After a falling out with a former gallerist who bought one of her paintings for $15,000 and sold it a year later for $1.6 million, a 27-year-old star painter is dating a 71-year-old power art dealer. Anna Weyant, 27, who rose to prominence through her Instagram paintings, sold her first painting on the street for $400 three years ago, has quickly become the toast of the art world, with several of her works fetching more than $1 million at auction and prices expected to rise even further. 'I'm just trying to protect her from the big bad wolves,' Gagosian told, adding that when it comes to Weyant's career, he treats her the same as any other artist with his gallery.
The painting 'Falling Woman,' which she claims she sold to Blum last year for $15,000 – less than half what his gallery was charging collectors for other works in her spring 2021 show – appears to be at the heart of Weyant's split with Blum. As demand for Weyant's work grew, Blum sent the painting to Sotheby's for auction, where it fetched $1.6 million late last month, a record for Weyant's work.
Blum did not break any rules by doing so, though dealers rarely consign their own artists' paintings to the auction. It's unclear whether he was still representing Weyant when the artwork was sent to the prestigious auction house. Though Weyant declined to go into detail about her feud with Blum, she did tell the Journal that she was dissatisfied with how things ended and that the consignment of 'Falling Woman' was the final straw in her decision to switch to Gagosian.
Weyant, who was born in Calgary, Canada in 1995, studied painting at the Rhode Island School of Design, which she says she chose because it was the closest school to New York City that would accept her. She is the daughter of a lawyer and a provincial court judge, not an artist's upbringing. But she quickly took to painting in college, and she even finished third in a Canadian art competition the summer after her senior year. She spent six months painting at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou after graduating in 2017, where she says the city's sepia tones influenced her now-signature muted palette.
When Weyant moved to New York in 2018, she began assisting established painter Cynthia Talmadge, who promoted her work on her own Instagram account. Weyant was introduced by Talmadge to her own dealer, Ellie Rines, owner of the New York gallery 56 Henry, who told, 'I saw a lot of potential in her.'
Rines assisted Weyant in making some of her first sales in the summer of 2019 when she laid out her paintings on a sidewalk at a Hamptons art fair and sold a few for $400 each. Group shows followed, followed by Weyant's first solo show, titled 'Welcome To The Dollhouse,' at 56 Henry.
According to Gagosian Galleries, the series is "a sequence of darkly cinematic vignettes depicting a dollhouse and the strange, cloistered lives of its inhabitants." Every piece in the show sold for between $2,000 and $12,000. Gagosian first became aware of her work around this time and purchased one of Weyant's paintings, titled 'Head,' which is still hanging in his home today. Weyant was exclusively represented by the Los Angeles gallery Blum & Poe by the spring of 2021, and some of her paintings were selling for nearly $50,000 each. Gagosian, who attended her spring 2021 show, invited the artist to dinner at his Beverly Hills mansion, recalling how she struck him when she asked if he had any gin, one of his favorite drinks. Soon after, the couple began dating and vacationing together in exotic locations such as Paris and Saint-Tropez. But, despite spending more time in Gagosian's jet-set circles, Weyant has tried to stay grounded and stick to her routines. She continues to paint and live in a modest one-bedroom apartment on New York's Upper West Side, where she has lived since moving to the city.
Despite her disagreement with Blum on the subject, it was the Sotheby's auction of 'Falling Woman' last month that turned heads and put Weyant's name on the lips of every collector. 'Falling Woman,' the first item on the agenda for the prestigious evening show, blew past all expectations, with the final bid coming in at eight times the high-end estimate. Weyant's relationship with Gagosian has also raised eyebrows in the art world. Gagosian and his longtime girlfriend, Chrissie Erpf, a senior director at the gallery, divorced in 2019, according to Page Six. Later in 2019, Gagosian reportedly dated Holly Bawden, his 35-year-old former personal assistant. Weyant's supporters strongly refute any suggestion that her romance with the legendary gallerist has given her an advantage in the cutthroat art world. 'When someone becomes successful, people forget that that person is a human being,' Rines, Weyant's first dealer with whom she remains close. 'She's a 27-year-old woman, and I think it's crazy that men, mostly middle-aged men, are spreading rumors about her.' It's so pitiful, in my opinion.'
Selena Mattei