Guy Trebay does his best to epater la haute bourgoisie in his New York Times piece on Frieze NY 2013 with the obligatory darkly threatening reminder that all of this fascination with art and the money that drives it will surely end soon…and in tears. Nonetheless, Trebay is a very talented depicter of scenes:

It is well established that over the last decade the seasonally migrating creatures at the top of the economic food chain have turned the pursuit of contemporary art into a defining marker of wealth and social status. They move across continents and oceans — Frieze this week, Venice later in the month for the Biennale, Switzerland in June for the august Basel Art Fair, granddaddy of them all — in a pack, showing all the signs of what the collector Don Rubell on Thursday termed “a herd mentality.” They browse and they forage. They consume voraciously.

“I bought already a Piotr Uklanski and a Jeppe Hein,” Joanna Przetakiewicz, a collector based in London and St. Moritz, said early Thursday afternoon, tapping open her smartphone to check the details of an hourlong shopping spree during which she had spent close to a million dollars on just two works.

“I am going to buy as well an Anish Kapoor,” Ms. Przetakiewicz added, referring to a wall-mounted stainless steel disc with an asking price she said was 650,000 British pounds. “But I want it in pink.”

This is surely what Jed Perl had in mind when he wrote:

Art collectors used to be inclined to be secretive. Now they’re pretty much all publicity hounds.[…] The bleached-chic style can make ignorance and mendacity look pretty. At a time when the people with the heaps of money are terrified of anything that isn’t “curated,” whether it’s their Louboutins or their Warhols, Frieze is so finely curated that it becomes its own conceptual art work, annihilating whatever art happens to be on display. […] Henry James would have savored the drop-dead elegance and seen straight through to the corruption, although you might want a little help from Marx or Keynes (take your pick) to explain exactly how it all works.

At Frieze, The Elite Browse and Forage (NY Times)

Frieze New York, a VIP Art Fair for Our Gilded Age (The New Republic)

The Vernissage TV folks take you to Art Beijing:

In this video we look back at Art Beijing 艺术北京 2013, the 8th edition of the art fair in Beijing, China. Around 150 art galleries and institutions, mostly from Beijing, participated in Art Beijing 2013. The fair features both a contemporary and classic art section. Among the participating galleries this year were Chinese and international galleries such as ShanghART, Tang Contemporary, Continua, Beijing Commune, Chambers Fine Art, Halcyon Gallery, and Asia Art Center. According to the organizers, more than a third of the galleries have attended Art Beijing for the first time.

The most interesting booth for me at PULSE NY this year was DUBNER MODERNE of Switzerland. A solo presentation of Li Jin was on show at the booth. The expressions on the faces of the characters in his work, often containing the portrait of the artist himself, are captivating. Its rare that a work can make the viewer smile.

According to the gallery: Replete with humor and his unmistakable “joie de vivre” Li Jin translates the usually mundane quotidian of life into a colorful and eloquent narrative of the moment using the tools of tradition. As an artist his perception of beauty and detail blossom from his appreciation as an active observer and partaker in life. Whether it be a table abounding with epicurean delights, a moment of quiet contemplation, or the enticing passions of love his graceful and masterly brushstrokes tell stories that are common to all, for they are the simple pleasures of life.

What makes this gallery special is their knowledge and genuine passion for their artists. Gallery founder and director Vernon Dubner’s enthusiasm for the artist, sharing personal stories about the artist and going through catalogues of his previous work, is contagious. Spend some time talking to this gallery about the work on show, and other artists that can be found here on their website. This young gallery is undoubtedly one I will be following in the future.

For those of you who wish to join me, here’s a link to their site: http://www.dubnermoderne.ch/Histoire.html

ADAMSON GALLERY presented a nice array of work. Adam Fuss and Robert Longo caught my attention at this booth. I could live happily with both of the artists work in my home. Though I’ve seen Longo’s work at quite a few fairs recently, I still fall in love with his beautiful execution and artistic understanding of light and shade.

I first came in contact with Fuss at ADAA’s The Art Show in 2012 and have been an avid follower of his photograms since. British born, Fuss has lived and worked in New York for over 30 years. His large, evocative photograms are both visually and conceptually stimulating. In the process of Snake 2012 Fuss places a snake onto a sensitized surface and uses a strobe light to capture the movements. The intensity of the piece must be seen in real life as the size and vivid colour of the work engage the viewer.

