Displaying items by tag: Frieze

After ten years, Frieze London continues to be a hit with patrons and dealers alike. A mix of established and fledgling galleries, Frieze attracted nearly 55,000 visitors during its five-day run. Major sales included Paul McCarthy’s White Snow Head (2012) for $1.3 million, Damien Hirst’s Destruction Dreamscape (2012) for $807,650, and Jenny Holzer’s installation Blast (2012) for $525,000. New to the fair, Stevenson Gallery was pleasantly surprised when The Outset/Frieze Art Fair Fund to Benefit the Tate Collection acquired Nicholas Hlobo’s Balindile I (2012).

Stefan Ratibor, Director of Gagosian, said, “We had a terrific fair. Both Frieze and Frieze Masters were quite brilliant.” Victoria Miro of Victoria Miro Gallery added, “I can only say positive things. We’ve had success with all our artists and the market has been surprisingly strong. The fair is truly contemporary with many cutting-edge pieces.”

This year marked the debut of Frieze Focus, a section of the fair devoted to galleries less than ten years old. Focus participant, Mihaela Luteo of Plan B said, “The positioning of Focus has been really very good in cultivating positive reactions. This section gives us the possibility of building our profile in the perfect context. We wanted to introduce artists that may not be so well known and have sold most of the work we brought with us.”

A decade after its debut, Frieze London remains at the forefront of the Contemporary art scene. Frieze's dedication to innovation, risk-taking, and new talent can be thanked for that.

Ever wondered what Luc Tuymans thinks of the Louvre? At Frieze Masters, you’ll find out. The highly-anticipated Frieze London spinoff's talks program is power-packed. Artist Cecily Brown will talk with National Gallery of Art director Nicholas Penny about how she uses traditional imagery and subject matter in her art, while Glenn Brown will discuss his appropriation of historical artwork with Kunsthaus Zurich curator Bice Curiger. Tuymans will offer insight into his decision-making process when painting iconic historical moments in a conversation with Louvre Museum senior curator Dominique de Font-Réaulx.

These events get at the heart of the inaugural Frieze Masters, which plans to mix Old Master treasures with modern masterpieces in an effort to lure collectors out of their comfort zones.

Eight years ago it was considered dead and buried, but FIAC (Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain), France’s premier contemporary art fair in Paris, has since staged a dramatic revival, with some commentators claiming that its latest edition, which closed on Sunday, was even better than Frieze.

Now in its 38th year, FIAC was long regarded as a ’must attend’ fair for collectors of modern and contemporary art along with fairs in Basel and Cologne. But following the recession of 1991, it became largely dependent on French exhibitors and French artists, and experienced a slump in the international ratings. The Frieze Art Fair, which began in 2003, was timed to run bang in between the autumnal fairs in Cologne and Paris, and was a direct challenge to both. But while Cologne succumbed, changing shape and shifting dates, FIAC hung on in there to meet the challenge.

Although the two are essentially different in that FIAC combines early 20th century modern art with the contemporary, and Frieze is exclusively focussed on the latter, FIAC needed a more international contemporary edge, so a battle for key exhibitors ensued.

The most important change came in 2006 when FIAC moved from a convention centre on the outskirts of Paris to the imposing splendour of the Grand Palais, with a courtyard at the Louvre for the younger galleries. Outdoor sculptures were placed in the Tuileries Gardens, satellite art fairs sprung up, and private collectors and museums mounted special exhibitions to make FIAC a special cultural event.

Within the fair, a process of internationalising the exhibitor list began to the point where French gallery representation has been reduced from 70 per cent in 2003, to 31 per cent this year. Major names to have joined the fair recently are New York’s Barbara Gladstone, which ceased exhibiting at Frieze after it opened a gallery in Brussels, and Gagosian, which opened a gallery in Paris last year, but still does both fairs. About a dozen other galleries have opted for Paris over London in the last four years, but rather than a drift, it’s been more of a game of musical chairs as galleries leave and then return to FIAC, as they did this year.