On July 19th, 2024, the art industry lost a great soul. Daniel Crosby was a full-of-life art lover who greatly impacted the art industry. His infectious energy led to his success in the art business. Here at Art Business News, we had the pleasure of knowing Daniel personally and wanted to shed light on his zestful spirit.
“Daniel Crosby was full of life. He was a showman who knew how to make people love art. He made me love art and the industry behind it. Daniel and I met in 1988 and worked together for 10 years. He was there when I started (in the art business). I was young and green, working in a gallery in California. Daniel was from New York (Brooklyn) and had so many great stories of Warhol, Haring, and many other artists in and around SoHo. He was 26 years old and held an audience on edge with his every word. He had the confidence of a great storyteller. I enjoyed being around him.
“I moved on to the art fair business and Daniel (eventually) took his talents to represent many artists and celebrities. One of those celebrities was Muhammad Ali. Daniel called me one day and said “Hey E, come to the office here in L.A. Muhammad is going to be here in 2 days and I want you to meet him”. I had plans to be in Santa Fe that day for work and had to pass. While in Santa Fe, I was getting out of my car for an early breakfast and who did I see? Muhammad and his wife Lonnie. I explained the call from Daniel and they confirmed they were on their way to the airport to fly back to L.A. Muhammad just looked at me and said, “You guys are everywhere” as if I was there to keep an eye on him. Daniel introduced me to Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones and many others, including Bernie Taupin, who became one of D’s best friends.
“His greatest achievement was his family. As we grew older, the stories focused more on his wife Alyssa and his 3 children, Quincy, Ava and Zane. I know they will miss him the most, but I am confident that they will have plenty of memories and stories to remember him by.
“We remained friends for 34 years until the day he passed. The art world was better with Daniel in it. I miss him.”
— Eric Smith, CEO of Redwood Art Group
“Daniel excelled in storytelling. Everything we talked about he had something relatable from the past to compare it to. I rarely heard him repeat a story more than once, which if you can imagine how many stories I heard over the years then you’ll get a good idea of the full, fun, and artistically productive life he led.
“Daniel left us way too soon and with his passing a void has been created in my life that no amount of reflection and mourning can fill. I have only this empty space over my shoulder and to my left or right that will forever belong to him. He came up in a golden age of contemporary art, a vibrant New York scene that gave us new beginnings. This was his launch pad, a landscape he traversed with a combination of street smarts and an engaging personality that endeared him to the radical bohemianism of the time. Years later he brought all this knowledge and wisdom to the program he created for my own artistic vision, a successful combination that never would have jettisoned into being without his enthusiasm.
“Most of all he was my friend, which seems a minuscule statement and insufficient in the big picture. His friendship was huge and as rock solid as his formidable frame. There was a ferociously protective nature in his being that never let me down, always wanted the best for me, and always had my back. I’m still processing how I will venture forward without him at the end of the line or texting constantly about the machinery of our daily existence. The travels we should still be making, the restaurants we’d yet to experience, the galleries and art fairs, every little thing that constituted our combined self-proclaimed force of nature. His physical being may have passed but his spirit will be forever in my pocket and eternally in my corner.”
— Bernie Taupin
“I wish that I could offer a story of humor involving my friendship with beautiful Daniel. But, it is just too soon and too difficult. Among all of the essays I have written, the words I have posted after Daniel’s passing have been the hardest to arrange.
“Maybe I could speak about our last laugh together. I was explaining to him the thinking on my most recent body of work that I had just begun, titled, “Who Gets the Last Laugh.” I told him that this was a group of paintings about the paintings, seen through the perspective of the back of a spectator viewing them in an ornamental framed presentation, in a museum. I further explained that work was meant to remind those who have tried to interfere with the work and him promoting it, that these paintings would be around a long after them, and thus putting it squarely in their face. He slowly traisitioned into a smile, and then a bigger more aggressive smile, and then a loud laugh, as he always did. It would be our last laugh together.
“Although, shortly after that to avoid the possibility of the cliché of the artist predicting his own death (if something had happened to me), Jennifer and I decided to change the title to, “The Jokes on You.” Soon after, Daniel was gone, and we knew we had to change the work back go its original title, “Who Gets the Last Laugh,” completely dedicating it to Daniel.
“Daniel Crosby was the water, the seed of discovery, and he grew countless gardens of artist and their life’s work. He was able to see the gap that others might not have seen in many artists work that made us perceptive and thus receptive to how special the work was. He made the unfamiliar familiar. He opened your eyes to the invisible and made it visible. He bravely and continuously confronted the stereotypes of art that govern how we see art as art. He was without a doubt, the champion of mine.”
— Tom Everhart 2024
Our hearts go out to his family and friends during this time.