Frieze Art Fair 2011: High Quality Works & Confident Mood Make for Strong Sales

London. At the close of the ninth edition of Frieze Art Fair, galleries reported strong sales and market confidence.The directors, Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover were elated with the news of significant sales. About 173 galleries exhibited over 1,000 artists and 33 countries were represented at the fair. Over 40 museum groups, representing the world's major institutions visited Frieze Art Fair 2011.

Significant sales included a new work by Gerhard Richter, Strip (CR921-1), for £1.5 million, at Marian Goodman; a Neo Rauch painting for $1.35 million at David Zwirner and others.

This year's the Frieze Art Fair Stand Prize was awarded to Stand Prize Gavin Brown's enterprise .This year the Sculpture Park showed work by Neha Choksi, Johan Creten, and others. A new addition to the fair this year was a museum editions booth. In total the booth raised over £100,000 in revenue, which vastly exceeded their pre-fair target of £35,000.

Picasso, Matisse featured in FIAC

Paris. Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain(FIAC) was presented at the Grand Palais from 20 to 23 October. The 38th FIAC, included some of London's biggest galleries, Victoria Miro, Lisson, Sadie Coles HQ and White Cube,which were all in Paris directly following Frieze. Galleries brought their own best-sellers to Paris. For instance, Hirst's Where Will It End, a piece priced at about 2.5 million euros ($3.43 million) were on offer. The fair gathered 168 exhibitors and 2800 artists in the venue.Works by Pablo Picasso, Matisse and Calder were also offered in this fair.

The fair venue introduced four new spaces: the upper galleries, south-east gallery, south gallery and south-west gallery. The exhibitors, mainly European and American art dealers had showcased some of the most cutting edge contemporary works of art.

Last week's Frieze Art fair had $350 million worth of art on offer. This event probably traced the undercurrent of the growing rivalry between the two October events.

Festivities Portrayed in Islamic Art Celebrations at the Indian Court

Berlin. In the current series of exhibitions on book art, the Museum of Islamic Art, housed within the Pergamon Museum, is displaying a selection of miniature paintings from 15th July to 6th November 2011.The exhibition is on the theme of 'Festivities Portrayed in Islamic Art’ of the Mughal era (mid 16 c. to mid 18 c.) portraying the celebrations at the Indian Court. The paintings in the show depicts awaiting visitors on their tour through the festive realms of the Indo-Islamic world. Emperors, were seen either on their resplendent thrones or atop their processional elephants and richly adorned princesses and musicians playing exotic instruments.

Court painters, active at various courts across India, used radiant colours, life-like depictions of contemporary life and jewellery, fabrics and animals. Besides depicting carnivals, the images give glimpse of the concealed recesses of private gatherings at court. Expressly commissioned by the rulers, these pictures give an insight into the partly, decadent life of the court of the Mughals.

Rare Roerich Paintings Stolen and Sold

New Delhi. Two paintings by legendary Russian artist Nicholas Roerich were stolen from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) at Pusa. The institute recently came to know about the auctioning of missing painting in London for $2 million and has complained to the CBI. The CBI, questioned the staff of the premier agriculture institute and has alerted the Interpol. According, to the investigation so far, it is found that these paintings were smuggled out of India. The agency suspects it to be an insiders job and sought the details of all retired employees of the institution.

The stolen works, which depict the Himalayas, belong to a rare series by the famous Russian artist Nikolay Roerich, created during his long stay in Central Asia. Roerich came to India in 1923 and remained there until his death in 1947, having dedicated the last decades of his life to studying the culture, history and philosophy of this country and other regions of Asia. These paintings were some of the rare works of the Russian painter.

Asian Art in London Goes International

London. Asian Art in London, in its 14th year, was in a new move to enhance its global appeal. They had invited overseas specialist dealers to join its ranks for the 2011 event, from 3rd to 12th November.

