The investment banker-turned-collector loosens his cravat and dishes on the House of Cards-level backchanneling and machinations at work in the contemporary art market. Servais points to a lack of education and an abundance of money driving purchasing decisions based on gallery “brand” over true artistic merit, and draws numerous comparisons between the gallery system and the luxury goods industry. Which is interesting to see in a conversation that doesn’t once mention art jewelry, a field that is itself a Venn diagram of where the contemporary art, luxury goods, and fashion markets intersect.
Servais also declares his allegiance to digital art, and objects not so much: “So don’t try to bring everything back to objects… (T)his is why I’m so sorry about all the artists who have been working for the last decade in digital art… That’s the thing we need to save! That’s the real work of art—that’s what will make history—and not the kind of object that’s made using 3-D printing so we can say, ‘Yes, we’ve got an object.’ It really makes me want to throw up.” (So, digital art… Yes. Art that is fabricated digitally… Barf?)
