PARIS.- Art Paris Art Fair 2015 closed on 29th March having recorded a total 55,735 visitors over the five days, a figure slightly lower than the previous year’s owing to a policy by the organisers to cut the number of invitations by 20% in a move aimed at sharpening the focus on collectors and international visitors.
Surfing on a powerful wave of media interest, this modern and contemporary art fair’s 2015 edition brought together a very diverse selection of 145 international galleries, including 35 with solo shows. The fair offered an unprecedented focus on Singapore and Southeast Asia with eight galleries from Singapore and a programme of video art made specifically for the occasion. This provided a unique opportunity to discover an art scene that is little known in Europe. At nightfall, the façade of the Grand Palais came alive with projections of digital mapping works by Dominic Harris & Cinimod Studio, teamLab and Mounir Fatmi in what was an electrifying monumental spectacle.
The fair won acclaim for its fresh and energizing feel as well as admiration for the careful construction of some of the booths and the generous, intelligent, playful and sometimes challenging quality of the works on offer, with prices that were overall affordable.
There was a dymanic atmosphere on the opening night that attracted 17,000 people including a number of French and international celebrities like Isabelle Adjani and Victoria Abril and some leading collectors. Groups of museum patrons also made the journey to Paris including a large number form France’s leading regional museums and the International Committee of the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the leading patrons of Musée d’Orsay, the Young Collectors group from Zürich, friends of the Jeu de Paume and young patrons of the Musée du Louvre, amongst others. The fair attracted collectors from, namely, the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia and Singapore.
Sales were overall satisfactory and in some cases excellent with gallery owners praising what they saw to be a dynamic French art market. The exhibitors were unanimous in the noting the presence this year of a better quality of public and private collectors at the fair and welcomed the opportunity of making new and interesting contacts for the future.
Singapore & Southeast Asia Guest of Honour Platform:
Sundaram Tagore gallery sold eight pieces from the solo show by Singaporean artist Jane Lee at €30,000 each. Yeo Workshop sold its signature piece, a sound installation by Malaysian artist Zul Mahmod entitled No Substance — City Without Soul for €20,000 and received a commission by another collector for the piece. The gallery also sold a large drawing by Chinese artist Xue Nue for €10,000. Art Plural Gallery let go of several works by French artist Fabienne Verdier as well as others by Korea’s Chun Kwang Young Chun. Specialized in works on paper, STPI sold a piece by Han Sai Por for €16,000. On the whole, above and beyond the sales, the galleries in the Singapore & Southeast Asia platform were appreciative of the high level of media attention they received.
“Promises,” the young gallery section
The “Promises” section is dedicated to galleries that are less than five years old and are taking part in Art Paris Art Fair for the first time. This year , the sector was particularly successful from a commercial point of view. Lille-based Cédric Bacqueville gallery sold 45 of the 70 pieces it had brought to the fair, including 18 works by Raphaël Denis at between €1,000 and €3,000 each and a number of pieces by Gautier Deblonde. Four sculptures by British artist Stephanie Quayle, represented by the London gallery TJ Boulting went for between €3,000 and €9,000. Bernard Chauveau / Le Néant Éditeur sold four sets of work by Roman Opalka at €3,500 each and a dozen works by Claire Trotignon at between €2,500 and €3,000 each. Inlassable gallery let go of the heart-shaped sculpture Cœur (2013) by Caroline Corbasson for €20.000 as well as five drawings by James Rielly for €3.500. Brussels gallery ArchiRAAR was showing work by Caroline Le Méhauté, Pierre Rebufy and Takahiro Kudo and sold a dozen pieces at between €3.000 and €4.000 each. Binôme gallery simply stated that it has “met its objectives.”
Solo Show:
In spite of the financial risk, many galleries taking part in the Solo Show section disseminated throughout the fair reported a successful outcome, with some having sold out entirely such as Estace with Thomas Agrinier (6 works sold at between €15,000 and €25.000) and Espace 54 with Jean-Pierre Ruel (15 works at an average price of €12,000). Galerie Claude Bernard let go of seven drawings by Sam Szafran, including a watercolour on silk from 1993 for a record € 700.000 which went to a couple of Russian collectors. For his first time at the fair, Nicolas Hugo did well and sold almost every piece he was showing by Chinese photographer Ren Hang. Showing work by Mohamed Melehi was a good choice for Loft Art Gallery from Casablanca, while Duplex from Sarajevo did well selling 30 works by Bosnian artists Radenko Milak at between €1,000 and €2,000 each. Galerie Filles du Calvaire also did well, selling a dozen paintings by Paz Coronna at between €5,000 and €10,000 euros a piece. Caroline Smulders who was showing Gérard Fromanger said she was “very pleased” to have sold three works by this artist who she considers to be underrepresented.
The ArtDesign section:
The participants in this small section dedicated to exploring the relationship between art and design reported satisfactory performances this year. NeC Gallery — Nilsson and Chiglien sold two pieces by Steen Ipsen at between €4,000 and €14,000, two pieces by Nadia Pasquier at between €3,000 and €4,000 as well as two works by Jenifer Ramsay at €10,000 and €15,000.
The General Section:
Although sales were uneven across the general section, the overall performance was positive. De Buck gallery of New York was pleased, having sold a number of pieces at between €40,000 and €60,000, notably works by Italian abstract artists of the 1960s: Alberto Biasi, Pino Pinelli and Turi Simeti. In addition to selling eight pieces by some of its contemporary artists at between €2,700 and €5.000, Anne Lahumière said: “We sold a major piece by Vasarely from 1969 for €100,000 to a collector couple from St Petersburg that we did not know.” Ernst Hilger also welcomed the presence of foreign collectors, namely from Turkey, Belgium and Switzerland who took away six works by Erró costing €25,000 each as well as a Shepard Fairey for €14,000. J-P Ritsch-Fisch from Strasbourg who specializes in Art Brut was extremely pleased, having sold virtually his entire booth on opening day. For her first time at the fair, Fatiha Selam reported very satisfactory sales and met a welcome number of new collectors. Also new to the fair, German gallery Boisserée was very satisfied having sold six works at between €10,000 and €80,000 (a painting by Antonio Saura). Meanwhile, Theressa Herold sold a work by George Noël for €30,000 as well as a piece by Geneviève Asse for €80,000. Galerie Marie Hélène de La Forest Divonne let go of some 15 works at between €16,000 and €20,000. Rabouan Moussion gallery doubled its turn-over compared to last year having sold Map by Russian artist Dimitri Tsykalov for 70,000 €. ALB — Anouk Le Bourdiec gallery managed an outstanding performance selling all the work on show by all of its artists, notably the flagship sculpture Blessed is the lamb whose blood flows (2015) by The Kid for €90.000 euros. She took eight additional commissions for new work.
Satisfactory sales are not the only measure of the success of Art Paris Art Fair 2015. As noted by the French press, the fair has turned a corner. It is now considered to be “the locomotive that drives the springtime fairs” in Paris, according to Les Echos newspaper. It has become the un-missable event in what is a busy calendar at that time of year. The large amount of coverage in the international media also testifies to this qualitative leap upwards The next edition of Art Paris Art Fair will be held at the Grand Palais from 31st March to 3rd April with Korea as Guest of Honour. Korean exhibition curator Sang A Chun will oversee the project which will be a key part of the celebration of Franco-Korean relations in the spring of 2016.
