Art Karlsruhe 2009 Predicts "Serious Growth" for This Year's Edition of Art Fair

Written by Clinton Cosey Friday, 05 November 2010 22:37

KARLSRUHE, GERMANY - Even after the most successful Art KARLSRUHE in 2008 with 38,000 visitors, the sixth fair promises yet another increase in its appeal. Under the motto Great art guaranteed! it will be laying on surprises from 5 to 8 March 2009 without deviating from the proven concept of a well-balanced presence of contemporary and classic modern art paintings and sculptures. For the first time this art stage set by project manager and fair curator Ewald Karl Schrade will be occupying all four of the exhibition centre's halls: "We have had to expand because the number of impressive applicants has risen again", he explained.

Even though 300 international galleries applied to take part in 2008 the number of potential exhibitors rose by another 50 this year. The committee has selected a total of 208 exhibitors. On board besides Ewald Karl Schrade were the art critic Dorothee Baer-Bogenschütz (Wiesbaden) and gallery owners Angelika Harthan (Stuttgart), Wolfgang Henze (Wichtrach/Bern), Dorothea van der Koelen (Mainz), and Werner Tammen (Berlin). Among the "newcomers" art KARLSRUHE 2009 welcomes Galerie Appel (Frankfurt am Main), Galerie Peter Herrmann of Berlin, specialised in African art, and the well-reputed Galerie Bhak of Seoul in South Korea.

More than 20 specialists for editions, graphic reproductions, multiples, and photography will now be putting up their portfolios for sale in Hall 1 under one roof with the special showcase on the Berlin collection of contemporary photography by Arthur de Ganay and the exhibitions connected with the Hans Platschek Prize for Art and Writing, awarded last year for the first time. This takes place next to the redesigned art meeting (5 and 6 March) and the Museum Mile.

High-End Photography at art KARLSRUHE - The Arthur de Ganay Collection
"Color of Shadow C 1022" appears to be a work of Concrete Art but is in fact a photograph taken by Hiroshi Sugimoto in 2005. This somewhat enigmatic, accurate, and unflustered work is part of the Arthur de Ganay Collection. Born in Paris and a resident of Berlin for six years now, de Ganay has "become addicted to art with body and soul". His treasures form the special showcase of the forthcoming art KARLSRUHE.

The exhibition, shown in Hall 1, provides an insight into the focal points of the architect's passion. He had already begun to collect photographs during his studies in the mid-90s but then cast his eye in a different direction in Berlin: since his move to the banks of the Spree he has been particularly interested in German photographic art, concentrating on large formats.

For art KARLSRUHE he's building a faithful reproduction of his Berlin premises, where he presents predominantly conceptual photography in Köpenicker Strasse in Kreuzberg, in order to give visitors as exact a mental image as possible of a composition of space and art.

The dimensions and the impressive perspectives of this matter-of-fact and analytical altercation with reality are provocative: largely unmanipulated interiors by Candida Höfer, unfinished carcasses of autobahns left over from the "German Unification Project", captured by Hans Christian Schink, Lewis Baltz' data-processing centre of a bank – these are pictures that, cold and distant to start with, put the view-finder on the fruits of human labour with a critical but judgment-free eye.

Ewald Karl Schrade anticipates "serious growth" for 2009 and further enhancement of this ideal emporium for the interests of collectors who "buy art for the pleasure it gives them personally".

Art dealers, too, benefit in several respects. Although participation is not free of charge, they find excellent conditions here for tapping into this wealthy and rock-solid region in south-west Germany with its high density of potential collectors. The "Berlin Block" also promotes the exchange of experiences. There are plans to make an appearance at art KARLSRUHE in 2010 and 2011, too, to enable the participants to gain a foothold in this particular marketplace.

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