Some food for thought for the business community in its ‘war for talent’ at an exhibition on gallerist Vollard presently at the Musee d’Orsay, Paris [1]. Focusing on his promoted artists from the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries the exhibition includes many of the greatest painters of the early modern period, in a richly rewarding selection.
A champion of potential, actively encouraging and mentoring his charges, the bets Vollard placed on relative unknowns or shunned artists appear to have been made good with uncanny dependability. A lawyer by training he combined dealmaker skills with soft people skills to brilliant effect. And those soft skills as applied to artistic temperaments must be the hardest-to-master soft skills of all. For the corporate setting, think prima donna, high maintenance, diva, and so on.