Art Basel has inaugurated its Gallery Legacy Award, honoring gallerists whose work has profoundly impacted contemporary art. The first recipient is Paula Cooper, the 88-year-old New York gallerist who opened Paula Cooper Gallery in SoHo in 1968. She pioneered the neighborhood as an art hub, championing Minimal and Conceptual art with early shows featuring Carl Andre, Donald Judd, and Sol LeWitt. Cooper later led the gallery migration to West Chelsea in 1995. Known for her integrity and commitment to artists, she allocates 60% of sale proceeds to artists rather than the standard 50%, and has maintained intimate, long-term relationships with her roster.
This matters because Cooper's career exemplifies how a gallerist's vision and ethics can shape entire art movements and neighborhoods. Her pioneering of SoHo and Chelsea transformed New York's art geography, while her artist-first approach—including higher revenue splits and resistance to market speculation—offers a countermodel to the increasingly commercialized art world. The new Art Basel award institutionalizes recognition of such gallerist contributions, underscoring their critical role in nurturing artistic innovation.