According to Adamson gallery “His work is distinctive for its contemporary re-interpretation of photography’s earliest techniques, particularly the daguerreotype and the camera-less photogram. Fuss states that in order for any photographic technique to work, it should be personalized and transfigured into a greater metaphor, engaging processes that take place in the natural world.”

ADAMSON EDITIONS plays an important role as a printmaker, collaborating with many of the worlds interesting artists today. David Adamson’s joy in collaborating with these artists was clear within seconds of speaking with him.

You can find out more info on the gallery and printmakers here: http://www.adamsongallery.com/gallery/

Check out Alicia Ross at BLACK & WHITE GALLERY/PROJECT SPACE.

Her stunning cross-stitching and attention to detail are what interests me here. The finished artworks, with a beautiful polished yet hand-crafted feel to the work, could hold the viewers attention for days. Her appropriated images, found from a variety of sources, explore female identity and the view of society on the varying facets of female identity.

According to the gallery, her works

“highlight the artist’s ongoing exploration of ideas surrounding conflicting views of feminine identity in the contemporary society and the ubiquitous virtuous/voracious societal impulses towards the female form. Ross appropriates images from online media sources and digitally translates them into cross-stitched constructions, using the sewing machine as a drawing tool. The finished pieces reflect a fusion between hand-made traditions and digital aesthetics.”

Find out more about the gallery here:

http://www.blackandwhiteartgallery.com

Take the time to read Miki Taira’s stories at BEJING TOKYO ART PROJECTS. Trained in Japanese script initially, Miki Taira moved toward contemporary art in order to express herself without conservative constraints. Her stories, verbal tales told from different districts in Japan, have been passed down through generations. They never represent an exact figure, mentioning “a husband” or “old lady” or “a monks apprentice”, and this translates to her small sculptures, devoid of a face. The entire story is written in Japanese script on the sculpture, and accompanied by a page of writing in English. The stories teach a lesson in a witty and charming manner. You won’t regret spending time reading each one, and you may yourself learn something in the process. You may also be lucky enough to catch the artist at the booth.

For more info on the gallery:

http://www.tokyo-gallery.com/artists/japan/miki-taira.html

Also worth mentioning is:

Sohei Nishino’s diorama maps at MICHAEL HOPPEN CONTEMPORARY. Created from memory, these maps are layered icons of each city. According to the artist’s website, the works involved a great deal of preparation. “The creation of a Diorama Map takes the following method; Walking around the chosen city on foot; shooting from various location with film; pasting and arranging with enormous mound of pieces.” A viewer could spend hours looking at each intricate work.

Christine Flynn at FITZROY/KNOX in ImPulse. “Home is not a place, rather a memory of my life with others”, according to the artist. She looks towards the everyday, capturing memories. “My intention is not to recreate existence of objects that I shoot, rather to encourage the images to be seen beyond our own obliviousness.”

Rob and Nick Carter “Transforming Vanitas Painting” at THE FINE ART SOCIETY, London. Talk to the gallerists here about the work, and read the catalogue describing how the work was brought to life.

Damian Stamer at FREIGHT + VOLUME is worth spending some time looking at, with his Richteresque brush strokes exploring concepts of home and homeland.

Art Cologne is the world’s oldest and longest running fair for 20th and 21st century fine art. Founded in 1967 the fair for modern and contemporary art was once the undisputed number one. After some difficult years, the fair is on the rise again. The strategy of former gallerist Daniel Hug pays off, more and more renowned galleries participate in the fair again. But the fair not only succeeded in bringing back the big name art dealers, but also strengthend its relevance for presenting and supporting emerging art with the integration of the NADA fair.

Zona Maco is taking place right now in Mexico City but the locals are not terribly impressed with the fair’s 10th edition:

“Slow,” “pale” and “thin” were some of the words used to describe the scene.

“What bothers me is there’s no real thread,” said Mario Ballesteros, editor of Domus Mexico magazine. “Even the big-name galleries, it’s like they’re just pulling out the inventory, like a garage sale.”

On the bright side, government cultural agencies are becoming more involved, offering special programs and providing venues for Zona Maco events, said Maria Ortiz, director of volunteers at Mexico City’s Museum of Modern Art.

Give the scene more time to grow, Ortiz said. “They have international galleries coming now, and so we can see art from abroad that we couldn’t see otherwise.”

By the afternoon, works were selling briskly. A government cultural official announced the establishment of an $829,000 fund to buy new work for Mexico’s museums.

