~DAN ASHER . . JEW YORK
DAN ASHER . . THE ART WORLD’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
JEW YORK
JUNE 20 – JULY 26, 2013
ZACH FEUER – 548 W22 – CHELSEA, NYC
DAN ASHER, Untitled, 1983.
oil-stick on newsprint, 22.5 x 14.5 inches.
Provenance: from the estate of DAN ASHER.
($14,000)
PHOTO: NICHOLAS STEINDORF
surprise surprise, there is a seriously beautiful, early DAN ASHER drawing – in this otherwise somewhat quiet show. and it is .. truly beautiful. expressive. unique, with a raw power that speaks with the wild strangeness, and powerful eloquence – that was Dan.
dating from 1983, just a few years into Dan’s arrival into the city as a young artist, it is also rare in that Dan seldom worked on ‘found’ newsprint/paper – and especially towards the later years, you will find all of his output on professional grade archival art paper.
what do I mean by dirty little secret.
ha.
I mean almost everybody, whose anybody – in this town, and in Europe and even Japan, has some of Dan’s work. I would surmise, a slightly informed wild guess based on my personal knowledge – the average holding being about 10 pieces. often more. Dan would sell you something, and then he would continually hound you, to get the rent paid, so that sometimes it was hard to say no, esp as the price might seriously drop to facilitate a sale. but the deal is . .
nobody who has any, will part with them, no matter how much or how little they paid. everyone who holds a stash, to a person . . believes so much in the work, that no matter how little official action there is for the stuff, c-u-r-r-e-n-t-l-y . . they will only sell at prices . . that way exceed the real-time market.
so note that price: $14,000. wow, I guess the public face of the game – is finally changing. but we all saw it coming.
I guess Dan’s real-time price has finally caught up . . to real-time market ?
put it this way: YOU are trying, or hoping to turn a 1 or 2 million dollar return on your brand new $24 million Basquiat. these guys, buying and holding onto Dan’s work are going for the ultimate thrill. they going for the whole hog. they are going for making . . $24 million (!!) – on (still) a relatively very small initial investment . . .
wow. what a horse race.
and, work that is also . . quite pleasing on the wall. just as rough & ready as Basquiat, in fact.
don’t say you weren’t told.
ps:
sorry I had initially posted the price as $1,400. my bad. wow. I guess it’s hard to believe Dan’s market has finally caught up to – what was the insider action. and it’s still only an indication of where it’s really & truly, gonna go.
we all knew it. so did Dan.
that’s what him so frustrated, and angry in his lifetime.
wow. I guess the secret is – out.