My day on Wednesday started at Frieze Masters in the morning and continued with Frieze London in the afternoon. If you are in for teasing your wallet, you need to come here with your homework done. Know in advance what artworks the galleries are showing so that you can compare prices and don’t waste time on kerfuffle. In case you are going there later on today or over the weekend, these are my highlights.
The experimental section, with younger galleries presenting emerging artists, is the show-stopper of the fair. Whilst established galleries are presenting group shows that feel mix-matched, the youngest are leaving a stamp. It is about exposure and visibility. Look out for The Sunday Painter (London), The Breeder (Athens), Peres Projects (Berlin).
Bangladeshi-British artist Rana Begum (b. 1977) has won the ninth Abraaj Group Art Prize, announced yesterday. The artist will receive $100,000 in order to create a new project that will be unveiled at Art Dubai, 15-18 March 2017. Begum shows at Frieze with The Third Line (Dubai). The piece, also exhibited recently at Parasol Unit in London, costs between £20,000-30,000 depending on the size of the installation.
Victoria Morton (b. 1971) exhibits with The Modern Institute (Glasgow) and her works range from £7,500 to £35,000 depending on size. Morton continues her exploration of painting as both a psychological and a physical experience. Victoria Morton studied at Glasgow School of Art and has exhibited internationally as well as recently with Sadie Coles in London.
Alex Katz (b. 1927) is a very a distinguished American figurative artist. He is specially known for his painting but also works on sculpture and prints. After his acclaimed survey at the Serpentine Gallery in London, Gavin Brown Enterprise (New York) presents a series of small paintings which stand out as quieter but harmonious pieces.
Installation view at Anthony Reynolds, Frieze London 2016
‘The Nineties’ section at the fair is inspired. It is a revision of exhibitions from the 90s which had an impact on the artists’ careers and the art of the time. Anthony Reynolds (London) debuted Richard Billingham’s (b. 1970) iconic series of photographs in 1996. Ray’s a Laugh series depict the artist’s family in honest tender images, taken with striking compositional skill and sensibility. Each image is priced at £25,000. Also within ‘The Nineties’ section is Wolfgang Tillmans’ (b. 1968) first gallery exhibition at Buchholz & Buchholz (Cologne) in 1993. The installation as it is sells for $400,000.
Hauser & Wirth striking presentation of L’atelier d’artistes, a tongue-in-cheek examination of the museums’ practice of reconstructing artist studios, and the tendency to exploit creative license in the process. The presentation is an exercise in cliché. It brings together the work of numerous artists under the guise of a single artist’s atelier. Find (if you can!) work by Paul McCarthy, Thomas Houseago, Allan Kaprow, Henry Moore, Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, etc. Stunning as it is, it is close to an act of sales self-sabotage at an art fair.
At the Frieze Masters section there are gems to be admired. I fell in love with a series of small works on paper by Mira Schendel (1919-1988) at Dan Galeria from Brasil, sadly impossible to photograph because of the reflections. Tate Modern presented a first ever international full-scale retrospective of the artist in 2013. Schendel’s work was one of Latin America’s most important and prolific post-war artists. With her contemporaries Lygia Clark and Hélio Oiticica, Schendel reinvented the language of European Modernism in Brazil. The works at Frieze Masters are framed with the utmost care and attention (never underestimate framing), priced around $40,000 each.
The whisperers said that Frieze is taking a slight hit as some galleries favour exhibiting at Fiac, the Parisian fair coming up later in October. No matter where, art is here to stay. There will be ups and downs, reassessment of auction results and artists’ careers, the gallery as a business model, etc. It is an exciting time to follow on all art matters. Stay tuned!
