Excuse me, here is a bigger conflict of interest IN ACTION between the non-profit(museums) art world and the for-profit (galleries) art world than anything Jeffrey Deitch would want to cook up.
The dude who is the head of the Armand Hammer Foundation, Michael Hammer, Armand’s grandson, is the CEO of Knoedler Gallery. Who has Knoedler Gallery been representing? The overrated LEE BONTECOU for one. Where is the conflict? Uhh… I seem to recall her triumphant return to public exhibitions occurring at, wait where was that… oh yeah, The Hammer Museum. She had her big return unveiling in 2007 there.
Wait a minute – a sculptor, Lee Bontecou, who had not shown for thirty years, whose sole accomplishment was getting a three sentence rave review from Donald Judd in 1966, whose new work looked like hippie science fiction seahorse spaceships, had her return to public exhibitions at a museum tied to a foundation chaired by a wealthy, powerful veteran New York art gallery that until late last year represented the sculptor?
So, I just skimmed a Bloomberg real estate article and connected the dots, but I suppose the Hammer is immune from the scrutiny of Christopher Knight and Tyler Green because of the Hammer’s ties to UCLA, academia being sacrosanct and above examination by these seekers of truth and virtue.
Christopher Knight has always been about selective omission of connections, and Tyler Green, Robin to Knight’s mulletted Batman, is good for shouting “Holy Art Exhibition, Batman!” and not much else. Neither would know what to do with a real conflict of interest unless of course, they were being paid to lobby in its favor.