Adam Lindemann

Adam Lindemann is a New York Based gallerist, art collector and writer who founded Venus Over Manhattan gallery in New York City in 2012. As an art collector and gallerist, Lindemann is known for setting multiple world records both at auction and privately, including career records for Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jean Royère.

His personal collection has included masterpieces by blue chip artists such as Richard Prince, Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol, and Urs Fischer. Lindemann has authored a
art world column
for ''The New York Observer'' between 2009 and 2017 as well as authored two books for Taschen, Collecting Contemporary and Collecting Design.

Early life and education

Lindemann was raised in New York City and is the son of late businessman George Lindemann and Dr. Frayda B. Lindemann. He graduated from the Lycée Français De New York with a French Baccalaureate, magna cum laude from Amherst College in Spanish and comparative literature, and Yale Law School.

Career

Venus Over Manhattan

In 2012, Lindemann founded the New York-based gallery Venus Over Manhattan. As of April 2023, the gallery occupie
two spaces at 39 and 55 Great Jones Street
in Manhattan’s Noho area. VENUS is dedicated to unique and iconoclastic exhibitions featuring the work of both historic and contemporary artists. The gallery has recently staged major and critically acclaimed exhibitions of work by Richard Mayhew, Peter Saul, Robert Colescott and Jim Nutt.

In addition, the gallery has shown artists and estates that it represents including Peter Saul, Robert Colescott, Richard Mayhew, Keiichi Tanaami, Joseph Elmer Yoakum, Maryan, H.C. Westermann, Jack Goldstein, Joan Brown, Roger Brown
John DoggSusumu KamijoAna BenaroyaAnastasia BaySophie LarrimoreSally Saul
an
Shinichi Sawada.

In its ten-year history, VENUS has also presented exhibitions of work by Katherine Bernhardt, Alexander Calder, Maurizio Cattelan, Mike Kelley, John McCracken, David Medalla, Cady Noland, Raymond Pettibon, Andy Warhol, Franz West, William N. Copley
Walter Dahn
and Roy De Forest.

VENUS has also collaborated with prominent foundations and estates, including the Calder Foundation and the estate of William N. Copley, and acquired the estate of Chicago gallerist Allan Frumkin.

Digital

VENUS began exhibiting digital art in 2022, starting with an exhibition of the generative digital art collection
Chromie Squiggles
' by Snowfro
Erick Calderon
, one of the leading NFT projects in the digital art space, as well as hosting Mints in collaboration with the artist of new Chromie Squiggle works. In December 2021 Adam Lindemann moderated a talk between Beeple and American pop artist Peter Saul at the Bass Museum of Art. at the Bass Museum of Art.

South Etna

In 2021, Lindemann and his wife, gallerist Amalia Dayan establishe
South Etna
in Montauk, NY, a nonprofit organization that brings artist exhibition to Montauk. South Etna has hosted exhibitions of work by major contemporary artists such as Robert Colescott, Faith Ringgold, Eddie Martinez, Sam Moyer, Karen Kilimnik and Lonnie Holley, amongst others. The foundation has also presented group exhibitions curated by Alison M. Gingeras.

Books

Collecting contemporary

Lindemann’s first book, Collecting Contemporary, was published in 2006. Collecting Contemporary presents an overview of the world art scene and its social circles. The introduction explains the ABCs of buying art on the primary and secondary markets, at auction, and at art fairs and brings together interviews with many of the biggest players in the global art market. The text is illustrated by the work of many contemporary art luminaries, including Matthew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, Lisa Yuskavage, and more.

Collecting design

Lindemann published a sequel to Collecting, entitled, Collecting Design, also through Taschen, in 2010. Covering styles from Art Deco to the Wiener Werkstätte, Bauhaus, French modernists, and beyond this volume offers expert guide to the collectability and overall desirability of design for connoisseurs and amateurs alike. Lindemann navigates the market conducting in depth interviews with some of its leading figures, fellow collectors, dealers, and tastemakers, including Bruno Bischofberger, Barry Friedman, and Karl Lagerfeld, Ronald Lauder and Peter Morino.

Public auction records

Jeff Koons

In 2007, Lindemann sold the Jeff Koons sculpture''
Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)


, at Sotheby’s for $23.5 million. At the time of the auction, the sale set a new record for the highest price for an artwork by a living artist sold at auction. ''Hanging Heart (Magenta/Gold)'' is one of five ''Hanging Heart'' sculptures created by Koons in different colours. Lindemann bought the work for $1.2 million in 2003.

Basquiat

He sold a 1982 canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat, entitled '' Untitled (Devil),'' at Christie’s for $57.3 million in 2016, a new world record for the artist at auction at that time. It was purchased by Japanese billionaire, Yusaku Maezawa. Lindemann originally bought the painting at auction for $4.5 million in 2004.

Jean Royère

In 2023 Lindemann sold Jean Royère’sbr>“Ours Polaire” Sofa
at his eponymous single owner sal
ADAM: Works from the Collection of Adam Lindemann
held at Christie’s which realized a price of $3,420,000, surpassing its estimate of $1,000,000 - $1,500,000 and setting the auction record for the designer.

Christie's Single Owner Sale

On March 9, 2023 Christie’s hoste
“ADAM: Works from the Collection of Adam Lindemann”
a single-owner evening sale of major works from Lindemann’s collection acquired over 20 years. Lindemann included works by artists which the collector was well-known to publicly support early in his collecting career, namely Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, Urs Fischer, Rudolf Stingel, and Alexander Calder.

The New York Times published

which featured an interview by art reporter Robin Pogrebin and Lindemann in his townhouse (designed by David Adjaye. A portion of the proceeds from the sale went towards the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s renovation of its Michael C. Rockefeller wing which includes works from sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas. Lindemann is the head of the wing’s steering committee

All lots in the ADAM auction were sold, with the sale totaling $31,467,240.

Philanthropy

Lindemann is the head of the steering committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’sbr>Michael C. Rockefeller wing
which includes works from sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, and the ancient Americas. He is also Chair of the Fundraising Committee for the Rockefeller wing. He donated
Grade Figure
from the Banks Islands to the Met in 2019 and has donated art to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami as well as many artworks to the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College. In 2021 Lindemann funded the Art Institute of Chicago’s publication of the catalog fo
Joseph Yoakum: What I Saw

Personal life

Lindemann has been married to art dealer and gallerist Amalia Dayan since 2006. Dayan is a founding partner at New York Gallery, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, which is run by Dayan, Dominique Lévy, and Brett Gorvy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lindemann, Adam
Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American art collectors
American male writers
American philanthropists
Amherst College alumni
Lycée Français de New York alumni
Yale Law School alumni