Art market doldrums exhibited at Mexico City’s annual bazaar (Los Angeles Times)

Georgina Adam has the sales report from Art Dubai in her Financial Times column:

Galerie In Situ: headdresses by hot-hot-hot Benin artist Meschac Gaba, which sold for $19,500 at .

Grey Noise: “Great Expectation”, images of the moon by Igra Tanveer, to  Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, for $5,000 each (he bought all three editions).

Ayyam: an edition of quirky sculptures by Nadim Karam at $7,000.

Pilar Corrias: a large framed manuscript by Shahzia Sikander for $150,000 . . .

Belgian collector Guy Ullens went on a $1m spree to acquire Middle Eastern artists, buying Ahmad Mater at Athr gallery, Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh at Isabelle van den Eynde and Pascale Martine Tayou at Continua. He also reserved Ahmed Moualla’s 12-metre long “Power and People” (2011), an apocalyptic scene that references the Arab Spring, for $300,000 at Atassi Gallery.

 The Art Market: Players on the Gulf Course (Financial Times)

Master Art’s David Moss says

• Otto Nauman of New York sold a Carlo Marrata (1625-1713) painting at an asking price of $4.9m
• Wartski sold a Lalique necklace with a price tag of €1.3m
• Littleton & Hennessy Asian art sold well to Chinese collectors, including two €1m works.
• Ben Janssens said he had a fantastic start and by the first Saturday evening had sold 50 pieces with one client buying seven.
• International collectors like Ralph Lauder were shopping and, most importantly almost every curator of note was there for the preview, and they were buying.

Early Sales Indicate that Despite the Gloom Outside the Maastricht Magic Is Still as Potent as Ever (Master Art)

Carol Vogel focused on museum acquisitions:

• NY’s Metropolitan Museum: “Virgil’s Tomb in Moonlight,” a 1779 painting by Joseph Wright (Wright of Derby) that is on view here. It is the first British landscape the Met has bought since 1944.
• Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Richard Feigen sold a marine painting by the 18th-century French artist Eugène Isabey
• Johnny van Haeften: The Mauritshuis acquired “Saint Jerome Praying in a Rocky Landscape,” by the Flemish Baroque artist Paul Bril. (see below)

Museums Go Shopping at Maastricht (NYTimes)

Judd Tully has the litany of sales from TEFAF:

• Johnny van Haeften: Jacob Jordaens undated Homeric painting from the 1630s, “The meeting of Odysseus and Nausicaa,” for $6.5 million, according to the gallery. Van Haeften acquired it at Christie’s London in December 2012 for £2.1 million; a small-scale and rare Paul Bril oil on copper, “Saint Jerome praying in a rocky landscape” (1592), for approximately £750,000 to the Mauritshuis, an important Dutch museum. (Like a number of works at TEFAF, this one had recently sold at auction, going for £505,250 at Christie’s London in December.)
• Richard Green:  a Pierre Bonnard painting of a young woman at breakfast from 1918, and a Salomon Ruisdel river scene. Each was approximately one million euros.
• Tomasso Brothers Fine Art also had a successful preview day, making five sales including a bronze by Giuseppe Piamontini (1664-1742), “Milo of Croton.” It was sold to a European private collector, with the asking price said to be in the region of €650,000.
• Hans Kraus, Jr., the noted classical photography dealer, chalked up several early sales, including Captain Linnaeus Tripe’s mirage-like “Rangoon, South Tazoung of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda” (1855), a coated salt print from a waxed paper negative, which sold to an American collector for $125,000. Kraus also sold a striking Anna Atkins’s cyanotype photogram, “Mediola Arginica (Bangor U.S.)” (1852-54), for $25,000.”
• Daniel Katz Gallery: Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s “Daphne et Chloe,” carved marble and signed and dated 1874, to an American museum against an asking price of $3 million
• Sperone Westwater, the gallery sold a handful of works, including Carla Accardi’s “Rosso Scuro,” a shaped abstraction in enamel on sicofoil, a type of clear plastic from 1974, in the €200,000 range; Otto Piene’s “Untitled” (Raster Bild) from 1957-1958 in the six-figure range to an important German collector of the movement;and “Dream of Drowning” (2010-12) by Jan Worst, for €125,000; Ali Banisadr, “Paper tiger,” a small, vividly colored 16-by-16-inch abstraction from 2013 for $18,000
• Christophe van de Weghe sold Pablo Picasso’s “Homme au cahpeua” (1964) in oil and ripolin on canvas for $8 million to a European collector, as well as Roy Lichtenstein’s mixed-media collage on board “The Den” (1990-96) for approximately €525,000
• Galerie Odermatt-Vedovi, Christopher Wool’s floral patterned abstraction, “Untitled (P66)” (1988) in alkyd and flashe on aluminum panel, sold for approximately $1.4 million.
• Axel Vervoordt Gallery:  Kazuo Shiraga, black-and-red abstraction “Chizosei Shomenko” (1961) for approximately €1.2 million

