I visited Barcelona last weekend. The reason was a true contemporary art pilgrimage to a chapel perched on top of the Montserrat mountains, one hour away from the city. Sean Scully (b. 1945) unveiled his permanent installation in Santa Cecilia church in June 2015. Scully has taken over the small Romanic chapel and conflated art and spirituality with his symbolic use of colours and the simplicity of his brushstroke.
I meet Niloufar Bakhtiar Bakhtiari on the Monday after Frieze week. I thought the madness was behind me. However, as soon as she greets me into her Chelsea residence in London, she tells me she will be receiving for installation, during our interview, a piece she just bought at the art fair.
It is not mere provocation. It is carefree, almost innocent. This new generation of artists is bringing on the revival of art produced based on feeling, intuition and impulse that the art world has been longing for.
What is good for Warren Buffett is good for art. Frieze week is around the corner and the inevitable questions about the art market come up. Is it the right time to buy art? Will a purchase sustain its value?
Ahead of Frieze art fair, the following weeks I will be covering auction highlights, artworks to collect from the fair, the quirky and the overlooked. As a warm up, this week I am filling up your calendar with a hand-picked list of gallery openings in Mayfair. A selection of three contemporary art history totems. The three of them poetic, unruly, unmissable.