I have always dreamt of an art without borders, so Exposare.com is a dream come true: an indispensable tool, the first online platform to centralize a catalogue of exhibitions taking place across the world.
Growing up with a father photographer and his artist friends, I have been exposed to art since childhood, and fell for it early on.
In 1988, Hans Namuth screened his film about Jackson Pollock during the Rencontres d’Arles festival. At the dinner afterward, I was seated next to Leo Castelli. He invited me to join the team of his New York gallery on West Broadway. There I discovered the international art scene, having dinner with Jeff Koons (who was just starting out then) and lunch with Leo on Saturdays. On my first day of work, I didn’t recognize Roy Lichtenstein’s voice on the telephone. On the second day, a Richard Serra sculpture fell over, and one of the technicians lost a leg. I got anonymous death threats calling Richard Serra a murderer!
As I met more and more people, my address book filled up. The exhibitions kept happening. I learned how to run a gallery, how to prepare an exhibition. In Cannes, I organized the first auction for the American Association for Aids Research, bringing together 200 photographs on the theme of cinema. In Arles, I took over the direction of the Fondation Van Gogh.
I organized exhibitions of Francis Bacon, Picasso, Van Gogh and many others, but above all l loan items from collection to institutions across the world. As a curator, my sole ambition is to create a modern tool for an art without borders. I left the Fondation Van Gogh in 2007 and returned to New York to get a degree in Arts Administration. Since then, I have been an art advisor and independent curator.
As the co-founder of Exposare, I wanted to open the doors to photographers, artists, designers, curators and gallery owners who have exhibitions for rent, and allow them to connect with other art world professionals.
When I left the Leo Castelli gallery, he said to me: “Anne, don’t be too impatient. I opened my first gallery when I was 50. Don’t forget that, and don’t be in a rush.”
Anne Clergue
Read the full text of this article on the French version of Le Journal.
