The Art Newspaper

Frieze opening report: Big bold displays but sober prices

Most galleries present more ambitious pieces as major collectors descend on Regent's Park fair

By Georgina Adam, Charlotte Burns and Melanie Gerlis. From Frieze daily edition
Published online: 14 October 2010

John Bock's "Dandy Installation", 2006/10, at Anton Kern Gallery (A4)

LONDON. Dealers were delighted to see hedge-fund honcho Steven Cohen, one of the world’s biggest art buyers, at the preview of Frieze yesterday morning. “It’s my first visit to the fair,” Cohen said as he viewed the work accompanied by his adviser, Sandy Heller.

But Cohen wasn’t the first in. At the front of the line were Dallas collectors Christen and Derek Wilson. “This is my favourite fair,” said Christen, a member of Tate’s North American acquisitions committee. British collectors Frank and Cheryl Cohen sauntered past Tate supremo Sir Nicholas Serota, who was deep in conversation with über-collector Charles Saatchi outside Sadie Coles HQ (C15). Adding serious glamour, Russian collector Dasha Zhukova swished towards Marian Goodman (F16), while supermodel Claudia Schiffer eyed up Thanksgiving 1985 (Table) by hot US artist Roe Ethridge at Andrew Kreps (A7).

Fellow stars included rock’n’roller Keith Richards, photographer David Bailey and an assortment of artists: Ai Weiwei, a wheelchair-bound Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk and Mike Nelson. Early-bird collectors also included Chicago’s Stefan Edlis with Gail Leeson, Hong Kong’s Richard Chang and Brazil’s Ricard Akagawa.

Greeting them were dealers on stands that boasted bigger and bolder displays than in the last two downturn years. Not to be outdone by the usual powerhouses of Gagosian (D8), White Cube (F15), Hauser & Wirth (C12) et al, most galleries this year are ratcheting up their ambitions with larger pieces.

So why is big back? Dealers claim they aren’t driving the trend: “It’s not my ego,” said New York gallerist Friedrich Petzel (D3). “Artists are producing bigger works.” His sales included a large-scale John Stezaker—Untitled (Veil Tiger), 1982—for around £50,000 to a European buyer.

“There are a lot of ambitious collectors still out there,” says James Lindon, visiting the fair from New York’s Pace. He added: “Dealers might be slimming down in terms of production, but that doesn’t impact scale.” In line with today’s more sober mood, many of the materials used are humble: cardboard, paper, flags or found objects.

Make do and mend

At Luisa Strina (F14), Brazilian artist Marepe is showing Minha tia usa bob todo dia, 2010, a large sculpture made out of hair curlers, which went to a private European buyer for €20,000.

At Anton Kern Gallery’s stand (A4), the centrepiece is a large work by German-born artist John Bock called Dandy Installation, 2006/10. The work features a metal cage and inside are a huge range of objects, including a wig, hat and an old record player. Works in editions—cheaper than unique pieces—are also much in evidence this year.

Others sense a gear change in the market, with confidence on the up. “Larger-scale works reflect increased optimism,” says Oscar Humphries of Timothy Taylor (C17). “Big pieces anchor the stand,” adds Victoria Miro (G3), who sold two sizeable Yayoi Kusama works to separate buyers for $400,000 and $225,000. First-timers Ibid Projects (H17) “definitely wanted to make a statement,” says assistant director Tobias Wagner, who at 11am joked “you can interpret it as confidence or desperation”. By 5pm he was feeling confident: David Adamo’s untitled splintered-bark sculpture (2010) had sold for £7,000 to a Belgian collector who is building a foundation, as well as Daniel Silver’s Smoking Silver Father Figures, 2010, six large bronze works in Frieze’s sculpture park, for £65,000, to an international collector.

But while pieces might be big, it doesn’t mean prices necessarily are, too. “It used to be that a big work was double the price of a smaller work: but not any longer,” says collector David Roberts, who bought Pietro Roccasalva’s The Fourteen Stations (You Never Look at Me From the Place I See You), 2010, tagged at €75,000, from Zero (C7).

So, did the strategy pay off? By 1pm, Brazilian buyer Paolo Pedroso said: “I can’t believe it, the good big works are completely sold.” But he was able to buy a Michael Raedecker, Contact, 2010, from Hauser & Wirth (C12) for €65,000. Hotel (E6) sold a large-scale, untitled David Noonan painting to a private Scandinavian collector for £35,000; while at Casey Kaplan (B2), the Wilsons—the front-of-line Dallas couple—were one of three buyers for Marlo Pascual’s wall-hogging c-print of a vampish pin-up (Untitled, 2010) for $10,000. One of the other editions went to David Roberts.

For some artists, however, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Damien Hirst’s The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths, 2006, sold quickly from White Cube (F15) for £3.5m to an anonymous buyer. “Write Damien’s market off at your peril,” said a jovial Tim Marlow, director of its exhibitions. “He’s got balls of steel and he’ll win.”