Seventh Edition of Frieze Art Fair Closes With Many Delighted Exhibitors

Written by Matthew Slotover Saturday, 11 December 2010 22:19

LONDON.- At the close of the seventh edition of Frieze Art Fair, sponsored by Deutsche Bank, participating galleries reported clear evidence of renewed confidence in the contemporary art market. Fair directors, Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp were delighted with reports of significant sales from new and established galleries exhibiting at the 2009 fair, as well as the enjoyable and positive atmosphere engendered at the event and commented, "We have been extremely pleased by the extent of the sales successes reported by major US, European, Latin American and UK galleries as well as the younger galleries in our new Frame section.

The strong museum shows in London coinciding with the fair helped to attract the world’s most important collectors, curators and museum directors. The galleries have rewarded UK and international visitors by bringing great pieces of the highest standard to Frieze Art Fair this year and everyone involved has commented on the great atmosphere this week."

Frieze Art Fair 2009 presented 165 of the world’s leading galleries from 30 countries. The fair welcomed 29 new galleries under six years old as part of Frame, and 24 further new galleries. Over 1,000 artists were showcased. Visitor figures once again reached 60,000 making attendance comparable to the last two years.

Sales at Frieze Art Fair 2009 reflected the breadth of artists and works on show. Hauser & Wirth sold a Louise Bourgeois sculpture, "The Couple," to a European collection for $3.5 million, Neo Rauch’s "Harmios" sold for $1 million at David Zwirner, a Baldessari Beethoven's "Trumpet (with Ear) Opus 133 on the Sprüth Magers Stand" sold for $400,000, and Eva Presenhuber sold its Ugo Rondinone work "A Day Like This Made of Nothing and Nothing Else" for 270,000 Euros. Alison Jacques reported the sale of a Hannah Wilke bronze for $150,000 while at "Frame," Seventeen Gallery sold a work by Susan Collis for £35,000, and Project 88 from Mumbai sold an original Sarnath Banerjee work for £8,000.

Sree Goswami Director of Project 88 remarked, ‘It has gone very well for us. We’ve sold to corporate collections and new buyers. There is a really good vibe and feel to the Frame section and it has been very carefully selected which is a bonus for collectors. We have sold all our Sarnath Banerjee original works. We have seen many Indian clients and have benefitted from the number of Indian artists that are having gallery and institutional shows throughout London.’

Iwan Wirth of Hauser&Wirth said ‘For us, this has been one of our best Frieze Art Fairs ever. We're delighted to have sold Louise Bourgeois’s sculpture ‘The Couple’ to a European collection for $3,5 Million. Also on show in the park, Paul McCarthy’s Henry Moore Bound to Fail is on hold. We had a great success with Ida Applebroog, selling all the works on our booth, proving just how important it is to focus on older as well as younger generation artists. At this point in time, we have sold works by Andreas Hofer, Roni Horn, Wilhelm Sasnal, Bharti Kher, Subodh Gupta, Paul McCarthy, Michael Raedecker, Hans Josephsohn, Henry Moore, Christopher Orr, Zhang Enli, David Zink Yi and Jakub Julian Ziolkowski. Sales have been steady and consistent throughout.’

Carol Greene of Greene Naftali Gallery in NYC said, ‘Frieze Art Fair was an extraordinary success for us. We had low expectations but surpassed all our past fair sales. We also felt that we were able to not just place works but to engage in meaningful conversations with the collectors, curators and artists, which will have more consequences over time. We did choose to focus our booth on fewer artists and made stronger statements with larger works by artists like Bjarne Melgaard, Rachel Harrison and Gedi Sibony – all of which were very well received. We sold the majority of our work in the first three hours but had very focused good collectors the entire time. This is a fair in which every day something happens.’

The new section to the fair, "Frame," was extremely popular with collectors, visitors and gallerists, and allowed younger galleries to show at Frieze Art Fair for the first time. Curators Daniel Baumann and Sarah McCrory who were special advisors to "Frame" in 2009 commented, "Frame has been an amazing success. Not only have the presentations been well received critically, but also many galleries have reported great sales. The galleries have been positive about the architecture of the space and the atmosphere and many of the participating artists have received invitations to show in major institutions."

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