Frieze London Bucks Doomsday Narrative with Respectable Gross sales on VIP Days 


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Whereas the press and the fair-going public could also be captivated by the artwork world’s simmering rivalry between Paris and London, sellers at Frieze London appeared unconcerned. There have been greater than sufficient guests on the honest’s two VIP days to maintain them busy.

“Frankly I’m bored by the Paris versus London discuss, particularly as a result of a lot of sellers are selecting to do each,” New York seller Alexander Grey advised ARTnews.

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LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 12: A general view of the presentation of Illy's art collection at Frieze Contemporary Art Fair on October 12, 2022, in London, England. (Photo John Phillips/Getty Images for illycaffè )

Two sellers at galleries with a world presence advised ARTnews they felt that the deal with whether or not Paris might overtake London as artwork’s European capital misses the forest for the timber. The true drawback is the prices related to the honest—together with transport, transportation, and different bills which have risen dramatically because the Covid-19 pandemic—and the problem of getting sufficient materials to feed the beast.

“It’s turn into a state of affairs the place galleries wrestle to even fill the sales space,” one of many sellers, who has places in each New York and London, mentioned. “Until you’re working within the Hauser & Wirth mannequin, the place you scoop up each artist that has a pulse, it’s getting tougher and tougher yearly.”

“The wrestle may be very actual,” Javier Peres, of Berlin-based Peres Initiatives, mentioned. “The price of collaborating in these festivals, and even operating a gallery, will not be mirrored available in the market proper now.” 

To get an concept of the state of affairs for galleries, Peres added, take a look at the public sale homes. (In September artwork market analysts Michael Moses and Jianping Mei launched a report calling the Spring 2024 public sale season the worst efficiency of the century to this point. Their report adopted ones that public sale gross sales within the first half of 2024 have been down 22 p.c and 25 p.c for Christie’s and Sotheby’s, respectively.)

“Folks usually overlook that the public sale home’s job is to promote issues which are truly sellable. They will flip issues away, we are able to’t. So, think about how the galleries are doing,” Peres mentioned.

Nonetheless, after all, there was discuss of London-Paris rivalry, maybe as a result of Artwork Basel is lastly transferring into the Grand Palais.

Neil Wenman, Hauser & Wirth’s international inventive director, pushed again on the concept that Artwork Basel Paris, which begins October 18, was muscling Frieze out of the limelight.

“The festivals are two totally different beasts,” he mentioned. “London is such a inventive place the place artwork is made, artwork is written about, artwork is curated, and Frieze places a large highlight on town’s brilliance. Paris is totally different. It’s not as up to date, it’s extra classical—and it’s additionally doing tremendous properly.”

Wenman mentioned that Hauser & Wirth curated a “extra experimental, extra academic” sales space for this 12 months’s Frieze London, seemingly in a bid to counter the UK’s contracting artwork market. 

“Due to the market’s state of affairs, we determined to present folks the possibility to find one thing new slightly than simply placed on an enormous business show,” Wenman mentioned. 

Folks go to the Hauser & Wirth sales space on the Frieze London artwork honest in London.

Photograph by Linda Nylind; Courtesy Frieze

The gallery’s sales space is decked out with works from American artist Charles Gaines’s “Shadow” sequence. By the tip of the VIP days, 5 “Shadows” works had bought for a mixed whole of $915,000. Throughout Regent’s Park, at Frieze Masters, Hauser & Wirth’s operation reported the biggest-ticket gross sales to this point. The gallery bought Arshile Gorky’s The Opaque (1947) for $8.5 million, Édouard Manet’s Pelouse du champ de programs à Longchamp (1865) for slightly below $5 million, and Elle danse (1948) by Francis Picabia for $4 million. Not a foul begin to the honest.

Again at Frieze’s up to date quarter, David Zwirner bought two works by Lisa Yuskavage for $2.2 million and $160,000, and a few work by the 95-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama for $670,000 and $720,000. Bringing Kusama to the Zwirner sales space is well-timed; she has a much-publicized present at London’s Victoria Miro gallery, and not too long ago put in two public sculptures within the metropolis.

On the primary preview day, Lehmann Maupin bought 11 work by British artist Billy Infantile to collectors from a number of international locations. Among the work have been made, begin to end, on the honest as guests appeared on, iPhones outstretched to seize the “efficiency” on video or submit it to social media. The works, in line with the gallery, bought for between $50,000 to $100,000 every. The concept was barely twee and labored in tandem with the misty-river-countryside aesthetic of each Infantile and his work. 

One of many first galleries to report a sold-out sales space was Stephen Friedman, who parted with 12 large-scale works by Britain’s Caroline Walker and Clare Woods to collectors within the UK, Europe, the US, and Asia. They bought for between $45,000 and $230,000.

Frieze’s Reconfigured Structure Offers Smaller Galleries a Leg Up 

Mor charpentier’s presentation at Frieze London 2024.

Linda Nylind/Courtesy of Frieze

Frieze London this 12 months comes with a brand new structure that largely consists of two broad aisles that lead from the one level of entry and exit towards what many take into account to be the principle points of interest—mega-galleries like Tempo, Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, and David Zwirner. However in contrast to in earlier years, the place these giants of artwork commerce stood entrance and middle underneath the Frieze tent, the brand new structure put the megas on the finish of the trail, which in actuality is the honest’s halfway level. To get out, you need to go the way in which you got here, growing the probability that one thing at one of many small or midsize galleries would possibly seize and maintain your consideration.

