After more than 30 years of art business, Tim Blum helped develop a career as an artist from Yoshitomo Nara to Takashi Murakami, who is leaving his gallery, which will no longer use traditional galleries. Artnews Tuesday.
The decision was driven neither by financial pressure nor by the reshaping of middle age, but by burnout, Bloom said. “It has nothing to do with the market,” he said. “It’s about the system.”
He refers to the entire building of contemporary gallery life: the ever-expanding fairs, openness, obligations and expectations, which he says are getting more and more demanding year after year.
“It doesn’t work. And it’s not working,” he said. “Even if it looks a lot like it.”
About two years after another major turn: Blum’s long-term partnership with Jeff Poe ended about two years later. The two co-founded Blum & Poe in Los Angeles in 1994, when the city’s art world remained the periphery of New York’s dominance.
Over the next three decades, they helped transform it into a global force, representing artists such as Yoshitomo Nara, Solange Pessoa, Takashi Murakami and Henry Taylor, while expanding to New York and Tokyo. Poe left in August 2023, citing a desire for a “simpler, smoother road.” “It’s an extraordinary journey,” he said at the time. “But I think this moment is another turning point.” By October, Blum had removed his former partner’s name from the header.
Bloom’s summer exhibitions in Tokyo and Los Angeles will be closed. The New York space, which is expected to open in the fall, may not be open at all (if it wasn’t as a traditional gallery), and Blum will not be able to maintain a formal roster of artists.
Instead, Bloom said he is pursuing a “more flexible model” that will involve special projects, collaborations and what he calls a “long-term vision that is still under development.”
While the gallery will be sunset, Bloom will not disappear from the market. “Of course, I’m still going to buy and sell artworks,” he said. “It’s part of my DNA.”
Bloom said that while he pointed out that the turning point after the 2008 collapse was a turning point, the shift has been established for years. “Everything has moved up and outward since 2009,” he said. “And we have been involved in this expansion.” More fairs, more locations, more shows, more artists – growing into a default setting. But even in the most robust years, such as 2021, the market is a bubble, it is not sustainable. “The business is getting tougher and more serious,” he said.
However, the response of the industry as a whole has always been the same: Keep moving forward. “It’s like a friend I once said, you’re crashing into a lawn mower to fix the water heater,” Bloom said. In his estimate, the system was misplaced and everyone knew it – but they’ve been doing the same thing, hoping for a different result. Even now, with the pandemic paused for a few short years, many dealers are back on the same track, faster than ever before.
“Everyone is talking about going down,” Bloom said. “But nothing has changed.”
He spent decades navigating what he called the “world of big money and big business” and he was looking for other slower things, a different purpose. “I don’t want finance and logistics to be a concept of prospects in my headspace every day.” Instead, he pursues life in the market, ways to reflect, interpersonal relationships and other ways of interacting with art that is not purely transactional.
An emerging focus is a long-term action project that he and his wife have been quietly developing for years, a space that Blum describes as “a slower and slower.” The focus is on healing, awareness and awareness. He believes it is a way to reconnect art to context, meaning and self-examination. “It’s about building bridges between different ways,” he said. “The artistic transition in real life.”
The market has become dull lately, but Bloom insists that the idea of ending operations has penetrated for years. “It’s not because Basel sucks,” he said. “But it really sucks. It’s like a thunderous person- confirming everything I’ve been feeling for years.” He said he sold 85% of the booth ahead of time, but the fair seemed to confirm his need for things. “We didn’t have a meaningful conversation from Thursday to Sunday,” he said. “It was profound.”
Blum specifically stated that he would not be a consultant or set up a consulting firm, but he said it was time to make changes. “Everyone is talking about leaving the carousel,” he said. “But no one will do that. I decided I need it.”
