On Tue, Nov 23, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Jennifer Nugent
A brief history of the commercial art market, this article explains the trends and changes of the art fair from the 1960's until now. It mainly centers around the KUNSTMARKT fair. Mehring cites the dealers motives for starting the art fair, mainly to boost the german art market, but also criticizes the national exclusivity of it. I'm not sure if it was reading off of a screen that was difficult, or the way the piece was written, but I had some trouble getting through it. The content is not very dense, I think it's just sentences like these: "Thus, building a new and broad collecting base became the driving force behind the founding of KUNSTMARKT, effectively co-opting for a capitalist cause the pervasive calls on the part of leftist student groups to make art more accessible to everyone." Also, when she recalls the first counter-fair, with the artists all posing in front of a painting most likely made by Richter, I gather that it is a portrait of their dealer Franz Dahlem, but it took me a bit to get that. The counter-exhibitions seem to be the most important part of the events, even from the beginning, when Dalhem had his, and was invited the following year to join KUNSTMARKT, and with the more recent example of a protest with Jorg Immendorff and Nam June Paik, Zwirner is aware that the art is relevant and important.
1. I will be sure to pay special attention to the counter-fairs around basel.
2. I bet the city of Miami is very excited about this time of year.
3. Interesting how a duo setting out to fill a void in their city, and make some money while doing so, were able to construct the model for almost every other modern art fair, including the one we will be attending next week...
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