Variable quality and mixed sales at Art Paris fair

By Anna Sansom | Web only
Published online 1 Apr 09

PARIS. Dealer Daniel Templon had a jubilant start to the Art Paris fair (18-23 March), selling a Jim Dine heart painting for $220,000, a Jean-Michel Alberola painting for €55,000 and a Gérard Garouste gouache for €20,000 on the opening day. “A lot of people said this fair wouldn’t work because of the crisis and that it’s too French, but the decisions were made very fast, which was an excellent surprise,” said Mr Templon.

However, some of the 115 dealers participating in this 11th edition at the Grand Palais were less upbeat. “This year it’s sober, and diversified and disparate in terms of quality,” said Bertrand Cocheton, director of Laurent Strouk of Paris, which had sold three of its 25 Painted Contacts by William Klein by the second day for a total of €58,000.

With 81 exhibitors being French, the fair was mostly oriented towards local, Belgian and Swiss collectors, and was less international than Fiac in the autumn. “The collectors are people looking for things priced between €3,000-€50,000 to hang in their homes,” said François Dournes, a director at Lelong, which was offering a large-scale sculpture of a seated man, Nosotros by Jaume Plensa, made from stainless steel letters carved by laser light and placed outside the fair’s entrance, for €1m. It had failed to sell by the fourth day.

But the collector base was deemed relatively stable despite the economic downturn. “French collectors have always been more collectors than speculators and are less affected by trends in the international market. But of course it’s slower,” said Ernst Hilger of Vienna, exhibiting for the fourth time. The gallery sold three lightboxes by Daniele Buetti for €10,000 each and a Mel Ramos painting for €200,000 to neighbouring Galerie Rive Gauche, which sold it again afterwards.

Museum buyers were scarce, although the Centre Pompidou bought 11 drawings on wax by the Chilean artist Sandra Vásquez de la Horra, who won the Guerlain Art Prize, awarded at the fair, from David Nolan of New York.

Fast selling also happened at Orel Art of Paris, which sold a blue ballpoint skull-and-word drawing, I Die For Art by Andrei Molodkin, who is representing Russia at the Venice Biennale, for €56,000 to the London-based collector Andrei Tretyakov within the first hour. “The fair has surpassed our expectations. I was prepared for the worst,” said Ilona Orel, who is opening a new branch next to Phillips de Pury in London on 22 April with a solo show by Molodkin. The gallery also sold over 30 of 100 prints of I Die For Art, which were being printed at the stand and have the same aggregate value as the original. “I made the installation the same evening as the opening of the Warhol exhibition; it’s to show that the copy has the same value as the original,” said Molodkin. “Contemporary art needs to be avant-garde, but here the galleries just want to service people.”

Fabrice Gygi, who is representing Switzerland at the Venice Biennale, also attracted attention. One of his sculptures was bought from Guy Bärtschi of Geneva for around €10,000 by Swiss collector David Brolliet.

Paintings and, to a lesser extent, photography dominated the fair. Galerie Lélia Mordoch presented a stunning solo show of black, grey and white kinetic and optical sculptures and paintings by Julio Le Parc. None had sold by the fourth day.

The only installation work was A bas les cieux, of a tapestry, punch bag and hanging boxing gloves, by Naji Kamouche at School Gallery of Paris, which opened last year. “It’s a shame not to see many installations like this,” said the gallery’s director, Olivier Castaing. “Art Paris is demanding about which galleries exhibit but not about what they show.”