Transcript

James Zemaitis: In my market, no, because people . . . When I . . . When I exhibit my works of contemporary design at Sotheby’s on our kind of, you know, number one space – our 10th floor Richard Gluckman design area where work is meant to appear in a contemporary museum setting, I don’t want people necessarily to touch these works. Every . . . The last couple of seasons we’ve sold these tremendous Ron __________ sculptural masterworks that he produced in the early 1990s; you know where every fingerprint almost gets permanently recorded on that piece; and you know the new collector has to, you know, pay to have everything wiped off again. I mean that’s the opposite of sitting in a chair and being comfortable, isn’t it? I mean it really is . . . It’s all about giving design this high art, you know, high aesthetic kind of aura to it that increases the value.

Recorded on: 1/30/08

blog comments powered by Disqus

Does thinking about design as art undermine its function?

No, but not every piece of design should be touched.

James Zemaitis

James Zemaitis

Senior Vice President & Head of 20th Century Design, Sotheby's

| In Arts & Culture

Share This Story

More Videos in Arts & Culture