By Jorge Fernández Era
The insistence from Havana was as huge as were my doubts whether I could make it or not. To interview Gary Nader in the Fair Zona Maco, where hundreds of journalists from the Mexican and international press take part, seemed to me kind of utopian. But the stand of Arte por Excelencias has a privileged position, and I was surprised to see Gary enter "without escort” to room D of Citibanamex.
The escort thing is just a joke that is actually worth it. Gary Nader is, no question about it, the main expert in Latin American contemporary art. His gallery in Miami, the Gary Nader Fine Art, with more than five thousand square meters, is one of the largest and most important in the world, and has works by Picasso, Basquiat, Botero, Chagall, Lam, Matta, Miró...almost nothing!
To pick up the recorder, camera and magazine, run after Gary before he could be "hijacked" by other colleagues and interview him in the middle of the hall was worth it, at least to my professional pride. Here is the result and you have the last word.
In the last thirty years, Gary Nader has established himself as the most important expert in Latin American art. What position do you think Zona Maco has in the cultural universe of the region?
Zona Maco is the most important art fair in Latin America, not only on account of what it represents in art from these countries, but because the great European and American galleries are participating. I came to the first edition. After that one, we did not attend it for a few years but we have been followed. Remember that the proximity of Mexico to the United States is a great advantage: the Mexicans understand that the proper thing is not only to collect Mexican art, but make a more extensive collection.
I would like to congratulate the organizers, because the quality this year is really much higher than in previous years.
With which artists do you feel most at ease: with those already recognized or with the emerging ones?
I personally do not work with emerging artists. I did that for thirty years, but the gallery has shifted to teachers and to those we call artists of a medium career, very proven artists, who are not only Latin American. Emerging artists are not our modus operandi anymore; many galleries do, but we are not in that market anymores.
In the Gary Nader Fine Art there is an inventory of very important contemporary Cuban artists such as Garaicoa and Los Carpinteros, of which we have works too.
Is something lacking in Cuban contemporary art to position itself with more strength in the main world circuits?
They do not lack anything. Cuba is doing very well. There is a very important offer from Cuban artists, but there is always room for improvement, and some very interesting ones are coming out. What happens is that people also have to understand that this is a very difficult business, and over the years one realizes that between eighty and ninety percent of the emerging artists disappear, because that is how the market is curated. Not just being an artist working in Cuba means that you are good, nor does it matter if you work in Poland or in the United States.
What is doing a lot of damage to Cuban artists is trying to put them in museums when they are not yet proved. The word museum entails having a career. Nowadays there are museums that exhibit, for the morbid "Cuban artist," anyone´s work, and that is no benefit to anyone. There are people who take advantage of them and tell them: “sell me at this price and I'm going to put you in a museum.” That's wrong, and it's something that´s happening.
If you put someone in a museum who has been working for only two or three years: what incentive do you give him? You have to get there after being a proven artist, at least of a medium career, not an emerging artist; these do not deserve to be in museums no matter how good they are. Many «great geniuses» have disappeared, and what do museums do with disappeared artists? The word museum has been prostituted way too much already.
What would you like it to be written in the future about the Gary Nader Fine Art project?
The same they have been writing for quite a while: we are very committed people with the promotion of Latin American art worldwide. The success that we have had is the proof of our work. People follow us in the exhibitions, in the galleries, we have five thousand clients around the globe. The museum we are setting is the most important Latin American art museum in the world, because we have the most important collection in the world. It is not that we say it, the critics say so. We have one hundred and eighty artists and more than fifteen hundred works, very well selected. We do not have everything, there is no such museum that has everything: there are works we don´t have. We are more focused on modern art, until we get to open the permanent museum. Now we have the travelling one, and we will start a reading and teaching program.
We are happy with what is written about us. The future still looks very bright for Latin America. It has gained a recognition that was already due twenty years ago. But we are getting there.
