Sales at hedge fund-backed art show surge
At The Age of the Marvellous, a satellite art show to London's Frieze Art Fair, which previewed last night, sales were brisk, suggesting a revival in the local art market.
At the show, financed by BlueCrest Capital Management chief executive Michael Platt, over half of the 60 works sold. A record was set for a work by artist Polly Morgan, who sold her "Departures", a flying machine harnessed to a flock of stuffed birds, for £100,000 to a Berlin-based foundation.
Browsing at the show were former Formula 1 manager and Italian businessman Flavio Briatore, American actor George Clooney and advertising veteran Charles Saatchi. Super artists Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and all the artists exhibiting were mingling with the crowds.
Co-founder of the show and former artist, Joe La Placa, said the modestly-valued work by developing artists, with pieces priced at between under £1,000 to £100,000 was a factor in attracting sales. By comparison, prices are typically higher at Frieze Art Fair and larger satellite show The Pavilion of Art & Design, also happening at the same time.
La Placa said that having the exhibition in the Holy Trinity Church, just outside Frieze Art Fair location in Regent's Park, was important as buyers came to The Age of the Marvellous on their way back from Frieze.
Artist Polly Morgan said buyers had told her the fair felt like "a nice antidote to Frieze."
She said: "The atmosphere in Frieze is more sterile, all those little white booths. The church proved a better home for the art."
Other works on display included Paul Fryer's Black Pieta, a lifesize waxwork of a black Jesus in an electric chair, which sold for a £120,000. All but one of the massive Picasso-inspired drawings of Wolfe von Lenkiewicz were sold. Feathers, mouse fur, Swarovski crystals, honeycomb and human skulls were among the plethora of materials adopted by artists.
The show was inspired by the Wunderkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities popular in the late Renaissance, which represented as much a science show as an art exhibition.
Joe La Placa said that although the recession may have curbed prices for art, there will always be demand.
He said: "We cannot live without art. Without it, we die."
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