“In the end, we’re right here so folks get that first ‘wow’ of discovery, then the how, which sellers present, then one other wow when all of it comes collectively in a type of circulation of discovery that advantages each the guests and the sellers,” Grey mentioned. Grey not too long ago moved into an area in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood, the place many youthful galleries are clustered. “The brand new structure actually advantages that cycle of discovery.”

An artwork adviser, who requested to stay nameless, advised ARTnews that this 12 months’s honest is proving constructive for works priced within the low to mid-range, spurred on by the reconfigured structure. 

Arthur Gruson, a director from mor charpentier gallery, which has areas in Paris and Bogotá, is likely one of the smaller galleries arrange close to Frieze’s entrance. He advised ARTnews that the brand new blueprint—and the next elevated footfall—helped him promote half of the sales space’s 20-odd kworks on Wednesday, priced from $12,000 to $30,000.

Christie’s Channels Truthful’s Spending, However Sotheby’s Falls Brief

A gallery assistant poses with "Balloon Monkey (Blue)" by Jeff Koons during a photocall for the 20/21 Century London Evening Sale at the Christie's auction house in London on October 3, 2024. The artwork is estimated to go under the hammer for 6,500,000  10,000,000 GBP (7,724,000 - 11,883,000 EUR / 8,525,000 - 13,115,000 USD). (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY MENTION OF THE ARTIST UPON PUBLICATION - TO ILLUSTRATE THE EVENT AS SPECIFIED IN THE CAPTION (Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images)

A gallery assistant poses with Balloon Monkey (Blue) by Jeff Koons throughout a photocall for the 20/21 Century London Night Sale at Christie’s in London on October 3, 2024.

AFP through Getty Pictures

Gross sales at Frieze might have trumped expectations on the primary day, regardless of the continued doomsday artwork market narrative, however Sotheby’s night sale of recent and up to date artwork that night did not catch the identical wave. It introduced in $49.2 million (plus charges), a whisker over the $47.5 million low estimate, with David Hockney’s L’Arbois, Sainte-Maxime (1968) headlining the public sale after crusing previous its excessive estimate of $13 million and promoting for $17.2 million.

It ought to be famous that Hockney was additionally Tempo’s prime vendor on Wednesday at Frieze, in line with the gallery, which mentioned that twenty fifth July – seventh August 2021, Rain on the Pond (2021) was the most costly work moved on the primary day. (Tempo didn’t disclose a worth for its Hockney.)

Emma Baker, Sotheby’s head of up to date night gross sales, remained upbeat, telling ARTnews after the public sale that she was “excited to as soon as once more really feel that incomparable vitality” that Frieze brings. The honest’s international crowd was mirrored by the night time’s successful bidders. “Given the worldwide aptitude of the honest, it’s significantly thrilling to notice that the Bridget Riley has been received by a collector in Asia, and that the Anselm Kiefer has gone to a collector in India,” she added. These works bought for $2.4 million and $1.3 million, respectively.

Christie’s twentieth/twenty first century night public sale, although, managed to tune into Frieze’s relative spendthrift and totalled $107.1 million (plus charges). The outcome was nonetheless wanting the $133 million excessive estimate, although. Lucian Freud’s Ria, Bare Portrait (2006/7) bought for $15.4 million and Jeff Koons’s Balloon Monkey(Blue), from 2006–13, went for nearly $10 million. 

“We sourced fresh-to-the-market works that resonated with collectors globally and priced them pretty,” Keith Gill, Christie’s vice chairman of twentieth/twenty first century artwork and head of Impressionist and fashionable artwork in Europe, advised ARTnews. “This night’s outcomes display that London attracts worldwide collectors attracted by the vitality and variety of what’s on provide throughout Frieze Week.”

Paris Calling

Sadie Coles’ presentation at Frieze London 2024.

Linda Nylind/Courtesy of Frieze

Over 30 of the galleries at Frieze are making ready to arrange store at Artwork Basel Paris subsequent week, together with prime sellers like White Dice, Gagosian, and Thaddaeus Ropac. 

London-based Sadie Coles, one other highly effective seller who’s doing each festivals, is planning on differentiating her Frieze London and Artwork Basel Paris cubicles, she advised ARTnews, saying that the festivals have totally different demographics and tastes. “The collectors in Paris are extra native, and many individuals are shopping for for his or her flats,” she mentioned, including that her Paris choices shall be smaller because of this. 

Goodman Gallery, one of many key galleries representing artists from the African continent, can be collaborating in each festivals. At Frieze, the gallery introduced a broad cross part of the 51 artists it represents, together with each well-established and rising figures. William Kentridge, Carrie Mae Weems, and Atta Kwami have been amongst these with works represented. For Paris, nonetheless, the gallery mentioned it plans to carry a extra targeted choice that features Ghada Amer and Kapwani Kiwanga, who’s representing Canada at this 12 months’s Venice Biennale. 

“It’s necessary for us to showcase as lots of the divergent voices that exist on the continent,” Anthony Dawson, a director at Goodman’s Cape City gallery, advised ARTnews when requested why the gallery selected to take part in each festivals. 

Emmanuel Perrotin, of the eponymous mega-gallery with areas in Paris, Hong Kong, New York, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Los Angeles, advised ARTnews that his group has been much less discerning when deciding which works go to Frieze and which to Artwork Basel Paris. 

“The group in Paris shall be simply as worldwide as they’re right here in London,” he mentioned. Will Perrotin gallery’s works be smaller subsequent week? Apparently not. “Lots of people have massive flats in France,” he added. 

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