Allan Schwartzman is a Founder and Principal of Art Agency, Partners and Chairman, Co-Leader of the Fine Art Division of Sotheby’s. He has more than 20 years’ experience in advising some of the world’s most influential and sophisticated collectors in forming their holdings of contemporary art, both individually and in conjunction with their stewardship of major museums. Schwartzman is also widely respected as an independent curator, most notably for Instituto Inhotim, the visionary contemporary art park set within a 5,000-acre botanical garden in Brazil. As creative director and chief curator of Inhotim, he has been central to developing the collection of the renowned institution and commissioning its signature site-specific works by artists including Chris Burden, Robert Irwin, Giuseppe Penone, Matthew Barney, Doris Salcedo, Doug Aitken, Rivane Neuenschwander, Olafur Eliasson and Rirkrit Tiravanija, including projects that could not have been realized anywhere else.
Known equally as a tastemaker in contemporary art and an authority on the art market, Schwartzman was trained as an art historian at Vassar College, he was a founding staff member of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City and served as curator from 1977 to 1980, and has written extensively about art for numerous publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Previously President of Artists Space, he continues to serve on that board, as well as on the juries of the Nomura Art Award and The Sotheby’s Prize.