A finger in a nerve: An introduction
It is an honour and a privilege to introduce this catalogue on the work and life of Matthew Wong for the occasion of the joint exhibition with Vincent van Gogh at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam and the Kunsthaus Zürich. Life affects people in different manners with...
The Meta-Future — A poem about the history of the metaverse
You’ve probably seen a lot of articles about the metaverse, but how many poems have you read on the matter? As the art world ponders the future of the metaverse, NFT evangelist Kenny Schachter charts the line from the 19th-century’s stereoscopes to tomorrow’s VR...
Kenny Schachter on Kindness and Cruelty at Art Basel, and Why He’s a Fan of the Great Crypto Disappearing Act
A still from my upcoming NFT collaboration with Dakis Joannou, to be released on NiftyGateway July 7th! Take advance of the market crash, they’re cheap! Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.I feel like a cockroach. Not exactly the bug (though that too), but rather like Kafka’s...
Kenny Schachter Wades Through the Booze-Soaked NFT Mecca of Miami Beach—and Wishes He Could Escape to the Metaverse
Adam Lindeman as Chromie Squiggle Remember last month when I wrote that I was done writing for a while? Well, I lied (if you can’t contradict yourself…). You didn’t think I’d actually give up this platform, did you? If you hadn’t heard, I returned to Miami Basel this...
R.I.P. Kenny Schachter, Lousy Art Salesman and O.K. Market Journalist, Who Went Down Bringing You This New York Auction Recap
Kenny Schachter in the process of shedding his skin as a journalist. Photo: www.KennySchachter.artThis is a twist on Arthur Miller, where the salesman in fact comes to terms with his new identity and the concomitant change effectuated by it. In other words, dear...
Who Is Behind Art Forger Wolfgang Beltracchi’s New Crypto Project? Kenny Schachter Unmasks the Top NFT Creator in His First-Ever Interview
Some of the Salvator Mundi NFTs from Wolfgang Baltracchi's new NFT collection "The Greats."In January 2021, a long-germinating NFT project titled Hashmasks officially launched. The series of 16,384 unique collectible NFTs was the first meaningful follow-up...
Kenny Schachter Surveys the Highs and Lows of Art Basel and Scolds Art Snobs for Dismissing NFTs (Which He’s Selling a Lot of, by the Way)
Creative destruction: blowing up the bridge between old and new—the traditional art world and the world of NFTism.The art world knows one word, above all others, and that is “no.” No, you can’t buy this (the illusive waiting list); no, you can’t do that, or say… just...
Kenny Schachter Gets Clued Into an Ultra-Secret $130 Million Frida Kahlo Auction and Wades Through the NFT Swamp
It’s raining men, and money in Frida’s case.Before I resume with more of the crypto content you’ve come to expect from me of late (apologies in advance), here’s some juicy meatspace fodder to chew on. Author Luis-Martín Lozano spent 30 years ferreting out all 152...
In the Wild West of NFTs, Kenny Schachter Rubs Shoulders With Jay-Z, Crypto Grifters, Dodgy Doppelgangers, and Some Very Pricey Socks
Owning Gary Vaynerchuk NFTs are like buying a few of Tony Robbins teeth and gaining a seat in his mouth. I’d prefer Tony’s molars than a one-on-one mentoring session with GaryVee. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.With unprecedented levels of cataclysmic events afoot, both...
After Years of Ridicule, Kenny Schachter Has Kissed and Made Up With Zombie Formalist Lucien Smith. Here, They Talk Art, Drugs, & the Market
No rain here, just healthy living in S-chanf, Switzerland. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.The painter Lucien Smith, born in April 1989, crashed out of the gate in a hurry—only to suffer an equally swift, though less desirable crash of an altogether different variety. In...
Is the NFT Moment Over? Far From It. Kenny Schachter Surveys an Art World Remade by NFTs (and Damien Hirst’s Elusive New Money Man)
The elusive Joe Hage. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.I was at a gallery the other day when someone cast a glance in my direction and said to a friend, “Isn’t that the NFT guy?” Yes, I may very well be that—but it doesn’t mean I’m not still privy to meatspace scoops every...
Are NFTs a Shrinking Market… or the Next Amazon? Kenny Schachter Wages War With Crypto-Cynics and One Incomprehensible NFT Terrorist
NFTs have made Kenny Schachter's life... interesting. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.Joshua Decter is a “writer, curator, theorist, educator, and editor” who really, really loathes NFTs, so much so he has been engaged in a months-long, cross-platform attack against me on...
