Uncompromising Commitment Is Everything.

"Art is a powerful revealer of issues that might have been hidden within communities, forgotten or not seen, and suddenly exposed in the strongest tones. Gender and race, social behaviors, and interests are constantly moving themes. Art always follows them, sometimes running faster than the whole society and helping us, human observers and creators, to evolve."

Ulisses Cohn,?board member of the DAN Galeria in Sao Paulo, shared his insights on art and commitment in my latest "Leading Through Disruption" interview. Subscribe?here ?to receive future interviews.?

Lauterbach: What was your first exposure to art, and how did you start your journey as a gallerist?

Cohn: My father was an art publisher. In our family, all children studied music and visual arts. I grew up around art books. I studied theatre and architecture, worked as an actor and assistant director, and did stage design.

My parents opened DAN Galeria in 1972. My brother created the contemporary art department in 1985, and later, I also joined the gallery board.

When my father first started, there were probably only around ten serious galleries in Brazil. Collectors, artists, and gallerists worked together, and personal friendships were incredibly important. Discussions evolved around artists’ mentalities, processes, and philosophies.

Lauterbach: What changed in the art market from when you started to now?

Cohn: Digital technologies have completely transformed communication in the art market. Decades ago, we took large photographs to introduce an artist or his/her new piece to a collector. Waiting for weeks to glance at a painting was a common thing. Today, we whatsapp images that we take with smartphones. What looks like an easy process has some downsides. There is more pressure on gallerists. Responsiveness and staying connected 24/7 are vital, though not always easy.

Lauterbach: How did digital technologies shape human perception, if at all?

Cohn: Human perception is very driven these days by electronic images. Digital images are self-explanatory and immediate. You see what you get, and you get what you see.

In our gallery, we have stunning digital art whose creators did a lot of serious research before translating their findings and vision into paintings or installation . Sometimes, when I look at digital art, I see pieces that are complete.

On the other hand, capturing something immediate within abstractive paintings or sculptures sometimes translates into long creative journeys. Looking at traditional means of canvas and oil or acrylic paints to express movement and energy makes us wonder whether a piece is ready or should evolve further. Some of my favorite paintings in the gallery are by an artist whose creative process starts with a simple image and goes through a net of multiple layers that are painted over, destroyed, and rebuilt again until the artist understands that everything comes together at last. Such moments of understanding are magical and powerful. I sometimes wonder whether digital images possess the same depth of creative history.

As an individual, I gravitate towards art that is never complete, creates a relationship between artwork and an observer, and stays ever-evolving while revealing new facets.

Lauterbach: Can one read the pulse of a community or maybe an entire generation while decoding art?

Cohn: Art is a powerful revealer of issues that might have been hidden within communities, forgotten or not seen, and suddenly exposed in the strongest tones. Gender and race, social behaviors, and interests are constantly moving themes. Art always follows them, sometimes running faster than the whole society and helping us, human observers and creators, to evolve.

My father was very involved in geometrical abstractionism from the 1950s to the 1970s when Brazilian art demonstrated wonderful pieces of concretism and modernism. Then, things changed, and abstract art became more susceptible to nature and more playful. It is fascinating to watch the evolution of taste and leitmotifs in aesthetics dominating the generations, as those reflect what was important to cultural circles and the whole society.

I often wonder how we mediate over paintings. What we gravitate towards reveals much about who we are and what time we live in!

Lauterbach: What is your personal philosophy behind curating artists?

Cohn: I closely work with my family. Despite different views and personal inclinations, there is one common theme. We represent artists who are entirely and fully committed to what they do. Best artists possess something uncontrollable within them. There is kind of a pathological need to express a feeling or an idea. These creators stay with art no matter what difficulties their lives put in front of them. Uncompromising commitment is everything.

This is maybe why our gallery doesn’t represent very young artists. We want to see human and artistic evolution and an undeniable dedication to artistic pursuit and expression.

Still, we offer young people the chance to show their work in a venue we own. It is kind of a research bubble, feeding our curiosity and providing opportunities to experiment.

Lauterbach: Undeniable commitment is a trait celebrated in the best entrepreneurs. It is never about money but creating a solution for a significant problem.

Cohn: Being an artist has nothing to do with the art market and the financial side of the equation. The market might come many years later, sadly, sometimes after an artist dies. Today, we encounter new generations of creators driven by financial success and scaling their work to match it. The danger of becoming too commercial is highly relevant these days.

Lauterbach: How did art education for the masses change in your country over the past twenty years?

Cohn: In Brazil, we have economic difficulties and many political issues. But art and theatre education became compulsory in schools, and this is a very good thing.

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