Page 41 - Studio International - February 1971

Things don't sell all that fast anyway. Although long-term job, you have to build up gradually, and Bauhaus collection. A continuum of art
if I hadn't sold anything at the Andre show, I it's no use expecting to get what you want in must exist in the museum, to provide a firm
shouldn't have got much further. The first three years. basis for people to get a bearing in the future.
collectors were a Dutch couple, the Vissers. I JAPPE: What are your plans for the future ? It's true that a public gallery that specializes in
haven't got many clients —a doctor, a bank FISCHER: On that I want to say something basic. temporary exhibitions can appeal more directly
director, a foundry engineer—and a few in Italy, I don't believe it's possible, at the present to the public, but not to the extent that it
Benelux and England. But more than 5o per cent moment, to interest a larger public than exists becomes an amusement hall, a place of
of what I sell goes to other galleries. Perhaps I'm already. I think experiments like Street Art are a entertainment. The private galleries are nothing
not an ordinary art dealer. I'm not interested in mistake. The idea is to present art to the public whatever to do with the general public. The
this whole gallery business. I want to convey as entertainment, but there is no such thing as gallery owner's job is not to communicate
information, to show an artist's work; I couldn't entertaining art —apart from a few of the things to a wide public but to 'keep the family
care less where I do it. I have never put a notice by-products. The idea of bringing the museums informed'.
in a paper. I'd rather do museum exhibitions up to date is based on a misconception. It's JAPPE: The 'family' being those who spread the
which are linked with my name. There's hardly certainly possible to do up-to-date exhibitions; word in the art world ?
a single big exhibition that's not put on with my but sugaring the pill —music, advertising, and so FISCHER: Yes. I do an exhibition, it's seen by two
help. Think of 'Attitudes' or the Conceptual on—is just a way of increasing the number of people, they tell four others, they tell eight more
Art show in Leverkusen, or the Haus Lange visitors. Museums are an archive of visual art. —in six months there's a chain reaction. There
shows, to mention only those near here. The And when a museum puts on an exhibition of is no art that is easily consumable. Warhol or
capital, as far as the artist and I are concerned, contemporary art it ought to do so in a Van Gogh make just as many demands on one as
is the publicity. What's important for me is not museum-like way, that is, logically and Conceptual Art; it's just that with paintings
how to sell things but how to get information coherently. Extending a tradition into the people think they've taken it all in in one look. I
across to those who are interested, so that in due future : that's the way a museum ought to inform believe that art is understood only by
course the artists I represent get somewhere, and the public; it ought to raise the value of professionals.
people say, 'Fischer got the right man.' I think tradition, through bringing in new tendencies, JAPPE: Aren't you inviting Left-wing
the usual dealer's attitude, neglecting anything and not depreciate it as usually happens accusations of elitism ?
that has nothing to do with sales, is absolutely nowadays. A Minimal exhibition, for example, FISCHER: There is no such thing as an elite
wrong. I see myself as an art agent; this is a would make sense in the context of a Mondrian mentality except where the elite has control.
This is just faulty reasoning on the part of the
Left. Artists don't make art for an elite; they
13 Panamarenko.
14 Douglas Huebler. don't make it for anyone.
15 Daniel Buren. JAPPE: You mean they are governed by what
z6 Palermo.
Gottfried Benn called 'the compulsion to
express' ?
FISCHER: Better to call it a need, there's no
compulsion. Art has no function; it's just art.
JAPPE: Art for Art's Sake, in other words.
FISCHER: Yes, that hasn't changed. The
extension of consciousness can come about
through any new object: the moon on television,
for example. Any art that sets out to expand
people's minds is nothing more nor less than
education. Artists can't change society through
their art, but through the influence they gain by
means of their art. In spite of Guernica, Picasso
was not a political artist. But if he were to say
anything about politics now, it would get
printed and people would read it. And the
people who are interested in art are those that
spontaneously get something out of it; they can
be of any educational level, and they certainly
don't belong to a class circumscribed by the IQ
standards of the Establishment. Take artists
like Barnett Newman or dealers like Schmela
—they came from perfectly ordinary
backgrounds.
JAPPE: And you don't want to give away
anything definite about your future plans ?
FISCHER: Yes, one thing. I am not going to need a
gallery. I want to work as an art agent. What I
want, and what my artists want, is to show my
programme for a solid half-year somewhere
where it hasn't been possible to see it before. I
am thinking of London. My Düsseldorf and
New York artists are known in the places where
they live; but my London artists are better
known in Düsseldorf and New York than they
are in London. q
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