How Gow Langsford Art Gallery Became A Magnet For Oprah, Paul Simon & Pierce Brosnan
Tourists buy postcards - famous actors buy a painting by Colin McCahon. Gow Langsford’s directors talk to Kim Knight about the art of selling art to celebrities.
John Gow estimates the visitor stood nearly two metres tall. He was “built like a brick s***house” - and he wanted to know if the art gallery had a back door.
“Are you running security for someone?” Gow asked.
“Yeah,” said the man. He couldn’t say who, but he would be back at 11am on Saturday.
“I was way the hell out in Pakūranga watching my son in a rugby final,” Gow says. “I come dashing into the city, and there’s this big security guy and the diminutive figure of Paul Simon.
“I said ‘Oh, s***, Paul, I’m running a bit late - I was going to get changed’!”
Simon, one half of Simon & Garfunkel and more latterly famous for his solo career, spent almost two hours at Gow Langsford’s gallery in Kitchener St, Auckland.
Gow won’t say what he bought (“he didn’t spend a lot of money”) but recalls the 2009 visit included an encounter with one of artist Michael Parekowhai’s custom-made semi-acoustic “Ten Guitars”.
“He was really interested in Māori carving, and he was interested in a Parekowhai guitar and he played that and sang a bit . . .”
Gow Langsford, founded in 1987, is a contemporary art dealership with galleries in central Auckland and suburban Onehunga - and a magnet for celebrity collectors.
Since December, it has hosted American talk show queen Oprah Winfrey, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and former James Bond actor Pierce Brosnan. Paul Simon went on to become a frequent visitor and other big names the gallery has sold to include musician Lionel Richie (who bought a small bronze work by Marian Fountain) and Australian actor Nicole Kidman, who bought a Colin McCahon painting.
Does she still own it?
“I’ve never seen it for sale again,” Gow says.
Celebrities can rarely be persuaded to buy, he says.
“They have to engage and want something, and then the process just flows . . .
“They are high-net-worth people, and they have an awareness about art, and they know that drives culture. They realise that, when they’re visiting a country, to dig down into what makes a country tick, that seeing its visual arts is a big part of that.”
The recent visits are a result of relationships with high-end tourism companies and cultivated connections. Gow says while most have little prior knowledge of the New Zealand art scene, others, including actor Pierce Brosnan, arrive with specific requests.
“He was really interested in seeing Shane Cotton’s work, because he’d seen it down in Britomart, and so we had a room hung for him . . . and then we organised a studio visit when they were up in the Bay of Islands.
“He was blown away by Brett Graham’s whare [showing at the Onehunga gallery at the time], and he was interested in pounamu – he’d never seen pounamu . . . and then the other painting that really stopped him was a John Pule.
“He was really raving about it. I said ‘I’ll box it up and send it to you, mate. And he went, ‘oh, you know, John, I’ve got so much stuff, and I’m not getting any younger’.”
Gallery director Anna Jackson says she had an hour’s notice of Oprah Winfrey’s Sunday morning visit to the Onehunga gallery.
“I got there more or less at the same time her security did . . . and she had prepared a list of things she wanted to see, which was helpful. It was all New Zealand art.
“I think what people are realising is that New Zealand is more than sport or landscapes. Hallelujah!”
Did Oprah buy?
“I couldn’t possibly say,” Jackson demurs. “I think our whole business is built on relationships and discretion . . .”
Permission is sought before the gallery posts word of the visit on social media, Jackson says.
“With Pierce Brosnan, people did turn up as soon as we’d posted it, looking for him.”
Gary Langsford, co-founder and director, says the gallery’s presence at “art fairs all over the globe” over almost 40 years has raised its international profile – but his recent encounter with musician David Byrne was self-initiated.
“He’s an artist who exhibits with Pace Gallery in New York. I contacted them a long time ago about the possibility of exhibiting David in New Zealand. Nothing happened, so I just let it go. And then when I heard he was coming here for a concert [in January], I sent them an email, ‘the stars are aligned . . .’”
There was no reply until a fortnight before Byrne’s visit.
“They said he’d love to come to the gallery. I picked him up from the hotel and we had a good chat. We both went to art school, we both played music. He’s obviously a bit more successful than I am!”
Byrne does not, however, own a 1962 Fender Stratocaster.
“He did sit down and play a couple of my guitars . . . I broke out the good ones! He was very impressed.
“We’re still in touch, I’m hoping at some stage, we’ll be able to do a nice exhibition.”
Langsford says the interest in recent New Zealand art is part of a global collecting trend.
“You could buy a good Renaissance painting for a fraction of the price of a good Jean-Michel Basquiat. Contemporary is where it’s at, basically.”
Langsford says for wealthy collectors, a $300,000-$400,000 purchase is “like us buying a cup of coffee”. Big spenders want art that’s worth millions - and they like the thrill of an unexpected find.
“And there have been some great things come out of New Zealand, international things that people bought 50 years ago or whatever – Picasso, Lucio Fontana . . .
“Kiwis on holiday in New York or London in the ‘50s and ‘60s and they wander into a gallery and buy two or three things. I wish a lot more of them had done that!”
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