Exhibitions

The Financial Times - Collecting Special: Frieze Week / 10th Oct 2014

Three years, it seems, is enough to establish a tradition – in the fast-moving world of art fairs, that is. As Frieze Masters launches its third edition there is already a sense that certain trends have been enshrined.

These trends – in particular, the meticulous curating of stands (complete, in some cases, with not-for-sale loan work), and the proliferation of solo-artists booths – are becoming more common right across the art fair spectrum, but from its inception in 2012 Frieze Masters has been host to some of the more elaborate. In the first year, who could forget turning a corner and coming face to face with Helly Nahmad’s sensational arrangement of large-scale Alexander Calder mobiles and Miró’s “The Sorrowful March Guided by the Flamboyant Bird of the Desert” (which had an asking price of $20m), their common motifs languidly waving to each other across the booth, to a muted John Cage soundtrack?

This sort of thing set the bar exceptionally high. But many others have been in the running: Thomas Gibson, for instance, brought a solo booth of Giacometti in year one, followed by Matisse in year two, and this year brings a single private collection that includes work by Léger, Vuillard, Delacroix and Corot.

There are some dozen stands hosting impressive solo-artist displays.

London’s Marlborough Gallery was apparently the first to sellFrancis Bacon’s work – as the story goes, the artist’s 1958 contract with Marlborough began with gallerist Frank Lloyd’s undertaking to settle a £5,000 gambling debt Bacon had incurred (this at a time when his works sold for about £200 a piece) – so it seems appropriate that this year the gallery should bring some important works to set alongside fascinating smaller-scale material.

Other solo exhibitions (one is tempted to see them as such) are mostly among the moderns – Joseph Beuys at Berlin’s Galerie Bastian, Lygia Pape at Lisbon’s Graça Brandão; Tapies at Timothy Taylor; Tinguely at Hauser & Wirth, Boetti at Ben Brown, and more. Mnuchin’s show of sculptor David Smith’s “Forgings” should be worth a long look. The only soloist among the historic painters is Hogarth, at Andrew Edmunds; most Old Master dealers stick to a period and/or a nationality rather than a single artist (for obvious reasons). For instance, Dutch masters specialist Otto Naumann is bringing a magnificent Rembrandt, “Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo” (1658) which, if it sells, will presumably set a fair record at some £40m.

It’s as if the classiest fairs are trying to deny their essential nature as bazaars and to strive for something altogether more intellectual.

It’s true that they operate as a public service: Frieze Masters is wonderfully enjoyable to the great majority of visitors who have no thought of buying, and although the crowds of spectators must be thoroughly annoying for the galleries it does mean that the showcase function is high on the list of exhibitors’ priorities.

So some even look to educate as well as entertain us: Dickinson, for instance, is bringing to the fair a Rose Period Picasso, “Jeune garçon nu à cheval” (1906), a rare appearance on the open market. To allow us to steep ourselves in the atmosphere of Picasso’s early Paris years in the chaotically bohemian Bateau-Lavoir, the picture will be joined by Kees van Dongen’s drawing of Picasso in front of the very picture (which the latter gave to van Dongen in exchange for a canvas of his), portraits of Fernande, Picasso’s lover of the moment, all accompanied by a scholarly and beautifully produced brochure.

We can never forget that an art fair is basically a shop, and this is basically window dressing – but who ever saw window dressing of this calibre?

Frieze Masters, October 15-19, sponsored by Deutsche Bank and Gucci.friezemasters.com

Bloomberg / 20th Oct 2014

Damien Hirst’s formaldehyde fish and Piero Manzoni’s white canvas were among the top purchases during Frieze Week in London as the auction houses sold 231.2 million pounds ($373 million) of art.

As the biggest week-long concentration of art events in Europe ended yesterday, dealers at Frieze Art Fair individually reported brisk sales and the tallies at the auction houses almost doubled from last year’s October sales.

Wealthy collectors and celebrities including Beyonce Knowles and her husband Jay-Z turned out for the $2.2 billion Frieze Week. They packed the booths at the fair in Regent’s Park, shrugging off last week’s stock market volatility, art market experts said. Bellwether auctions next month in New York — where big ticket offerings include Alberto Giacometti’s chariot sculpture valued at more than $100 million at Sotheby’s — will be a better indicator of whether art prices are peaking or if economic uncertainty is trickling down to the art market, they said.

“Frieze is the first big gathering of the art market this season,” said Pilar Ordovas, whose Ordovas gallery on Saville Row presented works by artists including Francis Bacon and Jeff Koons. “The next big test will be New York. Then we’ll see if there are strong results with the trophy works.”

