two the art was really a disease

it was something that shifted you that

moved you that you really had to be

moved by it in order to engage with it

so very luckily ten years after that at

the beginning of my career i had the

great good fortune of meeting one of the

greatest musicians i’ve ever known and

i’m sure many of you agree it was david

bowie and david was

of course an artist himself but he said

and it was so profound he said that art

was seriously the only thing he wanted

to own which was very good for me

because i’m an art consultant

but

that it was profoundly nourishment to

him

it made a difference every day he woke

up every day thinking and thinking about

art and how he related to it

and this little guy was one of the first

sculptures that i bought for him so it

was my first interaction with him iman

his stunning wife comes into a gallery

i’m working for i’m rather bored

standing at the front desk and she

slipped over the counter a little

drawing by david of this spectacular

work teddy boy teddy girl from 1956

dancing figures by lynn chadwick this is

a seminal work by him it went to the

venice biennale i won’t bore you with

the art talk but suffice to say you can

even see these dancing figures from 1958

in their frock coats represented what

david really wanted to explore which was

the explosion of the art industry at the

time i knew it i’m an epic nerd i looked

at that piece of paper and i said come

along you’re in the wrong gallery she’d

actually walked into the wrong gallery

luckily for me so we strode across the

road and we made the acquisition and

iman invited me to tea that day to meet

david so i got into my cab with a

sculpture between my knees ran off to

you know his hotel room and i saw him

unveil it and i saw

his shift what shifted him

he was looking at an object of extreme

beauty but he was connecting with it

there was a conversation he was having

with it no one else existed in the room

and i’m sure many of you have had

experiences where you’ve looked at

things that have shifted you like that

i think you need a few tips or i think

everyone needs a few tips about how to

engage with art and how to get that

shift

all of you i hazard a guest walked into

this building right past this little

dude he’s on the front desk right at the

reception

this is an amazing sculpture you know it

it’s august it’s the thinker

and there he sits he’s 14 and a half

inches high he’s not beautifully

eliminated but i you know when you look

at art you’ve got to do two things

you’ve got to stand still

and you gotta look

look at this little guy tight fingers

relaxed hand in thoughtful repose

just walk around him spend a moment with

him give him the time of day for

goodness sake he’s pretty extraordinary

and after you’ve looked at this object

and it can be any object

then think about how you feel when you

see it that’s the other thing it’s a

conversation

so you look at the thinker and i tell

you during covert he was pretty anxious

as i am today

at times of study when my children look

at him they need to do their homework

but he has a majesty he’s telling us

something he’s in perpetual conversation

he was cast in 1902 he still works today

that is the power of being shifted by

art

so all i want you guys to do

is to step up and walk out of this room

if you have no time tonight i forgive

you i know it’s our collection my team

put it together

find something to look at and as i say

it doesn’t have to be something you love

in fact a good thing is to look at

things you don’t like

have that conversation

so look

so feel

and then after that discover about the

artist because i promise you in my world

it can shift you

thank you

[Applause]