“Oh, me Looove her! “I hear a woman in a striped suit About the Belgian artist Ann Veronica Janssens, whose big glass piece “Pinky Sunset R” (2021) is currently on display at the Esther Schipper Gallery stand in Frieze New York.
“Ugh,” she growls with excavation. “This!” She points back to the piece while she walks along it: ‘this Is it stuff! “
But the woman and her conversation partner zoom off, do not stop to view the glass artwork of $ 90,000 better, let alone buy it.
Moments later, two men in identical white jerts pause for the piece. “So beautiful,” one of them notes. “I think this color is called ‘Sunset Pink’,” speculates the other. “That’s true!” The first confirms while he reads the wall label.
They give the piece a quick look and walk away without asking questions.
Leaning against a wall in the cold fluorescent light of the barn in the Ultra-Posh Hudson yards of Manhattan, the ribbed glass artwork indeed Dragged with the pink, red, yellow and orange shades of a pacifying sunset. It has its own energy field, so that the light is broken in unexpected ways by a mysterious natural algorithm that comes from the merging and layering of different types of glass. But the core of its attraction for this commercial art Extravaganza is the pure harmlessness. The work is not responsible for political or social messages. It doesn’t fight for or against anyone. It is free of identity policy. It is as harmless as a summer breeze, and The best part: it’s what you want it is.
Janssens’ glass plate is a suitable metaphor for this year Frieze New York, which was recently Sent by Hollywood billionaire Ari Emanuel as part of a $ 200 million deal. This year, the luxury stock exchange is true to itself and finally left the facade of social ahead while you sell art as a luxury item in the tens of millions. Ethnic cleansing, hunger of populations, disconnected children, raging inflation, continued migrants, Belasted press and exhausted reproductive and LGBTQ – rights – you will not find a report here. See you, watch. So long, dei.
I see the blurry reflection of two moving figures in the radiant glass of Janssens. It is a young, trendy woman and her companion, both in jeans. “My mother would love this,” says the woman. She takes a fast photo of the artwork, another of the label, and walks away. Just like the others, she doesn’t buy it.
Could this be an anecdotal proof of an art market in crisis? From experience, dealers will usually tell the press that the sale is swelling, regardless of the real figures. But this year is different. Many remain tight lips when I ask them about the impact of the rates of President Donald Trump and other erratic economic policy on their company. Lower gallery supervisors tell me that they were instructed not to speak with journalists, instead to refer to hired PR agents.
One Berlin gallerist, who would rather remain anonymous, finally reveals: “There has been a bit of a delay, but we are still optimistic.”
Ned Wood, an art collector based in the Upstate New York, responds with a rhetorical question while investigating a sculpture: “Is art really follows the economy to the extent that people may buy less?” He adds: “I don’t know anything about it. I buy what I like.” He then confesses that he has not bought anything yet.
A few steps later I hear someone say, “You have to see the Jeff Koons!”
Just when you think Koons has hit the bottom with his messy, cash-grabbing pop art, he reminds you that he can sink even lower. At the Gagosian stand he installed three quasi-inflatable bronze of the incredible Hulk, a Marvel character, merged with a functioning organ and brass tubas. “Jeff invited musicians to play on the instruments this morning,” says an excited gallery supervisor. These horrible sculptures are part of Koons’s Hulk Elvis Series, dating from 2004. Although no one older than 10 years should find any merit, “Hulk (Tubas)” (2004–18) sold for $ 3 million.
Just like De Hulk, the Blauw-Chip Kunstmarkt is blown up with anger and hits its fist on the floor if you keep bullying with the nuisance of the outside world. The Multimillion Dollar Koons Sale is like a damn message to the world: if we could come relatively intatively from the 2008 financial collapse, we can also handle the mercury policy of a president.
But it is not superstars like Koons who have to worry about an approaching recession. They are much smaller players such as the fiber artist based in New York Orly CoganHe says that they “inspired themselves to make art” under today’s political and economic conditions. There is a lot of dust art on the stock exchange this year, but Cogan is not until the exhibiting artists.
“The economic crisis will mainly affect medium -sized artists”, art collector and producer Valentine Uhovski tells me. “Blue chip gatherers will concentrate on well-known, safe artists.” His companion, colleague -collector Olga ReiGives a bleak warning while cherishing himself in the glazing piece of Janssens: “I think people will feel the economic crisis much more at the end of the year.”
When asked what she thinks of the artwork, she answers with a depressed voice: “It is magical because it reflects your mood.”
