Centaur Art galleries is pleased to present the art work of Andy Warhol, who passed away in 1987, and his former assistant, Steve Kaufman. The exhibition of the “Master” and his “student”, reunited at last and exhibited together, is Centaur Art Galleries most ambitious undertaking in more than 20 years.
Centaur Art Gallery Is proud to present Steve Kaufman in person. The prince of pop art, former assistant to Andy Warhol.
Fashion Show Mall main level, next door to Bebe store. 3200 Las Vegas Boulevard South, Las Vegas Nevada 89109. Google Map.
Richard Perry interview on Steve Kaufman art
Perry: My name is Richard Perry, and I am the Chief Operating Office of Centaur Art Galleries in the Fashion Show mall. We have been here 25 years, since the mall opened its doors.
Interviewer: Also tell me what attracted you to Steve Kaufman, to represent his art.
Perry: That’s a great question. Sometimes art dealers can’t answer that question because there is an emotional response to the art. But, not only did I feel a very strong emotional response to Steve’s artwork because it’s popular art. It’s art that depicts the popularity of all of the things that we’ve lived through for the last 30, 40, 50, 60 years. And the great thing about Steve’s art is it has a wide range of massive appeal to the general public. 80 percent of the people who walk in here are struck by what he does and the messages he conveys in the art. They also like the very reasonable prices. It’s a whole host of things. It’s not just one thing. When an art dealer makes a decision to represent an artist he looks at a variety of things. Part of what we look for is not only artists who are good and exceptionally talent and have the ability to be able to portray a massive variety of ideas and subjects, but we also like to represent artists who are at the beginning of their career, where there artwork is still very affordable, where you can buy very large works of art at what we think of as affordable prices.
Steve fits into the category of being probably the best, youngest, brightest, newest talent in the art community that anyone who’s probably come along in the last 25, 50 years. We are delighted to have his artwork in the gallery. We do very well with it. And I can’t speak any more highly of Steve other than to suggest that we think he’s going to be one of the greatest artists of the 21st century.
And, you know, when you spend your early years and your developmental years in a studio like Andy Warhol’s studio where Steve was an assistant, where there’s great genius hanging around in that factory – because his studio was referred to as the factory, this is where we produce mounds of different works of art, ideas that come along as the result of being star struck by everything going on around us. And that’s what we like so much about Steve’s artwork. It’s pure genius.
Interviewer: Do you have any interesting stories about someone who likes Steve’s work?
Perry: Probably the most interesting … well, rather than trying to select a story, I can tell you that the most remarkable thing that we find is people from every imaginable age range have bought Steve’s artwork from us. We’ve had couples in their 70’s and 80’s who’ve bought works of art from us. You wouldn’t think someone of that level of maturity and that age would find popular art exciting for them, but they have found in Steve’s images ideas, people, and places, things that they relate to, and that’s why people buy this art so easily.
I have hundreds of people that walk into the area of the gallery that we have set aside for Pablo Picasso, and they barely look at it. And one of the reasons why they barely look at it is that they don’t relate to it. You know, practically everything that Picasso did was as a modernist and as an artist was done for his own amusement, was done for his own edification, and it was done for his own gratification. The public had nothing to do with Picasso’s sense of motivation to produce works of art. He did them for his own pleasure as a young modernist in the developmental stages of modern art. What Steve does is that not only does he capture the history of the time in which we live, he does it with an abundance of fun and color and shape and form and ideology that meets and greets hundreds and thousands of people, that captivates people when they walk in our doors. And that’s what makes it so exciting. And, you know, it isn’t any different in the theater, it isn’t any different if you are an author of books, it isn’t any different if you are in the performing arts, because the arts in general are meant to convey beautiful, wonderful, subliminal messages that people find attractive, that they never forget. They want to bring that experience home so they can remember it all of the time. That’s why we like Steve so much.
Interviewer: You’re great Mr. Perry. You gave us everything we need. Thank you.
For more information contact: Centaur Art Galleries, Phone: 702.737.1234, email: [email protected], Website: www.centaurgalleries.com.