Kenny Schachter on the NFT Scheme He Cooked Up With Jerry Saltz to Make Some Big Money (for Charity), and Why It Made Jerry… Less Than Ecstatic
Professor Kenny Schachter Is Here to Teach You More About NFTs (and Put the Crypto Critics in Detention)
That’ll be Professor Nifty to you. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.I am urgently trying to scratch together enough fiat money—you know, old-fashion paper currency made legal tender by government decree—to buy my house, which is weighed down by an antediluvian hoard...
Are NFTs the Next Tulip Bubble? Kenny Schachter Doesn’t Care—and He Sold His Own Grandma on the Crypto Web to Prove It
Bubble, bubble, toil and no trouble (on the horizon). Some will go up, many will go down, but NFTs are here to stay! Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.It took the world centuries to stop talking (and thinking) about the artiness of art and denigrate the discussion to the...
What’s a ‘Rug Pull’? Here’s Kenny Schachter’s Handy Glossary of NFT Terms for Newbie Crypto-Art Converts
It all makes sense, trust me. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.For all you luddites (including me, only a few months ago) who are new to the world of crypto art, here is a partial glossary of NFT terms—one that will undoubted need updating before this is even posted....
Kenny Schachter Gets Sucked Into the Surreal NFT Vortex… and Makes a Fortune Overnight in the New Virtual Art Market
My second drop on Nifty Gateway—woohoo, I reinvented myself in late middle age. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.While writing this, I’m on WhatsApp chatting to a friend, listening to (yet another) Clubhouse talk drone on, and participating in a group discussion on...
Happy New Year? Kenny Schachter on His Money-Losing Auction, Battles on the Homefront, and the Art of Swiss Excess
Can I help you find something? Kenny Schachter presiding over his Sotheby's sale. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.How can you make a small fortune in art? Start with a big one. I’m paraphrasing Victor Gauntlett, a onetime owner of the perennially cash-strapped sports car...
The Great Stink
Paul Thek, Untitled (Meat Cable), 1968-69. Wax on steel cable with two turnbuckles. 168 x 3 x 2 1/2 in. Photography by Veli-Matti Hoikka. Courtesy of Hannah Hoffman, Los Angeles. © The Estate of George Paul Thek.I got COVID this autumn, not after taking fourteen...
Kenny Schachter Is Back, Baby! And He’s So OVR It. (But Has Plenty to Say About the Ron Perelman Selloff)
The time is now! For the auction houses to have a more representative staff. Until then, maybe Anthea Hamilton will lend some of her mannequins. Illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter.I hope this article finds you and your family safe in these strange and...
Remembering the beautiful melancholy of Matthew Wong
Matthew Wong's The Realm of Appearances on show at a preview of Sotheby's contemporary art evening auction on 29 June in New YorkI’d like to share a few thoughts concerning Matthew Wong and the recent auctioning of four of his works since his recent premature death in...
Are TV Art Auctions the New Televangelism? In a World Gone Mad, Kenny Schachter Tunes In to Watch the Fast and Furious Flipping
There's no accounting for dumb. Illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. *This story has been updated with a correction. Please see the full correction appended at the end. As the beaches swell with sardined sun worshippers and pathetic partygoers, and as COVID...
Kenny Schachter Has Some Choice Words to Say About Inigo Philbrick’s Arrest, and Now Turns His Attention to… Donald Trump
I can’t say I’m happy about this, but it doesn’t mean I can’t have a laugh—I did get Inigo’d don’t forget. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. We sure live in some fucked up times. Take New York City alone, in which the mayor, Bill de Blasio, is overplaying his hand in...
Nate Freeman’s Artnet News Wet Paint: Kenny’s cutting in
Give it away, give it away, give it away: this should be the name of my column, Richard Prince’s publication of Ted Kaczynski’s “Truth Versus Lies.” One per customer, it’s only morally right to generous Richard. Photo courtesy Kenny Schachter. Below is a special guest...
‘The Great Art World Reassessment’: A Heartwarming Bedtime Story by Kenny Schachter
Sweet dreams. Illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. With the art world as we knew it receding into memory, Artnet News columnist Kenny Schachter wrote a children’s bedtime story to remember how the industry evolved as it did—and to imagine were, hopefully, it can...
