Art Chicago, the leading fair in the US for twentieth-century and contemporary art, faced several obstacles leading up to its opening last month. Not only had organiser Tom Blackman been grappling with his own internal issues—a few of his staff moved to rival fair organisers and he has been focused on developing his newer San Francisco show—but there were other forces which might have deducted clientele from Chicago. The Tate Modern’s grand opening in London occurred during the same weekend, and the fair fell squarely in the middle of the spring auction blitz in New York.
But the economy has remained robust, and people are not shying away from buying art. The fair was an overall success, claiming record sales of $65 million, with a reported 37,000 visitors.
This year’s fair at the Navy Pier had its most handsome and uniform look to date. The addition of two feet of height to all of the booths gave contemporary art exhibitors more flexibility and diminished some of the fair’s bazaar-like quality.
In all, 221 galleries from twenty-three countries and twenty-eight American cities showed work by more than 2,000 artists this year.
Indeed, the international presence, though down from 46% in 1999 to 41% this year, still feels strong. Despite much talk of stepped-up efforts by rival fair producers in Florida (the organisers of the Basel fair have long been planning to start a fair in Miami) the Chicago fair had strong participation from Iberian and Latin American galleries. The Latin American galleries remained level at eight this year, with five new galleries from Spain and Portugal participating for the first time.
Donald Young, who regularly shows in Basel and recently returned to Chicago after a number of years in Seattle, thinks that the Chicago fair is very comparable to its Swiss twin. “I am showing the artist Anne Chu at both fairs: works on paper here and sculpture in Basel. I do very well in both cities. Much of what determines success or failure at an individual fair is reading it right. Collectors are not made overnight.”
Thaddaeus Ropac, however, felt that “reading it right” was not enough for success at the fair. Showing recent work by Alex Katz, David Salle and Peter Halley, the Salzburg and Paris-based dealer says, “We were really hurt by the Tate opening. Not only did you have the leadership and curators of so many museums there, but their board members and major donors as well.”
Robert Landau of Montreal’s Landau Fine Art, who claimed this year’s top sale of $9.5 million for Kandinsky’s 1921 “White oval”, chides the dealers and not the clientele. “For whatever reason, many Midwest collectors do not take in fairs outside of the Midwest. But they come to Chicago and if you have the quality, they will buy here,” he commented. “The fair just did not have that level of work this year, though we did extremely well ourselves.”
Stefan Edlis, Chicago-based collector of contemporary art who jetted between New York and the fair over the weekend, commented, “The fair definitely maintains its traditions and standards as both an international showcase and an international meeting place. The level and quality of work is undiminished.”
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'A full house'