International dealers, who took part in Asian Art in London for the first time were Art of the Past from New York; Alexis Renard and Christophe Hioco both from Paris; Carlo Cristi from Italy; Carlos Cruañas from Barcelona and Dries Blitz, Michael Meijering Art Books and Vanderven & Vanderven Oriental Art from Netherlands and several London-based dealers. Exhibits of Modern and contemporary Indian art were at Grosvenor Gallery, St. James's; an exciting Chinese performance art held at Hua Gallery's Battersea riverside location and Mica Gallery in Sloane Square showed modern Pakistani works. One gets to see the exhibits ranging from Imperial porcelain to contemporary, in gallery selling exhibitions and auctions, together with lectures and symposia. Rutherston Bandini presented, an ivory netsuke of a Kinko on a carp, c.1780 from the Sheila M. Baker collection. Exquisite oriental carpets and textiles can be found at Zadah Gallery, Marylebone.

Rembrandt to Feature in North Carolina Museum of Art

Raleigh, NC. The North Carolina Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts organised Rembrandt in America, an exhibition bringing together the largest number of authentic Rembrandt paintings from American collections on 0ctober 30, 2011.

Rembrandt in America presented more than 30 autograph paintings by the Dutch master on loan from private collections and more than two dozen American art museums. It included some of his finest masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The show included works such as the recently-cleaned, matching portraits of the Rev. Johannes Elison and his wife, Maria Bockenolle, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Other highlights of the exhibition included Rembrandt's moving depiction of the Roman heroine, Lucretia (1666), from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Joris de Cauerii (1632), a portrait of a gentleman, which displays Rembrandt's masterful handling of light and texture from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

One of the most important painters in the history of European art, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) is renowned for his uncanny ability to depict light and shadow, to capture the emotions of his sitters and to intimately share historical and religious stories.

The Art of Indian Kolam: Traditional Designs and New Media

Bethlehem. On view through October. 23, the exhibit contains photographs by Wall of traditional Kolam drawings along with mixed media sculpture, 3-D videos, and interactive installations by Bruce Wall. In the show, Bruce Wall, associate professor of fine arts at NCC, has lifted Kolam off the floor and placed it into new media. Wall's photographs, show Kolam as a form of Indian street art. Kolam is an ancient folk art form still practiced by the women of South India.The designs invites the auspicious.The show also showcases Augmented Reality Kolam using Xbox technology, 3-D models, and custom software. Another work Kolam Cube, a kinetic cubic sculpture whose acrylic sides are carved with a Kolam design, hanging on a monofilament thread. Kolams also come to three dimensional life in a series of video animations. Kolams and Variations is a selection of Kolam-inspired paintings done by some of Wall's students.

Delhi to Host Affordable Art Fair, 2012

New Delhi. In September 2012, the Affordable Art Fair brand will debut in India. The Fair will be launched in India by Will Ramsey who founded the Fair in 1999.

In 2010, the Affordable Art Fair concept was launched in Singapore as the first 'Asian Edition' and now India has been chosen as its second location in Asia. Approximately 50 per cent of the visitors to an AAF are said to be new buyers. One might say that at the Affordable Art Fairs, art has been demystified and buying an original work of art made easy and enjoyable. Almost 783,000 people have visited an Affordable Art Fair, buying over £123 million worth of art this year.

Gallery was Opened with Tushar Joag's Solo Exhibition

New Delhi. Vadehra Art gallery's new space was opened with Tushar Joag's solo exhibition Riding Rocinante from Bombay to Shanghai via Sardar Sarovar and Three Gorges.The show started from 22 October to 15 November, 2011. His current body of work was a continuation of his major 2010 project. The project is named Riding Rocinante, where, over 53 days in August-October 2010, he took his 350-cc Enfield Bullet with sidecar from Bombay to Shanghai, travelling across India, Nepal and China. Joag directly invited comparisons between himself and that Don Quixote grandee with disarming candour and wry humour.

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Volume: 4 Issue No: 22 Month: 11 Year: 2011