Is NYC’s Affordable Art Fair opening today only a poor man’s Frieze contemporary fair? Well if part of your definition of ‘poor’ is lesser quality than judging by this year’s standards certainly not. Are these artists as good an investment as ‘higher chip’ fairs? About the same really. And as resistant as many ‘integrity’ galleries would rather be seen in not supporting the blazing price contemporary art auction market it’s hard for them often to say no in these economic times. And would one be reluctant to fork out $5-10,000 on a single piece without a good sense of sure investment return?
While some people do indeed buy on a whim (lucky art gallery) most people do their homework when spending that sort of money. At the Affordable Art Fair that homework can be well rewarding. But at the end your eyes are what you have to trust. Solomon, the founder of the Guggenheim Collection, was crazy over the now neglected Rudolph Bauer (Sotheby’s) (German Consulate): 300 works formed the now famed collection. (A story that remarkably few in the art world know anything about!) After Guggenheim’s death (contrary to his will) all but 12 were deaccessioned and now not one hangs in the permanent collection. Alfred Barnes faired better with his Soutines though not any better with the wishes of his will.
Without the blue-chip gallery push it’s hard for much contemporary art to get into any limelight. Buying judiciously at fairs such as Affordable can bring great pleasure though. Reward enough perhaps.
Wendy Wolf (FitzRoy Knox) creates new little worlds inspired from dead leaves using a rapidograph technical pen on yupo (an industrial plastic paper). You never know: in 10 years she may be mentioned alongside Marlene Dumas. Willy Rojas (Villa del Arte Galleries-Barcelona, Spain and now Amsterdam) is a trained cinematographer and experimental filmmaker. His tiny photo worlds of figures and real foodstuffs will make you smile every morning rather than (or alas while) cry into your coffee. $700 well spent.
Judith Hughes Day specializes in Vietnamese contemporary fine art and while much of the work looks familiar on first glance there is a particularly soothing Asian aesthetic that would serve one well for years in a domestic setting. Compare to the prices of establish Vietnamese greats such as Le Pho, Vu Cao Dam or Bui Xuan Phai and you’ve nabbed yourself a bargain.
If your home (and wallet) is ready for ‘sterner’ stuff then blue chip dealer Marianne Boesky has just opened a Lower East Side gallery Boesky East with the work of Adam Helms. A remarkable humanity shines through much of the dark work, and he shared at the opening that as a youngster he and his father would watch horror movies. No time now to explain humanity and horror movies. You either get it or you don’t. Something gentler and playful but no less ‘strange’ in Boesky’s canon is the work of Pier Paolo Calzolari from the arte povera movement (and who Boesky did much enticing to extract him from his Italian hideaway). His teapot fountain is exquisite (watch the video on website).
The movement Viennese Actionism gets a rather rare outing at Hauser & Wirth. You thought Tracey Emin first invented tampon art? No: there was a guy Hermann Nitsch doing it in 1964! In fact much of the show pre-dates a lot of later work around the world. Certainly it is concurrent with others’ experimentations. More bodily probing albeit with paint with young Rachel Garrard (Gasser Grunert). Forty minutes of more little big worlds at Lombard Fried. Great new Rivington Street space for Betty Cuningham (ex Chelsea). If ‘real’ painting and drawing (you know what I mean) is your thing then it’s placed to start. Some fine print making at Susan Inglett. (One of the first galleries to revive Lynda Benglis.) Another ‘re-birthing’- Berry Campbell and the brilliant colors of 60s artist Albert Stadler. His widow said at the opening “[Stadler] never met a color he didn’t like”.
