Kobel's Art Weekly

Kobels Art Weekly 28 2024

As the first international art fair of the year, Art SG in Singapore is testing the market with its second edition. Naima Morelli reports in The Art Newspaper of - surprise! - "swift sales": "While the gallery participation dropped by 29% this year, this is not felt when walking around the stands. Works of art now have more breathing space, with galleries still spread over the two dedicated floors of Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Centre. 'On the top floor the cheap and cheerful. On the basement, the established and expensive,' summarised one visitor. 'I feel this year is smaller but cosier,' says the Singapore collector Huai Seng Chong. 'And I see quite a lot of people from overseas. Geopolitics is indeed responsible for sales too. Walking around the aisles in extravagant outfits are several Hong Kong collectors who recently moved to Singapore, Russian expats more than willing to invest in art, and a growing number of wealthy Indian nationals living in Singapore, setting up family offices and showcasing their collections in open houses during art week."

The circumstances surrounding the twelfth Artgèneve are unpleasant. It had been known for some time that its founding director Thomas Hug, who until then had been regarded as extremely successful, had been dismissed without notice last August. Shortly before Artgenève opened, numerous French-language media, including Sylvia Revello from Le Temps, reported on the background and accusations of forgery, fraud, mismanagement and theft against Hug. Claude Membrez, CEO of the exhibition company Palexpo, is quoted at length - the dismissed director is said to have lied, cheated and deceived. The whole thing allegedly first came to light in 2022, ten years after the art fair was launched. On 23 January, Jo Lawson-Tancred reported for Artnet in a summary of her European colleagues. One day later, Monopol followed with a longer article as part of its press review. Another day later, Lisa-Marie Berndt picked up the thread in the same medium. Sabine B. Vogel follows on 28 January in Die Presse from Vienna.

The accounts are settled at the end, and according to Karen K. Ho at Artnews the balance for ART SG in Singapore is not so positive: "Even with all of these results, multiple galleries told ARTnews they had poor or no sales at ART SG, or that their experiences left a big question mark on whether they would return for future editions. One European booth only sold works to collectors prior to the fair and will have to ship everything back. 'This has been frustrating,' they said, asking to speak anonymously so they could speak candidly. 'I don't think we will come back. Another South Asian gallery reported that they only sold a work they had on display to a local collector in their home location. 'I don't think the art fair has been realistic enough about expectations.'“

With its not entirely voluntary move to a new location from next March, Art Rotterdam also wants to become more attractive in terms of content. However, in the Tagesspiegel Nicole Büsing and Heiko Klaas in early February also see dark clouds on the horizon regarding the future of the Mondriaan Fund's accompanying exhibition "Prospects": "The Netherlands still has an exemplary support system for young international artists. However, Eelco van der Lingen, the director of the Mondriaan Fund, is concerned. 'We are currently going through difficult times,' he says. 'The political climate is not an environment that brings great joy. Young artists give us hope, energy, new ideas and help us to develop. It's clear how important these young artists are and what value they add to events like Art Rotterdam.' His organisation is still supported by government funding. But given the clear shift to the right after the November 2023 election, the future is uncertain." I was in Rotterdam for Artmagazine.

The Indian art market seems to be picking up speed again after its long recovery phase from the 2008/9 financial crisis, according to reports from the India Art Fair, including one by Kabir Jahal in The Art Newspaper: "These changes are being remarked on by a number of art market pundits in the fair halls. 'Now is your time to sell a work by [20th-century painter] S.H. Raza-you can name your price. And so younger artists are becoming more expensive,' says Franck Barthelemy, a dealer based between Bangalore and Paris. This is echoed by one fair visitor who acquires art for the corporate and private collections of a 'big, industrialist family'. Speaking anonymously, she says that she has noticed a 'big jump even from last year' for mid-career Indian artists".

The Investec Cape Town Art Fair is expanding its position, observes Osman Can Yerebakan for Artnews: "The vernissage saw a crowd of around 5,000 attendees which included largely local collectors taking an early look at 400 works mainly by African artists and artists its diasporas. [...] Laura Vincenti, the fair's director, described the last decade as 'a learning curve' to ARTnews. In that time, she has focused on bringing 'galleries with content that communicates with the local scene,' she said. 'I have learnt that not all galleries are prepared to show in Cape Town."

