Simon Shaw and Lifting the Veil on His Chaotic Instagramming Habits
The Sotheby's VC of Global Fine Art is put together on the auction block, but his IG habits show a different side.
Simon Shaw has been in the art auction game at Sotheby’s for over twenty years. In that time, he has distinguished himself as a contemporary art expert, auctioneer, and is currently the Vice Chairman of Global Fine Art and head of the Modern Art and Impressionist department in New York. And according to Sotheby's his bio, he is a “leading expert on Munch” (more on that later). In addition to his illustrious art career, he’s also one of the art daddy’s favorites to tag. Despite his polished art exterior, Shaw has a less put together look when it comes to his social media.
Simon Shaw looking like a $120m painting. Image courtesy of the Brilliant Minds Foundation.
His online presence to the outside world seems to have no particular meaning, but according to an AD insider, his posts are supposed to make obscure references to his life. Well, I’m here to tell you it seems random af.
As much as I love my social media feed and the people on it, deciphering the inner workings of Simon Shaw’s online life is not something I’m willing to put time and effort into. Instead, what I will do is offer some analysis of his posts. Like Raymond Bulman, the chaotic cooker before him, Shaw has also been dubbed a chaotic Instagrammer. And on top of it, he isn’t responsive on IG.
Despite my best efforts to engage with him, Simon Shaw is not having it. We do not follow one another, and he has never dmed me back despite being tagged often. And Shaw often looks at my stories. And not just the ones he’s tagged in. I tell myself that he looks at my content because it's engaging and funny. But maybe I’m wrong. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Mr. Shaw. On an almost daily basis, I often find myself looking at his social media and asking aloud, “why?”
Screenshot from the AD’s tagged posts in Shaw’s inbox.
Perhaps some of this has to do with his age. And where he’s from—Northfolk, UK. It is an interesting part of the United Kingdom and the men there tend to be particularly cocky. Strangely, I do have some experience when it comes to men from this part of the world so can speak to this first hand (sadly, I have several exes from here). Despite knowing a bit about where Shaw comes from, that’s all I can shed light on in regards to that.
To the trained eye, Shaw is very much a daddy and squarely middle aged (I'm guessing a young 54). The bigger point is, Simon could benefit from social media training. Also, while my Shaw-insider is probably correct, I still have to wonder, why someone who has a robust social presence with over 2k followers, and is a somewhat public art figure, wouldn’t want to be more targeted with his IG persona? A question for the ages, that may never be answered.
When it comes to his personal IG posting habits, here’s what I’ve learned: Shaw is a fan of posting music clips. So many music clips. You name it, and he’s posted it. Back in February, I can recall a day where he posted Tiffany's “I Think We’re Alone Now” and a few hours later he was onto the Kelly Clarkson ballad, “Since U Been Gone.” It’s quite a range, and he’s been known to post some classics. Generally, Shaw’s sweet spot tends to be hits from the 1980s or 1970s, presumably the era of music he grew up with. There are sometimes art posts but those are far and few in between. To his credit, he also figured out the highlight feature for his profile which is already a step up above most Middle Aged daddies.
Screenshot of a recent music clip from Shaw’s IG.
Another one of Shaw’s signature IG moves is to post pictures with no captions or hashtags. Often it's a close up of an artwork, a pop culture reference, or a random travel photo, with an occasional tag. His use of Instagram is confusing and frankly a bit disorienting.
For me, the random musical posts are the most amusing and strangely entertaining to watch. This had also led me to wonder what a Simon Shaw play list might consist of. It would probably be excruciatingly long, random, and not have very much cohesiveness from one song to another. I am sure it would span the decades ranging from Billie Holiday to Robyn, Iggy Pop, and a little bit of Kelly Clarkson for good measure. And something else tells me these tracks might be back to back. Despite his vast musical tastes, there is more to Shaw than IG.
Today, he is one of the leaders of Sotheby’s Fine Art division, and is considered to be an expert in the work of Norwegian artist Eduard Munch. In fact, according to their website, “Nine of the top ten auction sales for Munch were staged by Mr. Shaw, including the 2012 sale of The Scream for $119.9m which set a new World Record for any work of art sold at auction. Dada and Surrealism are further interests, with record prices achieved for key artists including Dali, Magritte, Ernst, Man Ray, Picabia, Carrington and De Chirico.” Munch, who is a part of the Symbolism school, falls historically as a lead in to the Dadas and Surrealists. Lenora Carrington, a female Surrealist painter and writer who is having a moment, is slated to have a huge sale next month at Sotheby’s is also someone who’s art and writing I have loved for years (she may also be the only crossover that the Art Daddy and Simon Shaw actually have). It also seems likely he was instrumental in getting the Carrington painting to be sold at Sotheby’s given his fondness for the artist and expertise in this area.
In fact, Shaw’s love of Much goes so deep, he speaks about it in a video produced by the auction house in 2016 that deals with his “defining moment.” To be honest, I find the clip insufferable, given the content and privilege of the moment he is describing and the larger circumstances that have allowed for this event to occur. Watch here for context. But you be your judge.
Despite my personal feelings about his video clip, the fact remains that there is still a lot Shaw has to learn about social media. Social media can be overwhelming, exhausting, and generally problematic; but, when done correctly, can be funny, brilliant, and help to get your message across. There are many ways to approach it, and the bottom line is, whether Shaw likes it or not he is a brand. He is fused to Sotheby’s and they are fused to him. I do not think this is a matter of Shaw not understanding social media, he uses it after all, I think it’s more about a refusal or perhaps it’s his “fuck you” to social media curation and culture. Whatever the reason, it needs to be addressed. Shaw’s colleague, auctioneer and Phillips alumni Simon de Pury, who is several decades older than Shaw and runs his own account, is killing it. de Pury also has over 200k followers so yes, it’s about scale, but Shaw could take a page out of his book (he did write a book but have been told it’s cringey and I’m not going to read it). de Pury has curated himself well online, I will give him that.
A recent screenshot from de Pury’s IG of a stormy Venice at last week’s Biennale. It’s a great post and uses the IG platform well.
And with a global luxury brand behind you, you would think that the marketing team could afford to spend a few minutes helping Shaw craft some posts, put together a social strategy, and help him get on the right side of Instagram. Until that happens, I will continue to tag him and hope that one day he will choose to engage, and also figure out all of the joys that Instagram has to offer.