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Grand Palais FIAC 2010, all photos by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed

Events at the Grand Palais and Cour Caree du Louvre concluded Sunday afternoon as FIAC 2010 came to a close in Paris. Looking back on what happened in the city’s biggest week for contemporary art, the fair seems to capture many of the same trends that marked the hesitant atmosphere of the Frieze art fair in London. The fair unofficially opened last Tuesday, October 19th, to an ever growing VIP preview audience that this year numbered over 20,000.

Robust early sales at well established galleries suggested that dealers would enjoy even greater success than was seen in London in the same week, several high price tagged items, including Anish Kapoor’s $2.4 million Slug and Takashi Murakami’s $1.6 million Kiki, remained unclaimed well into this weekend. Even the French government toned down its own purchasing, as the cultural ministry spent $280,000 on eight works this year, down from 24 works for roughly twice as much last year. The market certainly isn’t dead but lavish spending akin to the 2007 boom hasn’t made an aggressive comeback.

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At Gagosian, photo by Tiphaine Popesco

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Matthew Day Jackson, The Way We Were, 2010. All photos by Tiphaine Popesco for Art Observed unless otherwise noted

While pension strikes increasingly paralyze all other aspects of life in Paris, the activities at FIAC have seemingly managed to go on unbothered. Two days into the fair, visitors have already lauded this year’s success. According to ArtInfo, a new physical layout of the venue  has dramatically improved the experience. Surly other changes, namely the headlining debuts of Gagosian and the Rosenblum Collection, as well as healthy sales at such galleries as Hauser & Wirth, Thaddeus Ropac, Blum and Poe, and David Zwirner have fueled this sentiment. Details on sales and the first in a series of two comprehensive photo sets follow the jump.

Jean Michel Othoniel and Emmanuel Perrotin

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Less than a week after the Frieze Art Fair ended in London, the Foire d’art contemporain, or FIAC, prepares to open to the public later this week in Paris. In its 37th year, the fair will feature nearly 200 dealers with work from over 3,500 artists, and expects to see an estimated 80,000 visitors to its two locations, the Cour Carrée and the Grand Palais–opening Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

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Grand Palais during FIAC 2007, photo via Grand Palais

Running through Sunday the 24th, FIAC annually provides an arena for a wide variety of contemporary art, from blue chip galleries–the likes of Barbara Gladstone, Gagosian Gallery, David Zwirner, Blum and Poe, Cheim and Reid, Contemporary Fine Arts, Yvonne Lambert, Emmanuel Perrotin, Thaddaeus Ropac, Sprüth Magers, and Hauser and Wirth to name a few — peddling million dollar pieces to the lesser known emerging talents in the field. In a tandem move with the week’s events, industry powerhouse Larry Gagosian opened the latest installment in his global network of galleries off of Champs Elysees, noting the resurgence of modern art in France.

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An early picture from the FIAC preview: Victor Man, Untitled, 2008, photo via Art Observed

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