Dealers and advisers said the market may remain strong because the expansion of private wealth has boosted the number of collectors. Art sales increased 8 percent from 2012 to 2013 to 47.4 billion euros ($60.5 billion), according to an annual report published by the European Fine Art Foundation in Maastricht, Netherlands.

Increasing Sales

Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips last week sold 231.2 million pounds of postwar, contemporary and 20th century Italian art at their day and evening sales, almost double the 118 pounds that was sold at the equivalent auctions last year.

Christie’s said it sold 129.2 million pounds of art, compared with 67.8 million pounds last year. Sotheby’s tally of 82.1 million pounds was up from 48.5 million pounds in 2013. Sotheby’s Italian sale produced the highest price at any of the London auctions last week with Manzoni’s “Achrome,” a white pleated canvas from 1958-1959 that eight bidders competed for, and it fetched 12.6 million pounds.

Phillips, which held its auction at its new London headquarters on Berkeley Square in Mayfair, totaled 19.9 million pounds at its sales. Last year’s October sales total was 16.5 million pounds.

Chanos Dinner

The October auctions in London are typically “robust,” Suzanne Gyorgy, head of art advisory and finance at New York-based Citigroup Inc.’s Citi Private Bank said in an interview prior to Frieze Week. “They’re not as robust as their February or June sales, but we’ve become jaded if something’s not $50 million.”

Some collectors said they aren’t jaded; they just don’t take the art market — or the frenzied Frieze Week — very seriously.

The art world “is like a guild meeting,” Jim Chanos, the founder of hedge-fund firm Kynikos Associates LP, said at a dinner he hosted for about 90 people at the Dorchester hotel. “Everyone gets together, they gossip and they pass judgment. It’s kind of silly and you have to take it with a grain of salt. You pick your spots,” said the investor, who’s known for betting against companies and markets.

Picasso, Warhol

Works by Hirst, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol sold for more than $3 million each at the main contemporary fair and at Frieze Masters, a sister event showing modern and historic works. Hirst’s “Because I Can’t Have You I Want You,” a 1993 diptych of glass-enclosed fish in formaldehyde, fetched 4 million pounds at White Cube within minutes of the opening preview at the main fair.

Picasso’s “Tete de Mousquetaire” crayon and black ink on board went for $4 million at Van De Weghe Fine Art. The artist’s 1964 “Le Peintre au Travail” lithograph on paper sold for 2 million pounds at Dickinson’s booth. Warhol’s “The Scream (After Munch),” a 1984 work inspired by the Norwegian artist, was sold by Skarstedt Gallery for about $5.5 million. The gallery also sold a Barbara Kruger silkscreen from 1988 that had an asking price of $550,000.

“We had a very good turnout,” said Bona Colonna Montagu of Skarstedt, which has galleries in New York and London. “All the major collectors are here. Quite a few things have sold.”

Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, an art adviser and founder of the New York gallery Salon 94, declined to say whether her clients Beyonce and Jay-Z made any purchases. Her gallery’s booth sold 15 brightly-colored sculptures by Japanese artist Takuro Kuwata for as much as $30,000.

Satellite Fairs

Many other events, exhibitions, gallery shows and satellite fairs coincided with Frieze.Dominique Levy, who has a gallery in New York opened a space in London, as did Marian Goodman, who featured Gerhard Richter’s works at the opening at her new gallery.

“I work a lot in Europe and I have clients in Europe,” Levy said at a reception last week at the gallery, which smelled of fresh paint and featured works by Donald Judd, Frank Stella and Enrico Castellani. “These days you need to be in two different places.”

Bloomberg / 16th Oct 2014

Damien Hirst, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol works sold for more than $3 million each as wealthy collectors got first dibs at the opening of the Frieze Art Fair in London.

Select guests including billionaire Indonesian collector Budi Tek, who opened a private museum in Shanghai in May, actress Sienna Miller and architect Zaha Hadid packed 162 galleries this week at the main contemporary art fair in Regent’s Park and 127 booths at Frieze Masters, a sister event showing modern and historic works.

Frieze Week is Europe’s biggest concentration of commercial fairs, public sales and gallery shows, offering as much as $2.2 billion of art. Frieze, whose organizers expect 70,000 people to attend the two fairs, runs through Oct. 18; Frieze Masters closes Oct. 19.

Contemporary-art sales at public auctions globally totaled 1.5 billion euros ($1.9 billion) in the 12 months to July 3, up 33 percent from the previous year, according to Paris-based arts data researcher Artprice.

