Technology >> CEO Interviews >> January 15, 2001
HANS NEUENDORF, artnet.com's CEO, has been a powerful force and
visionary leader in the art world since the 1960's. He is recognised as
one of the most successful and revolutionary art dealers worldwide.
Through his galleries in Hamburg and Frankfurt, he was an early champion
of some of the most important art movements of the last half-century and
helped establish the reputation of many blue-chip contemporary artists.
Mr Neuendorf represented numerous modern masters at formative stages of
their careers, including American artists Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly;
British artists David Hockney and Richard Hamilton; American West Coast
artists Robert Graham and Billy Al Bengston; German artists Georg
Baselitz, Bernd Koberling and Georg-Karl Pfahler; and Italian artists
Lucio Fontana and Emilio Vedova. In addition, Mr Neuendorf produced and
published an extensive series of art books, catalogues and prints. An
art market pioneer, Mr Neuendorf was one of the original founders of the
first international art fair, which took place in Cologne, Germany in
1967. The fair was instrumental in bringing together geographically
separated dealers and galleries and created the first competitive
overview of the international art market. Mr Neuendorf applied his art
expertise to artnet.com when he joined the company in 1990. He was named
Chairman in 1992, and assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in
January 1995. In 1992, Mr Neuendorf oversaw the expansion of
artnet.com's products and services beyond the Fine Art Auctions Database
to include Artnet Magazine, and the gallery and artist Websites, which
provided buyers and sellers with the first overview of the art market
available online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Continuing his long-
standing commitment to expand the international art world, Mr Neuendorf
saw the Internet as a way to address many of the inefficiencies of the
art market. In 1995, the company moved all of its proprietary operations
to the Internet, and artnet.com became the premier Website devoted to
the art world. Profile
artnet.com?
Mr Neuendorf: Artnet.com modernises the business of art -
the buying and selling of art - with a suite
