Tough art markets don’t last, but tough dealers do, and I cannot think of a fiercer operator than Larry Gagosian. Arriving in New York in the 1980s with a “combination of charm, chutzpah, good looks, and great instinct,” in the words of curator Jared Quinton, he reshaped the art world by being direct. In 1984, he cold-called the prominent collectors Burton and Emily Tremaine, who had a Brice Marden painting that Gagosian wanted to buy for a client, without even knowing if the work was for sale. Years later, Gagosian would tell an interviewer that he liked “an assignment.” He made the deal.