Frieze Art Fair 2010 in Regent's Park, London. Photo by Linda Nylind for Frieze.

 
At the close of the eighth edition of Frieze Art Fair, sponsored by Deutsche Bank, several galleries reported their strongest sales since the fair’s inception in 2003.

Fair directors, Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover were delighted with reports of significant sales from both established galleries and from the newer galleries in the Frame section and beyond. 173 galleries exhibited over 1,000 artists at Frieze Art Fair 2010 – the largest in the fair’s history. 29 different countries were represented. Collectors from the traditional hotspots of Germany and the USA were joined by a strong showing of Asian, Latin-American, Middle-Eastern and Russian collectors.

Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover commented, ‘Overall, we feel the quality level was very high this year – with very elegant installations and presentations of significant artworks. This translated into substantial sales, to both public and private collections, from Europe and the US but also, increasingly, from the rest of the world. Frieze Art Fair is a truly global event.’

Over 60,000 visitors were welcomed to the fair during the five-day professional and public event.

Strong sales were reported at every level. London’s White Cube gallery sold Damien Hirst’s’ The True Artist Helps the World by Revealing Mystic Truths, for £3.5m, Thaddaeus Ropac sold a Georg Baselitz painting for €630,000. David Zwirner gallery from New York sold Luc Tuymans’ 2006 painting Evidence for $850,000. Marina Abramovic and Anish Kapoor sold well on London’s Lisson Gallery with £800,000 for a black fibreglass Kapoor sculpture and £200,000 for an editioned hanging sculpture. Hauser & Wirth, who opened their new gallery space in London during the fair, had significant sales including a 2009 Paul McCarthy sculpture for £750,000 and a new work on paper by Ellen Gallagher for $300,000. Galerie Fortes Vilaca sold both editions of Sala de Lectura (Reading Room) by Los Carpinteros for $200,000 each. Greene Naftali sold Tony Conrad’s Yellow Movie 2/28/73 to a US museum for $150,000. Vitamin Creative Space sold their entire booth by Cao Fei to a European museum.

There were more solo presentations than ever before in the main section, from Marianne Boesky, Isabella Bortolozzi, BQ, Elizabeth Dee, Stephen Friedman, Casey Kaplan, David Kordansky, Long March Space, Eva Presenhuber, Vitamin Creative Space and Zero.

Frame, the section in the fair for galleries under six years old supported this year by Cos, reported important new contacts and good sales made. Curator advisers Cecilia Alemani and Daniel Baumann said, ‘This second edition of Frame confirmed Frieze Art Fair’s commitment to showcasing artists’ work in depth. With its solo booths and specific focus on both upcoming artists and seminal figures, Frame is a unique occasion to get to know new artists. This edition of Frame brought together some of the youngest artists in the fair, presented alongside key figures and overlooked talents."

Gallery response

Casey Kaplan gallery commented: ‘We have sold everything. We’re very happy. We have had support from institutions, sold to museums, foundations, new collectors. It’s the first time Marlo Pascual’s work has been seen in the UK and we’re thrilled to have had this response. The experience has been overwhelmingly positive.’

Daniela Zarate from Mexican gallery kurimanzutto said ‘Frieze Art Fair worked very well for us, not only in terms of sales, but also presence in London. We have met lots of European and International collectors – both new and already known to us. We’ve also seen many curators and institutions, and we were delighted to sell a work (by Jimmie Durham) to Tate. It was perfect.’

Andrzej Przywara of Foksal Gallery Foundation, Warsaw was similarly pleased: ‘The fair was really good – one of the best ever. We’re especially happy that we sold all the works from our stand. I’m really proud that we sold the Paulina Olowska drawings to MoMA.’

Angela Choon of David Zwirner observed, ‘There has been a great energy here this year, we’ve had a lot of interest in photography and we’ve me a number of new clients. Particularly popular artists have been Christopher Williams, Luc Tuymans and Francis Alÿs.’

New York gallerist Tanya Bonakdar said, ‘The fair was really great. I missed not being at the fair in 2009 and was very pleased to re-connect with the London community this year. I met collectors from all over Europe and an exceptional number of US museum curators too. Frieze is unique.’

Tim Marlow Director of Exhibitions at White Cube remarked: ‘Frieze week has been a great success and reinforces the fact that London is the most pivotal art city in Europe’

Daniel Balice of Balice Hertling observed, ‘this edition of the fair allowed us to meet very serious clients from new markets making us feel positive about the future.’

Nicholas Logsdail, director Lisson Gallery said, ‘As always, Frieze Art Fair was bright, sparky and innovative with an ever increasing body of collectors and visitors from the four corners of the globe. Excellent business at both the fair and gallery.’

David Tung from Long March Space commented, ‘We’re very pleased with the way Frieze Art Fair has gone for us. It has been amazing to see so many Asian collectors here.’

Marianne Boesky gallery was pleased with the results of the fair too. ‘We’ve sold very well, collectors have been coming right up until that last day. We’ve sold to people we know but we always meet new people at Frieze. It’s the only fair at which we always present a solo stand, and we’ve had a great response to Donald Moffet’s work.’

Victoria Miro said, ‘It has been an excellent fair for us. There has been a serious collectorship in evidence some of whom have gone for classic works, such as those by Yayoi Kusama. Frieze is always good for us but this year has been particularly so, with a broader range of collectors than ever before.’

Newcomers to the fair, Xavier Hufkens, said, ‘This is our first participation in Frieze and we’re really happy. We’ve met new collectors from all around the world.’

London gallery owner Carl Freedman also welcomed the influx of new collectors, ‘We’ve had a really great fair, it’s actually been our best ever. We have met new collectors from Turkey, Australia, Tehran and Dubai resulting in really strong sales.’

Alison Jacques commented, ‘This has been one of the very best Friezes we’ve experienced. We presented important historic pieces alongside new work by younger artists Significant sales were realised for all these and many more, with probable acquisitions to follow strong museum reserves. The calibre and range of collectors was very high, we made important new contacts – particularly in Latin America – while the British and European collecting base certainly proved reassuringly buoyant.’

Those exhibiting in Frame were similarly pleased. James Fuentes remarked: ‘This has been my first year exhibiting at Frame and it has gone phenomenally well; it almost couldn’t have been better. The winning attributes for me have been a particularly strong context within which to show my artist [Jessica Dickinson]’s work, a consistent level of interest from collectors and a supremely professional level of hospitality and engagement from fair staff. This is so important for a first timer like me.’

David Hoyland of Seventeen observed: ‘We sold out. It was brilliant this year. We sold an entire edition of five video works. We met new people, there was tons of museum interest. Frame really works, showing concise, interesting presentations by artists. We’ve met collectors we know and new ones too, and sold to each. I was impressed with the way collectors have made the comfortable leap into buying video work. We’ve sold to English, Canadian, American and European collectors.’