Writing about the Armory Show comes with a caveat: people lie. Ask a dealer if they’ve made any sales, and they’ll often say “yes,” whether or not they’ve actually sold anything. Often, though, those tales reveal themselves. Some lies come with errors. This year, for example, a dealer told us collectors only buy at the end of a fair—an obviously false statement—but yes, she’d sold some small works. Other tales reveal themselves years later. Like when a dealer tells you he was “losing his shirt” at a past fair, forgetting that he’d told you that very same year that he’d sold out the booth.
So, given the situation, how was opening day? “Awesome,” Marianne Boesky Director Ricky Manne told us. “Legit awesome,” he emphasized. It was easy enough to believe: at Boesky, and many other galleries, dealers were busy talking to collectors: either tugging at their sleeves in person or engaged in a rapid iPhone conversation. When you see so many sales happening, it’s unlikely people are lying about the volume.
Boesky’s L-shaped booth was outfitted with dozens of bright, carved ceramics by William J. O’Brien, each standing at hobbit-height. The visual attraction of this colony installation seems to have paid off. “Most sold within the first several hours,” said Serra Pradhan, also a director with Marianne Boesky. When asked if the clustered arrangement assisted with sales, she mentioned that “some collectors had purchased more than one” within the first several hours of the VIP event. Collectors more readily scooped up the figurative ones.
Other dealers experienced swift sales with the first wave of collectors, around noon. Andrew Freiser, of Fredericks & Freiser, was jovial enough when we arrived during the second wave, around 2:00 p.m. “It’s going really good,” Freiser said. “Sold four Jocelyns [Jocelyn Hobbie] and about to sell five.” Alongside the Hobbies hung several large, abstract canvases. Freiser was reintroducing the work of Cary Smith, a neo-geo artist who had shown with Feature, Inc. up until the untimely death of Hudson, the gallery’s founder.
At David Zwirner, art handlers dragged out several Thomas Ruff works to the floor, making it difficult to know which works were meant to be on display, and which were brought out due to a collector’s curiosity.
Other swift sales were noted at Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, also showing at the ADAA Art Show on the Upper East Side.
“I love these! I want them! They’re gone,” Kevin Scholl, a gallery director mentioned regarding a pair of puppets by the performance troupe My Barbarian. “Kurt” and “Margit,” curiously wrought props from a 2015 performance, each run at $4,000 a piece, or $6,000 as a set. As the week progresses, the gallery plans to bring out more My Barbarian puppets to relieve Kurt and Margit.
A mutual friend nudged Scholl, mentioning that his gallery always tends to do well at the Armory.
And true to form, the galleries that always seemed to do well were the most crowded. Others suffered, often for what seemed like good reason. Some seemed to be trying too hard. This year, we saw shiny, gold-plated, neon work—and plenty of dick sculpture. The prevalence of dicks at the art fair can signal the best and worst of the art market: either a sign of virility (the market is doing so well, look at us!) or a Viagra-moment (the market isn’t doing so well, but we can fake it), though both give off the air of desperation.
“Some dealers aren’t doing so well,” one gallery director mentioned, pointing out the dealers who seemed to be putting on a fire sale with noisy works. Her gallery’s solo booth had the air of curation; by 7:00 p.m., the gallery checklist had several red dots on it.
Collectors, too, seemed to be more reserved. Instead of just buying up anything they like, for future use in storage or on view at the museum. “I could maybe convince them about it for their bedroom,” I overheard one consultant arguing in defense of a $65,000 Anish Kapoor at Carolina Nitsch. Suffice it to say, the work on paper reminds one of what goes on in the bedroom.
Overall, visitors seemed more perplexed by the show than ever. “Have you seen anything you liked?” is a common phrase to hear at the fair. Though there seems to be no short supply of sales, this year, many of us didn’t have an answer to that question. Just business as usual at the Armory.
Additional reporting provided by Art F City’s Paddy Johnson
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