Eighteenth Century Isn’t Selling: A Report From the New Tricked-Out American International Fine Art Fair
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- Eighteenth Century Isn’t Selling: A Report From the New Tricked-Out American International Fine Art Fair
Before entering the American International Fine Art Fair, a Palm Beach show known for its vast array of blue-chip antiques, one might have various assumptions about the age of its attendees — probably pretty high — and the fair's cool factor — probably pretty low.
Yet this year, the show greeted vistors with an exploding mass of painted, sculpted steel (John Chamberlain’s "Camshaftmedley," 2007) standing in the center of a black pool of water at the entrance, as well as low, sexy lighting, and dark gray exhibitor booths with glowing fluorescent purple trim running across the top. When we entered the show's collectors' preview on Friday, one thing was immediately clear to us — this wasn’t going to be your grandmother’s antique show.
This year's edition, running now through February 12 at the Palm Beach County Convention Center, is a grand departure from its first in 1995. “When we started 15 years ago, people would've rather had a piece by an Old Master or an Impressionist rather than a Picasso,” David Lester, who co-founded the fair with wife Lee Ann, told ARTINFO. “Well, Old Masters sales didn’t do so well this week. Eighteenth Century isn’t selling.” He had lost many once-successful exhibitors — Galerie du Post Impressionisme, Jeremy LTD, Hotspur Antiques, and Anthony Marks, for example — after they went out of business.
In response to shifting tastes in the market, and an increasingly diverse set of buyers that now include more Eastern Europeans and South Americans than ever before, the Lesters pushed this year's fair toward mid- and later 20th-century art, plus a few other surprises. There was a fair share of classic objects — 15th-century jousting armor from Peter Finer, second-century bronzes from Ariadne, and the most antique of all, a 50,000 million-year-old fossilized palm frond imprint from Eostone — but from the new minimalist décor to the wind-powered hybrid car, a new hipness was palpable.
Blue-chip powerhouse Hammer Gallery brought its A-game this year, a dazzling flurry of work by Warhol, Wesselman, and Chagall (oh my!), a markedly different booth than the one that had exhibited 27 Renoirs the year before. Although, to be fair, its main attraction was the very special 1822 Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington. One of only three (one lost to fire, and another to Alice Walton), it was acquired by gallery founder Armand Hammer at a record-setting $205,000 at Park-Bernet in the '70s. Today, it stands to fetch a cool $7.5 million.
Equally as impressive was the Mark Borghi booth, full of highly coveted (and highly priced) works spanning the gamut from Cassat to Calder, with a bronze "Cat" and "Owl" by Louise Nevelson, and Robert Indiana's 1971 "Autoportrait Decade."
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The online-only VIP Art Fair, running February 3 through 8, has so far enjoyed a technologically improved, buzzy second edition.
08 February '12
artinfo.com
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Catalan painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies, one of the world's top contemporary art figures, has died. He was 88.
08 February '12
www.artdaily.org
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The three top works of Impressionist and Modern art from the storied Collection of Elizabeth Taylor fetched a combined £13,787,750 ($21,784,645 /€16,572,876) at Christie’s London Tuesday evening, more than doubling their pre-sale low estimate of £6.2 million.
08 February '12
www.artdaily.org
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Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation today announced plans to close the Deutsche Guggenheim contemporary-art exhibition space on Berlin’s Unter den Linden.
06 February '12
www.bloomberg.com
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By all accounts, the VIP Art Fair’s Web site is working quite well this time around. But how are the sales?
06 February '12
blogs.artinfo.com
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The Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair (BRAFA) is known for an eclectic range of exhibitors, who bring paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects spanning several centuries and several continents.
04 February '12
www.artinfo.com
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With this landmark score, the tiny, oil-rich nation joins a massively exclusive club: only five Card Players exist, and the other four are in world-class collections such as the Musée d’Orsay and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
04 February '12
www.vanityfair.com
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Artist Mike Kelley, described by colleagues as an "irresistible force" in contemporary art, has died, police said Wednesday. He was 57.
02 February '12
www.artdaily.org
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When Ai Weiwei was arrested by the Chinese government in April of 2011, the first question asked was — what will happen to his Twitter account?
01 February '12
artinfo.com
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SOTHEBY’S have posted $4.9bn in worldwide sales for 2011, marginally up on 2010.
01 February '12
www.antiquestradegazette.com
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The online VIP Art Fair is returning for its second cyber outing. The fair, whose initials stand for “viewing in private,” invites visitors to browse the virtual booths of about 130 exhibitors from 36 countries, Feb. 3 through Feb. 8.
01 February '12
www.bloomberg.com
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Christie’s International (CHRS) said there was a surge in demand for contemporary art as an investment, after its sales climbed 9 percent in 2011.
01 February '12
www.bloomberg.com
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A copy of the Mona Lisa has been discovered in the Prado which was painted in Leonardo’s studio—created side by side with the original that now hangs in the Louvre. This sensational find will transform our understanding of the world’s most famous picture.
01 February '12
theartnewspaper.com
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Pablo Picasso is the artist who has more works stolen than anyone else. The Spanish master has 1,147 paintings registered as nicked, missing or disputed – twice as many as the next on the Art Loss Register.
30 January '12
www.mirror.co.uk
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The No. 1 question from visitors to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, according to Emilie Gordenker, is “Where is ‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’?”
30 January '12
www.nytimes.com
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Seven artists from around the world have been shortlisted for the UK's largest visual arts prize.
29 January '12
www.bbc.co.uk
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The Winter Antiques Show finished its first week with strong sales and interest among buyers, including established collectors, design professionals and first-time buyers.
29 January '12
www.artdaily.org
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A beautiful watercolour of Kirkby Lonsdale Churchyard by Joseph Mallord William Turner RA (1775-1851), that had not been seen at auction since 1884, sold yesterday (Wednesday 25th January 2012) for £217,250 as part of the 19th Century Paintings sale at Bonhams, 101 New Bond Street, London. The sale total was £1,871,925.
29 January '12
www.artdaily.org
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