FIAC Follows Frieze Down The Yellow Brick Road

Top London galleries hope Paris fairs better than London

The 38th FIAC, which previews for VIPs today includes some of London’s biggest galleries, Victoria Miro, Lisson, Sadie Coles HQ and White Cube are all in Paris directly following Frieze, for what must seem a marathon of epic proportions. All of this air kissing is taking place against the backdrop of a two day national strike in Greece and the threat of a global double dip recession.

Frieze focuses on contemporary artists, while the Paris event combines pieces by emerging names with blue chip works by Picasso and other 20th-century best-sellers. This gap was filled in London by PAD Pavilion Of Art and Design and by all reports PAD had a successful fair. Next year Frieze plans to take in Modern art in a new Frieze Masterpiece section.

For the 2012 Frieze Art Fair and future fairs, please visit this link

White Cube have brought their own best-sellers to Paris. Hirst’s “Where Will It End,’’ a piece priced at about 2.5 million euros ($3.43 million) is on offer alongside Gilbert and George and Jake and Dinos Chapman’s works. White Cube are among the dozen galleries returning to FIAC this year.

New York dealers Pace and Matthew Marks will be making their Paris debuts. Both were in Europe for Frieze and it seems logical to try their hand at exhibiting in Paris as well.
Last week’s Frieze Art fair had $350 million worth of art on offer. It has surely tested investors’ faith in contemporary art’  with respectable results from London’s biggest art event hopefully art is proving to be recession busting. All of the dealers mentioned above are Frieze exhibitors, underlining the growing rivalry between the two October events.

Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain is France’s biggest fair. They have gathered 168 quality exhibitors and 2800 artists in a stunning pavilion located in the Grand Palais.  Outside the structure there are Fiac installations throughout the gardens and piazzas considered by some to be the greatest gardens in Paris, Jardin des Tuileries and Jardin des Plantes. 

Works by Pablo Picasso, Matisse,Calder and Damien Hirst is on offer in Paris as the French capital joins the overcrowded art fair junket. The event has in the past attracted 65,000 to 80,000 visitors. FIAC 2011 has twenty new galleries. The venue’s exhibition space had to be modified and optimised. This edition features four new spaces: the upper galleries, south-east gallery, south gallery and south-west gallery. The exhibitors, mainly European and American art dealers and gallerists are showcaseing some of the most cutting edge contemporary works of art.  33% of the galleries are French and 73% are European. Brazil, Turkey and South Africa will participate for the first time.
The Marcel Duchamp and Lafayette Prize will also be awarded during the event.

FIAC runs at the Grand Palais from 20 to 23 October.  Visit Fair

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