When I was looking at the Russian Constructivists, these agitprop artists actually painted on trains. It was a heavy influence. They were bringing art to the people, to the masses, and breaking it out of the clubbiness of the art world, which is a monolith.

Jeffrey Deitch

Categorized in : Art World People

Elizabeth Taylor is one of the great cultural icons. She is a part of our history and should be celebrated.… This presentation is very special for the community, there are so many people who want to understand this side of Elizabeth Taylor.

Jeffrey Deitch

icons community people

I believe that an art exhibition can be engaging, fun and deeply intellectually satisfying and serious. These are not contradictory concepts in art.

Jeffrey Deitch

fun believe art

After pop art, graffiti is probably the biggest art movement in recent history to have such an impact on culture.

Jeffrey Deitch

graffiti impact art

Graffiti doesn't exist unless someone got a photo, because it's gone immediately.

Jeffrey Deitch

graffiti gone

In the 1970s when I started in the art world, no self-respecting artist would have stood in line to try to get on a television show. It never would have happened.

Jeffrey Deitch

self trying art

I was a fan of Andy's since I was a small kid. I recall seeing an ad of famous people on an airplane together. It was caricature drawing. There was Muhammad Ali, there was Miles Davis, and there was Andy Warhol. I had a fascination with him since I was little.

Jeffrey Deitch

airplane drawing kids

One of the interesting things about skateboarding and graffiti is that skateboarding exists in the documentation of an act.

Jeffrey Deitch

skateboarding graffiti interesting

To be in Brazil and see the work of Os Gêmeos or to be in England and see what Banksy is doing is pretty fascinating to me.

Jeffrey Deitch

brazil fascinating england

Every day you run into artists on the streets in SoHo or other creative people you want to do something with. There's nothing to match that chance encounter.

Jeffrey Deitch

artist running people

One of the biggest things happening in the art world is this idea of expansion. No one embodies this aspect of what art is becoming better than James Franco.

Jeffrey Deitch

becoming-better ideas art

Andy Warhol defined Pop Art.

Jeffrey Deitch

warhol pops art

I want to use whatever connections to get a super-outstanding Basquiat in the White House. It could be one of mine. It could be something that a friend owns.

Jeffrey Deitch

connections white house

Disney is our contemporary landscape. The best art will reflect that and challenge you. Disney comforts you, whereas the best art shakes up your comfort level and perception.

Jeffrey Deitch

perception challenges art

We're in a post-conceptual era where it's really the artist's idea and vision that are prized rather than the ability to master the crafts that support the work. Today, our understanding of an artist is closer to a philosopher than to a craftsman.

Jeffrey Deitch

support artist ideas

Skateboarding, like graffiti, will never be tamed. No matter how much they monetize it, no matter how big it gets, no matter how many companies are putting millions and millions of dollars into marketing it, it's always going to be some Mexican kid on a corner in Echo Park that changes the rules of the game.

Jeffrey Deitch

echoes games kids

Sometimes you do a sound installation, and the first day or two it is very exciting. Then you are hearing this every day for a month, and it becomes like a torture.

Jeffrey Deitch

hearing sound two

Overall, I think any opportunity to expose people to art on a mass level - to have some kid in Oklahoma say to his mother, "I want to be an artist" - is a good thing.

Jeffrey Deitch

mother kids art

Celebrity has become, for better or worse, an art form. An artist can use themselves as a medium to become a celebrity as a walking work of art.

Jeffrey Deitch

form use art

When you go out skating with your friends, you need one friend who knows how to take a good picture. Without the picture, there is no proof that you pulled the trick.

Jeffrey Deitch

skating proof needs

What I hope is I'll eventually be seen as an actual individual, not as some abstraction - an art dealer running a museum.

Jeffrey Deitch

running museums art