The Art Fair Story: A rollercoaster ride
Melanie Gerlis (Lund Humphries, £19.99)
THIS concise study is one of a series of ‘Hot Topics in the Art World’ published in association with Sotheby’s Institute of Art. It could not have been better timed. The past two years have allowed the author, a seasoned art-market journalist, to reflect, research and write without being interrupted by travel. Had she completed it earlier, its probable conclusions would already seem outdated. However, now it stands as a useful survey of the past 60 years, which may come to be seen as a distinct period in the market’s history before it recalibrates and sets off in a new direction.
The art-fair phenomenon has indeed been a roller coaster, beginning with a slow ascent. Its ancestors were the great annual fairs of medieval Europe held where trade routes met and financial hubs evolved. In the same period, Melanie Gerlis points out, religious festivals and pilgrimages ‘elevated the importance of being in a certain place at a certain time of year’.
More immediate forebears were the international events that followed the 1851 Great Exhibition; it’s odd to think that Art Basel Miami Beach owes something to Prince Albert. The first major fair, Grosvenor House, ran for more than 70 years from 1934, but for most of that time it maintained a pre1830 dateline and exhibitors were almost exclusively British. Other fairs spread across Europe after the Second World War, and when Art Cologne, the world’s first official contemporary fair, launched in 1967 and Art Basel in 1970, their first purpose was to boost local trades.
When, in 1975, 29 Dutch and British dealers set up the first of what were to grow into the mighty TEFAF fairs, they were forced to settle on Maastricht because the Dutch dealers’ association wanted no competition near Amsterdam. However one reason for TEFAF’S success was the closeness to the main concentrations of wealth in Europe.
Since then, the art-fair juggernaut has rolled across the world in uncomfortable harness with the international auctioneers. Fairs allow dealers to compete, but at a cost that many have come to find almost impossible. Vast amounts of wealth are generated to the benefit of people far beyond the trade itself, but the ecological cost is also immense. The western model can have a colonialist feel, particularly to Asian cultures.
The book does not discuss another recent development, the less expensive collaboration of dealers in exhibitions. Together with specialist fairs, and the growing effectiveness of online marketing, these might form the basis of a post blockbuster art fair dispensation when, or if, willingness to travel returns. Huon Mallalieu