Untitled
"Liverpool Station at Rush Hour"
Was the London Art Fair worth it? Press Reactions to the Frieze Art Fair
The Frieze Art Fair was already a hit with the public in 2003. That the art
fair, which took place for a second time in London from October 15-18,
would turn into a spectacle was something no one could be certain of. Yet
only a few days after the event, the critics' opinions are unanimous: A
"Feast for Collectors," as the Neue Zürcher Zeitung
headline read, had established itself as an exceptional locus on the
international art market. "Called to life only last year by the two
newcomers Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, the editors of the art
magazine of the same name," the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
reported "takings from 24 to 30 million Euros" for last year alone.
This year, the sum must have been even higher because 25 more galleries took
part, putting the number of exhibitors at 150 and the total number of
artists shown at 2,000. Thus, Sandra Kegel from the FAZ predicts that the
Frieze Art Fair will triumph over its competitors, such as the Berlin Art
Forum or the Art Cologne: "In London, more than a few German galleries
have candidly said that they'd rather come here in the future than to
Cologne or Berlin, because at the end of the day it's about business, and
the art shopping is magnificent here."
The Frankfurter
Rundschau attempted to explain the enormous popularity of the Frieze
Art Fair. Louise Brown, who was impressed by the crowds in the makeshift
white fair tent designed by the British star architect David Adjaye, wrote
that a feeling of "being in a nightclub" already arose at the front door:
"At the first professional view, the entrance area seemed like Liverpool
Station at rush hour." Brown criticized the interior design, which seemed
too much like a "picnic area," yet for her the Frieze Art Fair was still
an "ultimate art event: and the two fair directors kept praising their
main sponsor Deutsche Bank in the most glowing terms."
For
Ingeborg Ruthe of the Berliner Zeitung, as well, Deutsche Bank's
commitment marks a successful beginning on the British Isle especially
because the Frieze Art Fair doesn't operate with spectacle: "Apparently,
London is striving towards becoming the world art capital with more
respectable means. Even Deutsche Bank believes that it could work and has
sponsored this second Frieze Art Fair instead of the recent successful
Berlin Art Forum."
|
Nonetheless, the fair seemed "fairly relaxed" to Ruthe, who
feels confirmed in her judgment by curators assured that "following the
years of 'sensation,' the new trend lies in serious observation,
realization, and analysis - for instance of the connections between high
tech and nature, politics, and everyday life."
For the NZZ,
one indication of this is the work of Jota Castro in the Massimo Minini
Gallery of Brescia, with "the heads of Tony Blair, George Bush, and Silvio
Berlusconi grinning out of three oil drums painted in the English,
American, and Italian national flags." On the other hand, Catrin Lorch of
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung found Tacita Dean's work
at Marian Goodman to be extraordinary: "a sixteen millimeter film of the
Palast der Republik in Berlin, ten minutes of a static image of a grid
facade shining in gold." Above all, according to the FAZ, it's noticeable
that photography has "interrupted its flight and has taken its place as
one among many forms of expression." In the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
, Frank Frangenberg sees another problem looming on the horizon - in his
opinion, art dealing and criticism are too close at the Frieze Art Fair:
"The boundaries between the marketplace and the exhibition seem to blur in
London. When an art magazine organizes an art fair and their critics write
texts on the artists in the catalogue, they're basically offering
suggestions as to what to buy - and surrender every last bit of reserve
and neutrality."
The British critics see the art event with
far more humor and irony. For the Independent, Ossian Ward produced
a small primer ahead of time in which collectors, museum directors,
gallery dealers, fair employees, artists, and curators shake hands. His
attention was particularly directed at Hans-Ulrich Obrist, the curator at
Paris' Musee d'Art Moderne considered to be one of the most active
curators of the present day. But Deutsche Bank is way up there on the
attention scale for him too, because it's "a seal of approval for Frieze
as it is a financial shot in the arm." For the Guardian, on
the other hand, Adrian Searle pondered on the "terrible jarring moments,
when everything teeters into meaninglessness and visual overload." Yet
Searle also knows in a general way what role the fair plays: "For those
artists whose work is intended to do more than merely entertain, art fairs
look brutal." For this reason, he sums it up in this way: "After a weekend
at the art fair, one might wish to reach for that old modernist standby,
Less is More, and spend some time alone in an empty white room with a
chair and a book."
Translation: Andrea Scrima
|
