Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobel's Art Weekly 15 2024

Following the discontinuation of the Fiac, Art Paris is increasingly establishing itself as a marketplace not only for the French middle market, observes Bettina Wohlfarth for the FAZ: "The fair offers galleries from the broad midfield a platform and sees itself as complementary to the top international fair in autumn, which has been organised by Art Basel for the past two years. 60 per cent of the participants come from France, although some of the other galleries from 25 countries have a branch in Paris. The rich French art scene, from modernism to the present day, is correspondingly well represented." Aurélie Tanaqui specifies in the Handelsblatt: "Of 136 galleries from 25 countries, 60 per cent come from France and only 40 per cent from abroad. This sets Art Paris apart from its rival 'Paris+ par Art Basel'. The programme is of high quality and always pleasantly surprising, both in terms of modern art and contemporary art and design."

In Sao Paolo, SP Arte claims a leading role among Latin America's art fairs, as Lise Alves discovered for The Art Newspaper: "The 20th edition of SP-Arte opened [...] with more than 130 participating galleries that hail overwhelmingly from Latin America. That line-up of exhibitors represents a more than threefold increase from the fair's inaugural edition, in 2005, when 40 galleries (almost all of them Brazilian) participated. 'SP-Arte is intertwined with the history of the formation of the contemporary [Brazilian] art market,' Fernanda Feitosa, the fair's founder, told journalists. [...] The fair's scope has also shifted over the past two decades, maintaining a national focus while also becoming a hub for the entire Latin American market."

The Dallas Art Fair and its smaller satellite Dallas Invitational demonstratively join forces in front of Carlie Porterfield from The Art Newspaper: "The Dallas Art Fair's director, Kelly Cornell, agrees. 'More is more,' she says. 'I don't think [the Dallas Invitational] is concerning. There's a big market here. Both [Invitational founder James] Cope and Cornell say their respective fairs receive a lot of demand from gallerists hoping to take part and gain access to Dallas's large collector base plus the region's museums and other institutions. Even dealers at the Dallas Invitational who did not have any finalised sales to report at press time say they are happy with the introductions they made during the fair's first day." Daniel Cassady presents what he considers to be the eight best stands at the main fair at Artnews.

The private equity firm Silver Lake, the largest single shareholder in Frieze's parent company Endeavor, wants to swallow the company whole and delist it from the stock exchange, reports Reuters "Hollywood power broker Ari Emanuel, who is the CEO of Endeavor, has transformed the company, which has its roots in representing film and television talent, into a sports and entertainment powerhouse with more than 20 acquisitions." According to the article, the takeover offer to shareholders values Endeavor at USD 13 billion.

Something is happening on the gallery scene in London, observes Stephanie Dieckvoss for the Handelsblatt: "What do a small shop, a deconsecrated church and a former car factory have in common? They are all between 100 and 200 years old and have recently become home to galleries for contemporary art and design. More and more galleries are moving out of the centre of London, hoping to attract new visitors through distinctive locations. The historic sites are intended to create links with the immediate local neighbourhood and thus stand out from other galleries. The era of oversized 'white cubes' that look the same everywhere seems to be over."

Sabine Spindler took a look around the gallery openings in Munich for the Handelsblatt: "Munich's gallery scene is perhaps not as loud as Berlin's. In recent years, however, several new addresses have established themselves, bringing a breath of fresh air to the Isar. One of them is the Nir Altman Gallery. The 'Frieze' fair became aware of his exciting programme three years ago and invited him to London. Last year at Art Cologne, he confirmed his image as a gallery owner with a good instinct for newcomers."

François Louis Nicolas Pinault (26), will succeed his grandfather François Pinault at the head of Christie's supervisory board, reports Francesca Aton at Artnews : "Last year, Christie's reported €6.2 billion (roughly $6.7 billion) in sales. Christie's is far from the Pinault family's largest investment, but it does give them, already prolific collectors, more influence in the art world. The family collection includes more than 10,000 pieces of contemporary works, and they have established several museums, such as the Bourse de Commerce in Paris and the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, to display the highlights."

For an overview of major trends in the art market, see my summary of four different market reports in the Handelsblatt.

Bernhard Schulz explains for Monopol how the USA ensured that Robert Rauschenberg was awarded the Golden Lion and that Pop Art could begin its triumphal march on the art market.

The crypto art scene is emancipating itself from the cryptocurrency market, reports Shanti Escalante-De Mattei from this year's NFT.NYC conference for Artnews: "The talks at MoMA PS1 tackled the serious issue of building technologies and practices that will preserve NFTs. It was striking to compare the gender division at NFT.NYC to the PS1 event. The leaders from the companies that had supported the talks, including NFT Storage, IPFS, FileCoin, and Protocol Labs, were all women. At the Javits Center, it was hard to ignore that typically men appeared to outnumber women by around 20-to-1. Regardless of where you were this week, the future was on everyone's mind. At the Javitz Center, panelists and attendees talked about ways to sell NFTs to new audiences. At the art-focused events, the conversation revolved around creating a sustainable ecosystem that would allow for the preservation of and flourishing of digital art."

Georgina Adam points out parallels and differences between the crypto fraudster Sam Bankmann Fried and Inigo Philbrick in the The Art Newspaper: "Both men seem to be in denial, but there is a difference-Bankman-Fried will never be able to return to the financial sector, thanks to its regulatory framework. But Philbrick has already said he wants to get reestablished as an art dealer. And nothing can stop him, technically. Indeed, there are other examples of dealers, convicted or merely tarnished, who have returned to the market after encounters with the law or even prison sentences." And his chances of a comeback are not bad, she predicts with reference to Achenbach, Beltracchi and other figures.

The Marlborough Gallery is closing, reports Artforum: "The venerable gallery will stop representing artists and estates by June and will end its exhibition programming; all remaining inventory is expected to be sold off, with part of the proceeds going to not-for-profit organisations supporting contemporary artists. No reason was given for the closure, which follows on a family dispute, the Covid-19 crisis and the attendant fiscal crunch, and the defection of Frank Auerbach and Paula Rego, two of the gallery's star artists." Eileen Kinsella asked for Artnet about the modalities of the liquidation: "Asked whether the gallery will sell the works privately, at auction, or via another channel, the gallery said that it has hired an advisor to guide it through the process of 'thoughtfully dispersing the inventory. A portion of the proceeds from the sales will be donated to nonprofit cultural institutions that support contemporary artists. In addition to selling the thousands of artworks in the Marlborough inventory, which range from works on paper and photographs to major paintings by more than 50 artists, the gallery will sell its premises in prime locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Estimates of the value of the gallery's inventory have been reported as $250 million in the past." The history of the gallery can be read by Stephanie Dieckvoss in the Handelsblatt and Gina Thomas in the FAZ.