Photo by Felix Clay. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth Gallery Ltd.

Paul McCarthy Pipilotti Rist Louise Bourgeois Mary Heilmann John McCracken Le Corbusier Subodh Gupta Dieter Roth

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Is it true that you put on your first exhibition in 1987, at age 16, in the center of your hometown, St. Gallen, Switzerland?

Yes. It was a different time... If you had an idea and a vision, you could talk people into giving you works. I had Le Corbusier in mind, since it had been his 100th birthday, and then read in the newspaper that a gallery in Zurich was planning a show. I went there and rang the bell and told them about my plans for a gallery. They took me seriously and consigned about 30 Le Corbusier pieces to me — drawings, sketches and collages.

You opened Hauser & Wirth in 1992, during an economic downturn. What was that like?

It was a fantastic opportunity to buy, because a lot of works were available. We bought the installation Red Room by Louise Bourgeois and a group of early paintings and drawings by Agnes Martin for my mother-in-law’s collection. For the gallery’s inventory I got Gerhard Richter’s Kleiner Akt, 1966, and Frau mit Shirm, 1964.

It must have been an exciting time.

Yes. We met a lot of the artists who became the backbone of Hauser & Wirth, such as Mary Heilmann, Paul McCarthy, Pipilotti Rist and John McCracken. Some of the greatest pieces in my inventory were purchased in those early years.

In 2000 you opened the secondary-market gallery Zwirner & Wirth in New York. How did your partnership with the New York dealer David Zwirner come about?

I was one of his early clients in the ’90s. We began working together more and more, and it just seemed the next logical step to formalize this partnership.

Now you are looking for space for a Hauser & Wirth in New York. Is that wise in the current economic conditions?

Remember, I started in the early ’90s. Now is also a fantastic moment to expand. And unlike some other dealers, we have not opened a new space since 2002.

Could you have?

There are many temptations when times are good — all boats rise at high tide. We’ve been approached by cities, by clients, by collectors, by artists, but we held back. We decided that if we did something, New York was the most important place for us.

Hauser & Wirth does a lot of production for artists. Will you continue to do so this year?

We work with around 40 artists, and with 35 of them we are involved in production. Ten minutes ago I met with Subodh Gupta and we discussed a major 22-ton sculpture he’s doing for the Tate Triennial. We will work with [the Korean gallery] Arario on that. That’s how we’ll get things done, by doing them together.

In October 2006, Time Out London asked you, "Will the bubble burst?" You answered, "No, it won’t. It will just stop. Prices won’t go down, but no deals will be made."

Here I must correct my prediction. There was $700 million worth of art sold at auction last fall. That is unbelievably good. The liquidity is surprising to everyone. How will the role of fairs change in 2009? We’re moving toward the quiet deal in the gallery. If you have a great piece, you will probably part with it discreetly.

Will the secondary market play a stronger role for you this year?

Could be. But it’s a moment to buy at auction, not to sell. We bought quite a bit this fall, such as Bourgeois’s Spider V and McCarthy’s Michael Jackson Fucked Up for a client.

What is the most challenging exhibition you ever put on?

It had been a dream of mine to show Dieter Roth. He was a big personality in Switzerland. I met him in 1997, and we decided to do a show, but he made it difficult for me. As part of the show — which consisted mainly of installation work — I had to open a bar nearby. I had to invite his crew from Iceland and put them up in good hotels. The artist Urs Fischer was one of his bartenders. Building the bar took about two months, and one night the police came by. I explained that it was an extended gallery project, but Dieter said, "No, it’s not — it’s a bar." It was unbelievable.

And then what happened?

Dieter died during the exhibition. So it was his last show, and an extreme experience for me as a gallerist. "Conversation with Iwan Wirth" originally appeared in the February 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's February 2009 Table of Contents.