A refreshing slice of art from ancient to modern, the inaugural frieze masters was an impressive and refreshing addition to Frieze art fair, which is now in its 10th year and starting to feel a little tired and predictable. A light and airy pavilion contained a dazzling array of artworks as diverse as altarpieces, tribal masks, ancient sculptures and paintings and prints by masters of modern art Warhol and Picasso. Expertly curated and presented, frieze masters felt like a museum version of Frieze, except whereas in a museum an efficious attendant might chastise you for standing to close to a Picasso or a Matisse, at frieze masters you could get up close and personal with some of the most important figures of art history, who read like the index of Gombrich’s Story of Art. The ambience of frieze masters also gave it a museum quality, with the open plan design creating vistas offering views from one gallery stand to another, and muted grey carpeted walkways which flowed effortlessly from one period of art history to another – a welcome antidote to the overwhelming volume of art on display at Frieze with it’s overlit white booths.
Whilst Frieze offers artworks from the year 2000 onwards, frieze masters was an unprecedented opportunity to view – and for the more recession-proof visitor to purchase – objets d’art, artefacts, paintings, sculpture and photography going as far back as the ancient period, through old masters to the 20th century. A carefully selected elite group of over 90 of the world’s leading galleries specialising in every era between ancient to modern, took over an elegant pavilion designed by Annabelle Selldorf to enhance the visitor experience.
I was excited to see paintings by Francisco de Zurbaran from Madrid gallery Caylus, a Spanish Counter-Reformation artist I had studied at University, whose paintings can be found in the National Gallery. Indeed some of the artefacts on display would be at home in the British Museum, with duck stone weights from the 2nd millennium BC at Rupert Wace Ancient Art, rare Oceanic funerary figures at the Parisian Galerie Meyer, and exquisite altarpieces displayed ingeniously on packing boxes at Bacarellibotticelli.
The Acquavella stand was a visual treat for lovers of Impressionist and modern art, with three nudes by Freud, Andy Warhol’s Chairman Mao, Francis Bacon’s Studies for the Heads of George Dyer and Isabel Rawsthorne, an exquisite equine Degas, and a Picasso which went for close to £6 million before the fair had even opened.
There was also some stunning photography on display including Richard Avedon’s Wild West portraits at Gagosian, Cartier-Bresson prints at Eric Franck Fine Art, and unique Brancusi prints at Bruce Silverstein Gallery.
As well as familiar names from various periods of art history including Renoir, Pollock and Henry Moore, there were also on display artists who had fallen into relative obscurity after enjoying fame in their heyday, such as 70s sculptor Robert Graham – at Karsten Schubert’s stand in the Spotlight section which showcases work by a single artist – and Federico Beltran-Masses’s exquisite nude ‘Salome’ at Stair Sainty, who were exhibiting the painting for the first time in London since it was removed from an exhibition in 1929 for being too risqué. The ‘Salome’ will return to Stair Sainty Gallery after frieze masters, where it forms part of a major retrospective of Beltran-Masses paintings.
It was my baby’s first art fair, and she homed in on a six-metre Alexander Calder mobile Rouge triomphant at the Helly Nahmad stand, revealing an expert eye or great taste, for the work was priced at $20 million.
Remi Rough
To Moniker Art Fair where the prices were far more accessible. This East London fair, commonly described as a street art version of Frieze, felt less street art and more like an insight into some of the up and coming new galleries, and young artists to watch out for in the future and invest in now. The design and layout felt more polished this year, giving it the feel of the boutique hotel version of Frieze’s hotel chain. Remi/Rough’s eye-catching installation inspired by the streets of New York, titled 30th & Time, formed the centrepiece of Moniker 2012.
Pam Glew
Pam Glew created a waiting room with a vintage feel, full of her bleached paintings and self-portraits on American quilts, and customised antique luggage.
Pakpoom Silaphan
Next door at Scream, Thai artist Pakpoom Silaphan presented The Everybody Project, which juxtaposes contemporary icons on large grids resembling world maps or periodic tables. Visitors could spend hours poring over the canvases trying to spot Victoria Beckham or Andy Murray disguised as Mickey Mouse, Prince William as Elvis or Nelson Mandela as Elvis.
Exciting young gallery Pertwee Anderson & Gold presented surrealist taxidermy by Nancy Fouts, who in her sixth decade is not a newcomer to the art scene, but made her name as a model maker in the advertising world and was instrumental in the iconic Saatchi & Saatchi advert for Silk Cut. Indeed the giant pair of scissors from the Silk Cut ad could be found by the fireplace of her Camden House, which was open to visitors during Frieze week.
I’m looking forward to a second instalment of frieze masters next year, and to see how Moniker Art Fair will develop in 2013.
Words: Lee Sharrock