A prominent art world figure has launched a new art fair in an unusual location. Nicole Scheyerer visited the Stage at the Festspielhaus Bregenz for the FAZ on 24 February: "Behind the premiere is the fair organiser Renger van den Heuvel: in Vienna, the native Dutchman ran the Viennacontemporary before launching his own event in 2021 with the Spark Art Fair. He left after the second edition. Now he is activating his network for the novelty in the border triangle." Michael Huber describes the special nature of the event in the Kurier: "The 'Stage' organiser knows very well that a trade fair is just as much a networking event as a sales event and is focusing on a sequence of meeting zones [...] The impresario is receiving support from politicians: in addition to the city of Bregenz and the state of Vorarlberg, the Ministry of Culture (BMKÖS) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are also among the public sponsors of the event, which was developed in close cooperation with Bregenz City Marketing - the aim is to bring audiences to the lake outside of the festival season, it was said at the press conference. Van den Heuvel puts the public funding that the trade fair receives at around 140,000 euros in total - most of which is channelled into special and educational projects."

With its new management, Art Karlsruhe is seeking to connect with the international format without losing its ties to the region. Brita Sachs describes the changes in the FAZ: "The advisory board, which is unchanged in its composition, has taken action and streamlined the fair. Instead of 207 exhibitors as in 2023, this time 177 from 13 nations were accepted, including 27 first-time participants. Wide, unobstructed paths through clearly arranged stands open up the halls, and the visual overload that could be tiring has disappeared over longer distances. Quality is on the rise, and hardly anyone is likely to miss the environmentally unfriendly carpeting that used to end up in the rubbish bin after every trade fair." 

Maximilíano Durón selects the ten best stands at Frieze LA in March for Artnews, while Francesca Aton looks at the most prominent celebrities and Karen K. Ho summarises the sales reports from the exhibiting galleries. It is to be hoped that the fair is not as superficial as this coverage of it. The Art Newspaper is a media partner of the fair and offers an entire dossier. Tim Schneider analyses the development of the fair: "Now in its fifth edition, Frieze Los Angeles is no longer the hot, fresh newcomer to the art fair scene that it was in the immediate pre-pandemic era. It is no longer even the youngest Frieze fair; the brand's event in Seoul currently owns that honour by virtue of its launch in 2022. This is, to be sure, a situation that both Frieze and Endeavor, its entertainment-conglomerate parent company, are happy to think through. It did not take much effort to find doomsayers when the companies announced in early 2018 that they would stage a major international fair in Los Angeles the following February. That the event has not only survived but become essential to homegrown and international dealers alike a half-decade later means that, on one level, the gamble has already paid off." 

A certain shyness towards discourse, which she calls "timelessness", characterises the Arco in Madrid, writes Ursula Scheer in the FAZ : "Abstract painting and minimalist approaches are much more prominently represented than the figurative art that dominates elsewhere. [...] ARCO 2024 radiates timelessness, far removed from ideologically charged debates and wrestling with one's own past, which were by no means alien to the fair in the past. Its motto now seems to be stimulate instead of excite." Uta M. Reindl took a closer look for the Tagesspiegel: "A lot of intensely colourful painting, a lot of sculpture and object and installation art can be seen - often with fabric, textiles or other organic materials, but less photography and video art. Committed works tend to deal with subjects such as migration, ecology or feminism, but not with the globally threatening war scenarios. Only at second glance, for example, does the work of Spanish artist Laia Abril at Set Espai D'Art reveal its harrowing political dimension."

Vivienne Chow at Artnet asks whether Madrid could even overtake Miami: "Judged by its scale and the number of accompanying VIP events, Arco Madrid is much more modest than Art Basel Miami Beach. However, with an increasing number of affluent Latin American collectors making the city their home here, thanks to an investor-visa scheme, it may not be an overstatement to compare the two. Some have reported choosing Madrid over Miami, and prices for its housing properties have been on the rise." Otherwise, the Anglo-American specialised press largely ignores Arco. Christof Habres has also observed the general uncertainty in the art market in Madrid for Parnass.

Michael Huber allows himself a witty comparison as an introduction to his report on the Spark fair in Vienna in the Kurier: "An art fair resembles a goods train in a certain way. Not only because heavy and valuable loads are often moved: As an economic vehicle, a fair is always a combination, and if it is to be successful, it needs well-loaded wagons and ideally several locomotives to pull it. Big artist names and the reputation of galleries serve as fuel in the art world, the proverbial coal comes afterwards. Last year, the 'Spark' art fair in Vienna lost a few locomotives and wagons, which is why the decision was made to cancel. This year's edition is a comeback, for which a large number of exhibits have been organised on several tracks.“ With the Salon du Dessin and Drawing Now, two art fairs are attracting specialised dealers and collectors to Paris. Bettina Wohlfarth reports for the FAZ: "Fragonard's study may already be taken, much to the chagrin of some connoisseurs, but other fantastic works can be discovered at the 32nd edition of the Salon du Dessin at the Palais Brongniart. A good half of the 39 galleries are French, 17 dealers come from neighbouring European countries or the USA. Curators from the world's most important graphic art collections have also travelled to the opening this year." 

