A Civilized Preview From the Frieze Art Fair

October 10, 2012, 9:57 am

By ROSLYN SULCAS

LONDON- The big news about this year's Frieze Art Fair - the annual temple to all things contemporary art -is its new arm, Frieze Masters, created to show work made before 2000. The preview was Tuesday, the day before Frieze London, as it is now called, has its own preview. (The fair opens to the public on Thursday.) It's a clever idea from the founders of Frieze, Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp: Why not capitalize on the thousands of collectors, dealers, curators and art-world persona who arrive in London every October for the frenzy of gallery openings, big museum exhibitions and parties, that has become known as Frieze week?

The opening of Masters yesterday afternoon was a civilized affair. The New Y ork-based architect Annabelle Selldorf provided a soothing grey and white color scheme that lent an instant modernity and soberness to the atmosphere; no swagged curtains or velvet around the old masters, thank you very much. The crowds looked calm; no haggling witnessed, just murmured conversations about the artists' intent, the fineness of execution, the remarkable play of colour, the conceptual daring, etc.

There were astonishing sights to be seen: huge stone gargoyles at Sam Fogg (“I don't know who is going to buy them, but they look amazing,” remarked a Frieze staff member); Picasso's remarkable 1969 “Buste d'homme” amidst a treasure trove of modernism at Aquavella; a Tiepolo at Jill Newhouse New York; a shrine to the Japanese Mono-ha (School of Things) at Blum & Poe; and a remarkable collection of Joseph Kudelka photographs at Eric Franck. There was pre-Christian iconography, carpets, huge Calder mobiles swaying as Brazilian music played (at Helly Nahmad) , bricks on lightbulbs and a rare collection of early Warhol drawings.

Fashionably attired (i.e. with just the right touch of eccentricity) collectors and art-world insiders called hellos to each other between booths, discussing Masters. The verdict was generally favorable. “I think it's great,” said RoseLee Goldberg, the founder and director of the Performa festival, who had flown in from New York for Frieze. “Give me art history any day.”

After a few hours of this, it was time for a necessary espresso refuel at the pop-up Locatelli café in a corner of the tent, where a genially Italian chaos reigned. Georgio Locatelli himself presided, exerting his famous charm to calm those who weren't getting their Prosecco or cappuccino fast enough. “How are you?” asked one man of another as they waited. “Another day, another art fair,” he sighed.