Dealers reported brisk sales in the first two days of the fair. Within the first hour of the Frieze Masters preview, Mnuchin Gallery sold one of four elongated varnished steel sculptures from the 1955 “Forgings” series by U.S. sculptor David Smith for $2.4 million to a private collector.

Promoting Smith

“Americans know David Smith, but we need to broaden his audience,” Robert Mnuchin, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive whose New York gallery specializes in postwar art, said of the artist who died in 1965. “I’ve already had a lot of interest from non-U.S. collectors.”

Warhol’s “The Scream (After Munch),” a 1984 work inspired by the Norwegian artist, was sold by Skarstedt Gallery for about $5.5 million to a private collector.

Picasso remains popular as his “Tete de Mousquetaire” crayon and black ink on board went for $4 million at Van De Weghe Fine Art. The artist’s 1964 “Le Peintre au Travail” lithograph on paper sold for 2 million pounds ($3.2 million) at Dickinson’s booth. A small Henry Moore bronze sculpture of a reclining woman with a child sold for as much as $500,000 at Richard Green gallery in London.

Formaldehyde Fish

At the main fair, Hirst’s “Because I Can’t Have You I Want You,” a 1993 diptych of glass-enclosed fish in formaldehyde, fetched 4 million pounds at White Cube within minutes of the opening preview. The gallery, with branches in London, Hong Kong and Sao Paulo, also sold a 2001 piece composed of an electric microphone, metal stands and electrical cords by David Hammons for $4 million.

“I can’t keep up with the sales,” said David Maupin of Lehmann Maupin, which sold British artist Tracey Emin’s embroidered calico of a reclining woman in a price range of 120,000 to 175,000 pounds. The New York and Hong Kong gallery also sold Mickalene Thomas’s 2008 work composed of rhinestone-encrusted portraits in the 60,000-to-100,000-pound range.

Kaws’s Creature

Hauser & Wirth’s booth at the main fair was an installation inspired by Sigmund Freud’s study in London’s Hampstead neighborhood. The booth features works by 20 artists including Louise Bourgeois and Phyllida Barlow with themes representing Freud’s conscious and unconscious. A 2012 work by Anna Maria Maiolino, “Between Inside and Outside,” made of plaster with acrylic resin varnish on a metal table, sold for $120,000 and Rashid Johnson’s 2012 red oak daybed with zebra skin went for $90,000.

“Final Days,” an almost 7-foot-tall black sculpture of a creature with big feet, hands and ears by Brooklyn, New York-based artist Kaws sold for about $300,000 at Galerie Perrotin, which has galleries in New York, Paris and Hong Kong. An almost 10-foot-fall 2014 bronze sculpture of a standing sausage by Erwin Wurm sold for 250,000 euros at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, which is in Paris and Salzburg, Austria. George Condo’s “Portrait With Green Shapes,” oil on linen sold at Spruth Magers for $500,000.

Rembrandt, Twombly

Sigmar Polke’s untitled 2003 gouache on paper abstract, sold for $800,000 at Michael Werner Gallery of New York and London. New York’s Marianne Boesky Gallery sold drawings and a sculpture by Diana Al-Hadid, who was born in Syria and lives in Brooklyn, made of stainless steel treated with plaster and fiberglass at prices from $20,000 to $120,000.

“It’s been a good morning,” Adrian Turner, senior director of Marianne Boesky, said at the VIP preview.

One of the most expensive works at Frieze Masters is a Rembrandt 17th century portrait of a man with arms akimbo, being offered at New York’s Otto Naumann gallery for $48.5 million. A Cy Twombly paint, crayon and graphite canvas from 1959 is at Van de Weghe for $24 million. Picasso’s “Jeune Garcon Nu a Cheval,” oil on canvas from 1906 has an asking price of 14 million pounds at Dickinson.

Emerging Artists

Jeffrey Deitch, the art dealer and former director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, said he preferred to walk the aisles of galleries showing emerging artists. He said Ella Kruglyanskaya’s work stands out because it brought a “fresh approach” to figure drawing. All six of her portraits of women at the booth of New York’s Gavin Brown’s Enterprise sold for about $50,000 each.

Collectors drank champagne as they toured the booths, wandered around the sculpture garden or walked through Regent’s Park to get from one fair tent to the other — or took the BMW courtesy car.

Andre Balazs, the New York entrepreneur whose businesses include London’s trendy Chiltern Firehouse hotel and restaurant, said he hadn’t bought anything in the fair’s initial hours.

His first impression of the art?

“A lot of stuff looks the same,” Balazs said, laughing. “Sorry, but it does.”

(An earlier version of this story corrected the price of the Smith work in the sixth paragraph.)