The ‘Banality’ Bailout? In a Locked-Down Art World, Jeff Koons Chases Government Cash, Flippers Persist, and Kenny Schachter Takes It Easy
Shackled: Jeff Koons's (blue) ball and chain gang. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter.The live Instagram Stories that are proliferating under lockdown are the equivalent of anything-goes public-access television—an unprofessional stream of blather with horrible video and...
What to Do When the Art World’s on Lockdown? Kenny Schachter Goes Searching for Cut-Price Deals From Quarantine
Um, let’s not and say we did. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. “Corona, Corona, Corona, baby!” That’s the new rallying cry that on-the-run art dealer Inigo Philbrick—aka “Inigo! Inigo! Inigo!” as his now-infamous daily shower rant goes—wrote to me the other day. He...
As Coronavirus Upends the Art World, Kenny Schachter Hits the Fairs (and Shares a Convo With His Frenemy Inigo Philbrick)
Stay back! I’m going in! With my Andre Cadare- and John McCracken-armed art suit. Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. We seem to be in the midst of some otherworldly, Kafkaesque, biblically scaled reassessment of modern life. Every day is now Sunday with new...
The Art World’s Mini-Madoff and Me Boozy nights and high-stakes art trades with Inigo Philbrick.
lnigo Philbrick, left, and the writer, in St. Moritz on New Year’s Eve in 2015. Photo: Courtesy Schachter When I first met Inigo Philbrick in 2012, he was all of 25, looked an awful lot like Justin Timberlake, and was running an art gallery called Modern Collections...
Kenny Schachter Gets Emotional Support at LA’s Art Fairs—and Picks Up Some Intel on Larry Gagosian’s Bedroom Dealings
With so many art dealers, my emotional support pig sure came in handy. Only in LA folks! Courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Los Angeles is its own spiritual, quartz-laden universe, and it takes a little getting used to for a consummate East Coast outsider like my...
Why Do Mega-Collectors Play Monopoly With Masterpieces? Kenny Schachter Sees Trouble Brewing in the Year Ahead
Monopoly: Art-Market Edition. Video still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Another year has gone by, and with it another holiday spent in the mecca of money (and art), St. Moritz, where my in-laws, avid skiers all, have been vacationing for decades. Due to the of fear of...
Where’s Inigo? As a Furious Art World Searches for the Disappeared Dealer, Kenny Schachter Finds Him… on Instagram
"Where's Inigo," a new puzzle for the whole family. Artwork courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The only thing more scrutinized than the whereabouts of the Salvator Mundi—which I happened to locate on a certain boat in the Middle East—is the art world’s new game of “Where’s...
As Corruption Reigns in the Art Market, Kenny Schachter Follows the Money in New York’s Art Auctions
What’s next, an art-world whistleblower? Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. On November 8th I gave a keynote talk for the Art Appraisers Association of America at Cardozo School of Law, which I coincidentally attended in a previous life. Initially, I was...
In a World Rent Asunder by Protest, Kenny Schachter Goes Shopping for Art at FIAC—and Pays a Little Visit to That Jeff Koons
A Koons memorial that would have been better if it was designed by a kommittee. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. Before I launch into a brief fair recap, some thoughts on the upcoming auctions and state of art collecting, as insignificant as it all sounds in...
Is Infantilism the Key to KAWS’s Unstoppable Rise? Kenny Schachter Peers Behind the Scenes at the London and Hong Kong Auctions
KAWS's market just keeps going. Artwork by Kenny Schachter. Whether we actually live in the wackiest, rockiest economic, social, and political time in history remains to be seen, but there’s no denying it certainly feels that way. Unprecedented art world...
Fistfights! Gallery Defections! Artist Lawsuits! Kenny Schachter on the Chaos of an Art Market Addicted to Easy Credit
Sotheby’s Easy Art Credit may cause nausea, vomiting, and bankruptcy. Use only as directed. If you can’t afford the pill, this medication is not for you! Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. On the first day back to school last week, I had lunch with dealer...
Kenny Schachter on What the London Auctions Foretell for the Art Market, and Why He Wants to Get in on the Hot Merch Action
Money was the medium, as in Damien’s diamonds; now it’s BBB (Bed Bath & Beyond-ism), with products as paint and process. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. For the first 24 hours after I post on artnet News, I shut down all communication...
After Scooping the World on ‘Salvator Mundi,’ Kenny Schachter Has More to Reveal About the Leonardo—and Art Basel’s Biggest Deals, Too
The forced march we all love to bemoan, but always end up repeating. Art Basel is now 50 years old, though fair brass are waiting 'til 2020 to celebrate. (You get better marketing conditions by rounding off the numbers and calling it 1970-2020 in copy.) Image collage...
