Hooded Woman Seated Facing the Wall, Spanish Pavillion. Venice, Italy. 2003. All photos by Art Observed unless noted
With Freize 2010 coming to a close Sunday evening in London’s Regent Park, the fair’s guests have had a chance to reflect on the various elements of the event that defined the weekend. The fair opened on Friday with a VIP preview that saw encouraging multimillion-dollar sales; however, from booth to booth the art seemed to lack the brute sex appeal that in past years drove buyers to such transaction. With a global recession not far enough behind, it appears that it will be a while before the same level of extravagance returns to Frieze. Some pieces sold well initally, but not all pieces were bought up in boom time fashion, Damien Hirst’s Viagra-tablet-filled pill cabinet, with an estimated asking prince of $6 million dollars, reportedly remained unsold at Gagosian Gallery by at least the end of Friday night’s event.
more photos, story and a full news link summary after the jump…
Despite a unique atmosphere given to this year’s exhibits, Frieze maintained its annual group of staid crowd pleasers and Frieze projects. Among the first the attendees came across was Matthew Darbyshire’s Everything Everywhere: A Ticketing Experience for Frieze Art Fair 2010, which featured a Frieze ticket booth turned into what appeared to be a mobile phone store. According the Gaurdian, Darbyshire spent a good deal of time in the Westfield shopping centre to perfect his design, which intends to comment on, “the new ‘experience economy’.
London based Spartacus Chetwynd and actors performed A Tax Haven Run by Women involving a cat shaped bus and a game show like performance in which a team, “women who refuse to grow old gracefully” battle with “oppressed body-part puree.”
As AO previously reported, Fujiwara’s Frozen has been widely covered, the site is staffed at all times by an archeology student who unearths items from the ground  and cleans them carefully with dental tools under the illumination of a magnifying light.
Nathaniel Mellors, The Preface, 2009.
Lorna Simpson, Five Day Forecast, 1991 at Salon 94, which was purchased for the Tate collection.
Antony Gormley (foreground), Gilbert and George (background).
Farhad Moshiri at Thaddeus Ropac
David Shrigley next to his work, Ostrich, 2009, Photo via the_andy_show
Anikka Storm, 10 Embarrassed Men, 2010, Photo via everythingiknow
Slavs and Tatars, A Monobrow Manifesto, 2010, photo via artnetdotcom
Grayson Perry, photo via TheArtNewsPaper
David Shringley, giving tattoos at Freize 2010, photo via TATEETCmag
Related Links:
Frieze Art Fair — 2010 Review [The Guardian]
All The Fun Of The Frieze [The Independent]
Energized by Youthful Chaos [Financial Times]
Tate buys artist’s toilet roll [Telegraph]
Tate Acquires New Works by Emerging and Leading International Artists at Frieze Art Fair [ArtDaily]
Does Sex Really Sell? [The Art Newspaper]
Solid Sales at Frieze Point to Success for Most Galleries [The Art Newspaper]
Frieze Auction Season Ends with Strong Sotheby’s Performance [The Art Newpaper]
Artifacts | The Frieze Art Fair: Salvage Instinct [Tmagazine]
Frieze Art Fair 2010: Highlights [Wired]
Rare Finds, If Hard Sells, Reward the Discriminating Eye at London’s Art Fairs [ArtInfo]
Frieze art fair fringe: the weekend’s best free contemporary art [Guardian]
In pictures: Tate’s Frieze acquisitions [BBC]
Big Fish and Fresh Cash at London Fair [NYTimes]
Artifacts | Frieze-Dried London [TMagazine]
Overloading at Frieze [Wall Street Journal]
AO On Site – London (with newslink summary): Frieze Art Fair 2010 opens to relatively brisk buying from still measured collectors [ArtObserved]
