ART FAIRS 093
always be sky-high prices for the few, but when sales by the four major auction houses fell 16% in the first half of 2023 compared to the previous year, the writing was on the wall. And the two big art fair franchises that hold events in four different cities every year have not regained the market share they had pre-pandemic. Nevertheless fairs have become critical to gallery business. Location is everything – and branding. China is down as a market for art, and London suffered seriously from the costs and consequences of the UK’s exiting the EU in 2016. Paris is doing very nicely, thank you. Paris+ by Art Basel was ably assisted in 2023 by an array of concurrent exhibitions at the major museums in
the city, and this year will be boosted by its move to the grandiose refurbished Grand Palais. Added to which the allure of the city means it is back to being at the heart of the art world. New York still accounts for the bulk of global art sales – London was always in second place by sales, but that is fast disappearing. Paris has proved the main beneficiary of the art world’s Brexit blues. Te arrival in Regent’s Park of a marquee full of the world’s best contemporary art – along with artists, dealers and a parade of wealthy collectors – seized London by the scruff of its grimy neck in 2003. And galleries from New York, LA, Berlin, Paris, Antwerp, Moscow and Mexico City all set up stands underneath the
huge temporary structure, designed by one David Adjaye; it’s all a long, long time ago. Tate Modern had opened and smashed all expectations, so this was a gamble worth taking: it worked. It revolutionised London’s art world. Now, the internationalisation of the business is proof, if proof were needed, that to stay ahead Frieze has had to change.
Te art market is working hard to dodge the obstacles that came at it – Covid, inflation, austerity-bashed economies, soaring interest rates, and international conflicts all exposed its frailties. People are rearranging their priorities. Gone are the days when collectors would increasingly cite financial value as their main motivation for buying pieces. And so inevitably missing are young, very wealthy, very excited entrepreneurs who had been able to borrow at historically low interest rates and buy artworks with the cash. Buying art with borrowed money, when the value of the art is going up, was just painless. Lurid stories about art-as-merchandise merchants will never disappear from tabloid papers, but as love and enjoyment of art has become the fashion everywhere, the way such people shop has changed forever. Most collectors appear to prefer to attend art fairs over individual gallery spaces, and collaborations, beyond the fairs, appears to be a central point of focus and development. Tus Frieze scooped up the Armory show for $24.4m in 2023. Like Art Basel and the other major businesses, it is expanding its empire across the world, a world of chic and glamour, and high rollers. Tese have been uncertain times as the art world has had to adapt to a new normal post-Covid, but a cocktail of energy and seasoned talent has created wonders. Fostering community and collector engagement have been essential to ensuring a gallery gets visitors. Fairs are the heart of that resilience amid an ever-changing new normal. Tere are now over 300 art fairs every year, and the model provides a venue for commercial and social exchange between galleries, collectors, and art professionals. Into this world there have been new approaches to the model in recent years as cities carve out alternative fairs: non-fair fairs, social clubs, but what unites them all is providing different points of access for viewing art and socialising, alongside creating an environment where the younger, smaller galleries feel able to make an appearance and take risks. And there are always offshoots, like the club built within a disused mayonnaise factory minutes from the Art Basel Messeplatz in 2023.
Constantly breathing fresh air into this world is quite a skill. No one has done it better and more often than Tom Postma. His shows have become immersive, spellbinding and unforgettable, people being evermore driven by brand. Creating those brands has become so important as those brands have become bigger than their business and a rare opportunity for growth. Te fairs have a duty to deliver clients to the galleries, and a responsibility to deliver the great collectors and institutions of the world to their booths. Tat is an art form in itself. Tat is the business that Tom Postma Design is in.
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