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Two weeks ago, the art fairs came through town like a traveling circus.
They were here; now theyre gone.
The New YorkTimescalled the Frieze exciting.
It credited NADA with authenticity.
Everyone had wonderful things to say about the Independent.
Theyre going to happen, so they might as well happen with everyone more or less onboard.
Everyone involved is always complaining yet in constant motion, moving from one fair to another.
Everyone goes to them the curators, collectors, advisers, artists, art critics.
But what are people really seeing?
Art fairs are now painting fairs.
Specifically, figurative-painting fairs.
The main reason is that art fairs are essentially built for them.
Paintings are very portable.
But wouldnt it be more interesting if other types of art could be shown there?
It might be possible to indulge other ideas, aesthetics, styles, conceits.
Something, anything, to shake up the sameness.
The biennial system purports to be against the market, as if that were even possible.
But it has its own enormous funds, and so it doesnt need to sell anything.
Others foot the bills for the packing, shipping, advertising.
Muckety-mucks travel to see these shows and appear on one anothers panels and symposia.
The same cast shows up in every other photograph.
So we have a kind of standoff.
In art fairs, everyone gets a vote.
At biennials, a handful of curators select.
Either way, a monoculture forms.
All painting versus almost no painting.
Both seem deadening, entropic.
At the art fair, you come to a market to sell your wares.
You speed up time, make more connections in a week than you could otherwise in years.
Art fairs go where the money is.
The money goes to where the art is.
On the plus side, there are new names and a lot of diversity in many of the fairs.
Artists of color, women, and underrepresented artists get market traction.
Perhaps this makes the whole thing worth it.
There are very few judgments about the art.
Hardly a discouraging word is written about anything.
Most people only go on the opening day, and on that day its almost impossible to see anything.
Then the dealers go home and leave assistants to maintain the booth.
Then its on to the next art fair or biennial.
If one gallery bails, others will take their place.
No one can pull out now unless everyone does.
None of this is a complaint.
Its a description of a well-run system that never stops.
Maybe thats what theyre here for to keep going?
At what, no one asks.
Each more or less on their own.
This is no way to run an art world.
But its what were stuck on now.