Where In the World Is ‘Salvator Mundi’? Kenny Schachter Reveals the Location of the Lost $450 Million Leonardo
You got your Salvator in my Kusama: What private museum is worth its weight in oil without a mirror room? Photo collage courtesy of Kenny Schachter. It’s a miracle! When I received intel from a source with deep Middle Eastern ties as to the possible whereabouts of...
Kenny Schachter Reveals the Mystery Buyer of Jeff Koons’s Bunny—and Blurts Out Other Secrets From Auction Week as Well
Steve Cohen was the belle of the auction ball after buying a certain rabbit. Animation still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Remember Fatal Attraction’s famous bunny-burner? Well, I definitively know the identity of the bunny-buyer, and now you do too: Steve Cohen....
‘I’m the Donald Trump of the Art World,’ Sean Scully Says in His New Movie. Kenny Schachter Has a Few Other Descriptors to Add
Street Fightin’ Man: Sean Scully as Muybridge study in motion. Collage courtesy of Kenny Schachter. This is a review of the April 2019 BBC film Unstoppable: Sean Scully and the Art of Everything. Last fall I reviewed The Price of Everything. What’s next, The...
A Very Special Easter Poem From Kenny Schachter and Jeff Koons’s Inflatable Bunny
This rabbit has a poem for you. Animation still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I used to be a toyAnd meant to bring you joyNot sure what I should call myselfAm I a girl or a boy? Are you tempted to plant a kiss?Looking for ever-lasting bliss?It’s physical, it’s...
What’s That Smell? Kenny Schachter Grooves on the Mellow Vibe at LA’s Art Fairs—While Waiting for the Big One to Hit
People seemed to really enjoy Frieze LA. Wonder why? Video still courtesy of Kenny Schachter. I cannot tell a lie (as many know firsthand—sorry): Although I was in LA at the time, I didn’t go to Art Los Angeles Contemporary (ALAC), Spring Break, or even Felix, really,...
How Far Can a Mega-Gallery Expand? Kenny Schachter Shares His Predictions for 2019
The Hauser & Wirth Hospice. Artwork courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Top of the World! At an altitude of 5,466 feet, the tagline of St. Moritz makes perfect sense, but it may soon be better known as the Top of the Art World. There are around 30 international...
Is the ‘Fairantee’ the Next Guarantee? Kenny Schachter Races Through Art Basel Miami Beach, Trying to Dodge the Feel-Bad Art
Kenny meets Mike. Photo illustration by Kenny Schachter. In his Aesthetics (1835), the philosopher G. W. F. Hegel published a compilation of university lectures on fine art, stating: “For us art counts no longer as the highest mode in which...
Has the Art Market Reached a Stage of End-Game Nihilism? Kenny Schachter on New York’s $2 Billion Auctions
Take it or leave it, it’s our art world- Adverting Art. Photo courtesy of Kenny Schachter. Last week, in just six days of Impressionist, Modern, and contemporary auctions in New York, around two billion dollars of art was sold—with even more sales taking place...
Kenny Schachter on What ‘The Price of Everything’ Gets Wrong About the Erotic Relationship Between Money and Art
Art and money have had sex for centuries but rarely share a bed. Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The Price of Everything, the new HBO documentary from My Architect filmmaker Nathaniel Kahn, is meant to pull back the curtains on the connection...
Has Art-Fair Despair Driven Kenny Schachter Mad? He Sees Them Everywhere These Days, Even on the Train
All aboard the Eurostar Fair to nowhere, fast…no need to check-in, unpack or disembark! A new form of train robbery? Photo illustration courtesy of Kenny Schachter. The last round of London contemporary art auctions were down nearly 10 percent, but you can’t really...
Here’s What Really Happened With Banksy’s Art-Shredding Stunt at Sotheby’s, According to Kenny Schachter’s Source
Surprised onlookers react as Banksy's Girl With a Balloon self-destructs at Sotheby's. Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even...
Who Bought That Record-Breaking Jenny Saville? Kenny Schachter Eavesdropped at the Auctions—and Braved Frieze—to Bring You the Scoop
Jenny Saville at Sotheby's contemporary art evening auction in London.Before things even got cooking in London last week for the 16th iteration of the Frieze Art Fair and the concomitant auctions, there was the monster Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition hosted by...