TEFAF Report: Top Quality Work Draws Big-Spending Collectors and Major Museums (Artinfo)

According to Stefano Baia Curioni there ware 3 art fairs in 1970. This expanded to 36 in 2000 and 189 in 2001. Earlier this year, we counted no less than 288 art fairs listed in The Art Newspaper for 2013, and this list was not all inclusive.  Georgina Adam has stated that the proliferation of art fairs is the greatest change in the art market in the twenty first century. With this in mind, AMM spoke with some of the gallerists at the opening preview of TEFAF Maastricht to find out what they thought.

Millicent Wilner, a director at Gagosian Gallery, London summed up in brief the opinion of many of the dealers we spoke with:

‘Fairs are certainly great opportunities for galleries to present their artists and materials.”

Most of the gallerists noted the convenience that a fair holds for collectors “who have busier lifestyles than ever, not only privately but business wise.” (Manuel Ludorff of Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf.)

Peter Osborne of Osborne Samuel Gallery, London explained:

“The art fair represents the best possible opportunity for a collector to see a lot of top quality things under the same roof in one trip. You don’t have to go up and down 25 main streets in 25 different cities to see everything.”

It’s hardly breaking news that the fair trend has lead to a decline in gallery footfall, particularly for smaller galleries or galleries outside the market hubs of New York or London. With the demanding costs (of not just of money, but of time, staff and artists) that fairs place on galleries, what are the reasons galleries are fighting for attendance at the most prestigious fairs?

“If you can get into an art fair you’re standing up to be counted. If you’re an emerging gallery and you go up against Gagosian at an art fair, logically you have an equal chance to do business. If your galleries are next to each other in the street it wouldn’t necessarily apply, but at an art fair people do the fair. A lot of young galleries are only established because of the fairs.” states Osborne.

Managing Director of The Armory Show Noah Horowitz noted in a panel discussion in 2011 how the perceived stamp of quality that attendance at certain fairs can be tough for some galleries. He points out that many galleries don’t have enough staff or enough artists to do all the main fairs. In a world where art fairs are becoming the new dimension in both viewing art and selling art, he acknowledges how the next generation may Google the gallery right away, and if you’re not on the list of ‘important’ fairs, then you may not be considered an important gallery. Georgina Adam has also pointed out that galleries may be afraid of being seen as rejected by the selection panel of fairs.

Some, but not all dealers agreed that the fairs vetting committees (especially in the case of TEFAF which is known for its grueling vetting not only before but also during the fair) act as a stamp of quality to collectors for the galleries and work that is being exhibited.

“Every artist if different. You have to find out the history of the artist, the period in time, quality, condition and stuff like that and it takes a lot of time. And at a fair like Maastricht you get the best quality from all over the world. It’s the best place to go to and learn about certain things” notes Ludorff.

Robrecht Ve Vocht of Gallery Delaive. Amsterdam comes at this point from another angle:

“Art fairs rely on if you attend other art fairs. TEFAF is very hard to get into and you have to show if you’ve attended a certain degree of art fairs and a certain degree of exhibitions. So in that case it is true that your status come from attending art fairs but I’m not sure if this applies to all collectors. It depends on the collector I think.”

Most of the dealers remarked that fairs are places you can find new clients and showcase things to people who normally wouldn’t see them. Not surprisingly, it was agreed upon that Basel, Art Basel Miami Beach, TEFAF and Frieze were the fairs that were cited as the cream of the crop, with galleries mentioning specialist smaller fairs depending on the genre of art they catered for.

Manuel Ludorff of Galerie Ludorff, Düsseldorf (a gallery attending TEFAF for the first time this year) explained how due to their attendance at TEFAF they may now scale back some of the smaller fairs in Europe and branch out to fairs in the United States, using these fairs to establish new relationships in the US and build the gallery’s name Stateside.

Fair or foul: more art fairs and bigger brand galleries, but is the model sustainable? (The Art Newspaper)

Contemporary Art and its Commercial Markets: A Report on Current Conditions and Future Senarios (Panel Discussion)

Talking Galleries 2011: The Future of Art Fairs (Book)