International coverage of Art Basel Hong Kong is less extensive than it used to be, as Art Basel says it wants to concentrate more on regional media and correspondents in its press work. In the FAZ (paywall), Ernst Herb sees the current edition of the fair as being dominated by the recently tightened security laws: "At the fair, the issue overshadows the art trade, although there is still no formal censorship in Hong Kong. Explicitly political art at Art Basel relates to non-Chinese themes [...] Decorative works dominate. In previous editions of the fair, provocative works were on display [...] Sales at the fair appear to have been rather mixed in the first two days, according to selective enquiries from galleries. This could have to do with the economic slowdown in China, but also with fewer customers travelling from the USA, Europe or Australia."

Following the discontinuation of the Fiac, Art Paris is increasingly establishing itself in early April 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." 

Georg Imdahl emphasises the feel-good factor of Art Düsseldorf in the FAZ: "The feel-good factor in the former steelworks of the Böhlerhallen with its daylight is indeed hard to beat. A dealer from Düsseldorf isn't just being locally patriotic when he describes Art Düsseldorf as the second most beautiful fair after Paris+ in the Grand Palais Éphémère. Now that everything is getting a little more serious economically, it is supposed to prove that success is possible in a generally weakening market - and after the cancellation of subsidies during the pandemic. For understandable reasons, many of the 106 participants with a manageable proportion of foreign participants want to achieve this through painting. They are often appealing, but not groundbreaking."

Ursula Scheer characterises Art Brussels in the FAZ: ‘Whether optimistic-abstract as by Haddasah Emmerich at Sofie Van de Velde (Antwerp) or ambiguous-naturalistic as by Rinus Van de Velde at the Tim Van Laere Gallery (Antwerp, Rome): Painting dominates, certainly with less convincing examples than these. Art Brussels gives space to experimentation. This makes them appear young, but fray at the edges. Museum works such as an installation by the sculptor Bernd Lohaus (Sofie Van de Velde), who died in 2010, provide substance. And the future is on the horizon’. 

Even in its current edition, the small Frieze New York in May hardly seems to excite anyone. Interestingly, both the big galleries with their usual sales reports and the usual media, which support the fairs' PR with reports of a “brisk start” and “buyoing sales”, are conspicuously reticent. Incidentally, Tefaf New York appears across the board in reports on satellite fairs, including Rachel Sherman's overview for the New York Times of all eleven art fairs of the week. 

This year, Tefaf New York starts as a latecomer to Frieze, which is likely to find its audience primarily among residents of the Upper East Side. Barbara Kutscher is delighted in the Handelsblatt: “It would be easy to forget the current uncertainty in the market. But as the recently published ‘Art Market Update’ by Bank of America, lead partner of Tefaf, analyses, collectors are now retreating to secured positions and the best works by underrepresented artists. This should play into the hands of the fair, which is known for juried top works. Undaunted, some dealers are betting on the city's purchasing power with seven-figure prices.”

Paris+ par Art Basel is now called Art Basel Paris, according to a press release. Ursula Scheer is delighted in the FAZ: “The number of participating galleries has been increased from 154 to 194 exhibitors for the upcoming edition in October. They come from 42 countries and territories. The French focus is to remain a trademark of the fair. Around a third of the galleries are based in France, and 51 first-time exhibitors will provide a breath of fresh air.” The number of “galleries operating spaces in France” (press release quote) is 64, compared to 61 in the previous year, meaning that the French share has shrunk from 40 per cent to one third (including the international gallery corprations). Competing Art Paris will be pleased.

It was Art Basel in Basel again, which this year was very European in character on the visitor side. There were still hotel rooms available in the city at triple-digit prices, the crowds in the exhibition halls seemed less intense than usual at the opening and the mood among the dealers was rather subdued. In Handelsblatt (possibly paywall), Susanne Schreiber calls Art Basel's appearance in the public space, for which the new director Maike Cruse is responsible for the first time, a "mark-up of relevance", while the galleries' offerings correspond to the economic situation: "Unlimited can also be read as a commentary on the present. This year, the continuing state of crisis and the never-ending wars seem to have fuelled a longing for art that soothes and delights. [...] These are politically tense times, in which collectors who have travelled to Basel from all over the world may have the purchasing power, but hardly the desire to spend big money. Visible trend: almost all exhibitors are playing it safe, no bling-bling; new names of younger artists who do not yet cost millions dominate."