Junk Food and Studied Consumption at Armory Preview

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Gallerist Christopher Taylor of New York/London gallery Museum 52 had chosen to mount a solo exhibition of new work by American artist Sarah Braman. Of the decision, he said, “You can put up a bunch of stuff and hedge your bets, but if we're all going out of business, we might as well do it with panache.” Within an hour of the opening, one of the works had sold. 

Buttonholed at the booth of Tokyo/Kyoto gallery Taka Ishii, St. Louis collector Ron Pizzuti said, “I haven’t jumped up and down or bought anything yet.”

But he quickly amended his observation, “Oh, I bought a small gouache by Ashley Hope at Jack Tilton."

Pizutti was kneeling on his haunches to get a better look at a series of three abstract works on paper by Hiroe Saeki that were brought out from the back room for his inspection. The pieces, which he had never seen before, were priced at under $5,000 apiece. 

“I think dealers are still bringing out their best things and prices are more reasonable, especially with the American dealers,” Pizzuti observed.

Moments later, he made up his mind and bought all three.

That’s the kind of studied consumption that dealers are counting on.

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.