NEW YORK.- The nation’s leading art galleries came together for one of the most successful art fairs in their history at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City during the last week of February. Organized by the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA), to benefit Henry Street Settlement, The Art Show 2005, which concluded its five-day run on Monday, February 28, reported extraordinary sales and drew rave reviews. This year’s Show of 70 ADAA galleries was also notable for its increased presentation of an outstanding selection of museum quality contemporary paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, photography and video.

The Art Show Gala Preview, held Wednesday, February 23, attracted a glittering crowd of art world, business and media leaders including numerous celebrities. The event raised a record amount (more than $1,000,000) for Henry Street Settlement, a pioneering social services and arts agency located on New York’s Lower East Side.

“The 2005 Art Show was attended by markedly younger audience, and met with an enthusiastic reception,” noted Richard Solomon, President of both the ADAA and Pace Prints. “It was considered by many to be the most diverse, contemporary and exciting Art Show in years. The dealers were ecstatic.”

“Unequivocally, the collectors had nothing but great praise for The Art Show,” said Roland Augustine, Chair of The Art Show committee and partner in Luhring Augustine.

Despite two snowstorms, more than 12,000 attended the show from the preview on Wednesday, February 23 through the last day on Monday, February 28, including top collectors, museum curators and critics. Celebrities have always flocked to The Art Show and this year an outstanding group came to see the Show, including Steve Martin, Katie Couric, Jerry Stiller, Tracey Ulman, Bianca Jagger, Salman Rushdie, Ben Gazzara, Mike Nichols and Anthony Edwards. Artists and artworld luminaries are also easy to spot, among them Glenn D. Lowry, Leonard A. Lauder, Steve Cohen, Agnes Gund, Donald Marron, David Ganek, Aby Rosen, Christopher Wool, Chuck Close, Will Barnet, and Yoko Ono all put in appearances this year.

“The success of The Art Show will provide great assistance to Henry Street Settlement’s efforts to offer essential programs and services to the people of the Lower East Side,” noted Jeffrey Tucker, Co-Chair, Henry Street Settlement Art Show Committee. “We thank the dealers of the ADAA for helping achieve this goal.”

Sales Highlights - A number of dealers at The Art Show reported sold-out shows. At Pace Wildenstein, New York, the Isamu Noguchi solo exhibition was a complete sell out. Noguchi is the sixth solo exhibition organized by the gallery for The Art Show.

CRG Gallery, New York, offered a revolving exhibition of three one-person shows. A solo exhibition by Jim Hodges was sold out. Overall, the gallery sold 22 works ranging from $4,000 to $140,000. Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, reported a sold-out exhibition. The gallery sold to a number of collectors from outside New York, and visited with museum groups that were in attendance. Artists shown in booth included: Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, Fred Sandback, Allan McCollum and Julian Opie.

Luhring Augustine, New York, reported $1,000,000 in sales of works by Christopher Wool whose iconic text pieces were presented in their booth in a solo exhibition. All of the original work by Wool had sold out. In addition, Luhring Augustine oversaw the publication of a new print that was sold solely for the benefit of Henry Street Settlement. The Christopher Wool aquatint is available for $1,500 and 28 were sold at the show.

A first time exhibitor at The Art Show, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York, was pleased with excellent results and did extremely well with painting, selling a large work by Charline von Heyl and three paintings by Troy Brauntuch. Cheim & Read, New York, reported a successful show, having sold two Joan Mitchell works for $150,000 and $850,000, and a Louise Bourgeois for $350,000. The gallery was delighted with the quality of attendees: “highly informed collectors and astute art advisors.” Anthony Meier Fine Arts, San Francisco, made multiple sales to top New York collectors including four works by Gerhard Richter and an important ceramic by Lucio Fontana.

Marian Goodman Gallery, New York, was highly satisfied by sales of work by Thomas Struth, Daniel Buren, Gerhard Richter and John Baldessari. Brent Sikkema, New York, sold out an edition of six Vik Muniz photographs featured in a two-person installation in their booth. Sperone Westwater, New York, reported sales of works by Carla Accardi, Guillermo Kuitca and Lucio Fontana. A monumental camel entitled Pleistocene Skeleton, 1970, by Nancy Graves at Ameringer & Yohe Fine Art, New York, was priced at $200,000 and sold to a major U.S. museum.

Works by Willem De Kooning sold well at The Art Show. Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, sold a 1949 painting entitled Seated Woman priced at just over $3 million to a private out of town collector. Richard Gray Gallery, New York and Chicago, reported the sale of a 1976 oil, Figures in a Landscape No. 1 priced at $850,000, to a private collector from the New York area, as well as a Miro sculpture for $275,000.

A number of galleries felt The Art Show 2005 was their best show ever. Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, noted it was the strongest show to date. Among the works sold were 12 photographs by Diane Arbus to a collector who is gifting the work to a major European museum. Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, agreed it was the best show yet, selling 10 works from $5,000 to $350,000 from artists such as Mark Rothko, David Smith and George Sugarman. “Last year was great and this year was even better,” noted Thomas Segal Gallery, Baltimore, which sold more than 20 works including those by Cy Twombly.

Achim Moeller Fine Art, New York, reported that a curator from a major American museum flew to New York specifically to see an 1872 landscape by Alfred Sisley, which was on view for the first time in 45 years. (A nearly identical painting is in the collection of the Louvre,Paris.) Babcock Galleries, New York sold four paintings by Will Barnet ranging in price from $100,000 to $250,000. Galerie Lelong, New York, reported sales of work by Jane Hammond, Kate Shepherd and Petah Coyne and met museum colleagues and collectors from all over the country. Hans P. Kraus Jr., Inc., New York, sold a number of photographs to major U.S. and international institutions including Roger Fenton’s The Valley of the Shadow of Death, 1855, to a European museum for six figures.

Susan Sheehan Gallery, New York, sold a total of 15 works for $12,000 to $120,000 to all new clients. Knoedler & Company, New York, reported excellent sales of major works by Robert Motherwell, Jules Olitski, Judith Rothschild, David Smith, James Castle, and Frank Stella. Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, new to the fair this year, noted sales of ten works by Brice Marden, John Baldessari, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, Sandeep Mukherjee, and others.

In the Latin American market, Mary-Anne Martin/Fine Art, New York, was delighted by a number of major sales including a long lost illustration of a scene depicting the Harlem Renaissance by the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias circa 1926, which was purchased by a Mexican museum. Sculpture by Isabel De Obaldia and Fernando Botero, and a Deigo Rivera drawing also found buyers. CDS Gallery, New York, noted the sale of an oil by Armando Reverón for $350,000.

Pace Prints, New York, reported “an outstanding fair” with sales of five Picasso prints among others as well several pieces of African Art from Pace Primitive. Forum Gallery, New York and Los Angeles, noted that their sales were “excellent” at The Art Show. The gallery sold a portrait by Robert Henri in the mid six figures as well as a number of works by their contemporary artists rang