London — With the exception of exceptional situations such as deadly pandemics, London’s summer is the season for prestigious events such as the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament and Royal Ascot Horse Racing.
Since 2010, the summer calendar also includes Masterpiece London, an art and antique fair in Chelsea. The eclectic combination of galleries, attractive layouts and champagne bars is popular with visitors.
Heirs of the Grosvenor House Art and Antique Fair — a hotel-based event that closed in 2009 after serving senior luxury customers for 75 years — Masterpiece, as always, is very much this year. We are planning a wide range of products. He is a master of contemporary art, jewelry and design, not to mention the stands that display sports cars and luxury boats.
Since 2017, the fair is 67.5% owned by the MCH Group, the operator of the Art Basel Fair. The controlling shareholder of the group since 2020 is James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
After a two-year pandemic postponement, this year’s masterpiece fair will be held from Thursday to July 6 at the usual riverside location of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a vast complex of approximately 300 British veterans. ) Will be held. .. To welcome everyone this year, the entrance is covered with a very large yellow anemone painting by British artist Sara Graham. Visitors will also encounter two giant light installations by Pakistani-American artist Anila Kuayum Aga.
Masterpiece 2022 “is not just a celebration of our activities, but a celebration of the gathering of people,” said Lucy Kitchner, Chief Executive Officer of the Fair since 2017. Being part of a larger organization.
Kitchner said the London art market is now “born from the clash between Covid and Brexit, so we need it as a country trying to open the door and welcome people, not necessarily as a fair organizer. I’m definitely lagging behind in some places. ” of. “
Brexit is “overly complex” for galleries and attendees trying to do business in London, and “difficult for people,” Kitchner added. She urges fair organizers, dealers, auction houses and the UK Government to “cooperate” to maintain London’s status as a major global destination and “should disturb people.” Not. “
According to Kitchner, advance ticket sales this year were better than in 2019. However, few galleries are standing in Masterpiece, totaling 127 from over 150 in 2019. This explained that the gallery in question stopped holding the fair or was due to a date conflict. Covid has led multiple arts. Fairs held later than usual in June, such as Tefaf Maastricht and the Brafa Art Fair in Brussels.
As a fair, Masterpiece London has something for everyone. The gallery represents art, antiques, ornaments and designs. As you stroll through the airy carpeted halls this year, you may come across paintings by the Triceratops dinosaur skull, the first edition of Jane Austin’s “Emma”, the emerald bangle, and the British and Portuguese painter Paula. .. Lego died earlier this month. In addition, two Ferraris and one luxury boat are on display on the premises.
“This is a very London fair, but what I call New London,” said Melanie, author of “Art Fair Story” (a recent book on the art fair industry) and an art market columnist at the Financial Times. Gerlis says.
Gerlis said the location of Chelsea meant that Masterpiece appealed to “many young bright bankers” and “non-dominant people,” that is, permanent homes to British residents elsewhere. I said I did.
Importantly, it also occupies a niche.
“It’s local, but if it’s London, it’s a pretty international home, and the timing is really good,” she explained, referring to Wimbledon and Ascot. Given the challenges of global fair business, from finance to logistics to the environment, she says, “It’s better to be local as a fair.”
In the early days, Masterpiece struggled to find an identity. In an interview with the 2018 Art Newspaper, folk art dealer Robert Young said the first fair was “comparable to the first pair of high heels teenagers.” He said he was “ambitious” and “a little hard”, offering everything from expensive luxury goods and status symbols to antiques and design objects.
The luxury side of the fair was then toned down, making the masterpiece unique, making it an attractive proposal for the MCH Group to intervene and buy.
In its December 2017 acquisition announcement, MCH Group said Masterpiece could bring together a wide group of collectors and expand to other parts of the United States, Asia and the Middle East.
The pandemic has postponed those and many other plans.
One of the changes that regular visitors will notice in the 2022 edition is that the champagne bar that stretched to the central corridor of Masterpiece London has been moved to the end of the corridor. why?
“The 2019 fair was attended by 55,000 people, and many times there was a lot of body stuffing around these bars,” said Kitchner. “I don’t think that’s the way people want to experience the event.” She also said that in the post-covid world, wider spacing was preferred and crowded bars “split the fair in two.” Said.
At this year’s fair, the central corridor will be narrowed and filled with a series of sculptures.
Overlooking the aisle in a very prominent place is the Dickinson Gallery booth. Co-founded in 1993 by Christie’s Senior Director Simon Dickinson, the gallery is an Old Master, Impressionist and contemporary art, and a leading distributor of contemporary art. The gallery is a solid masterpiece: it has been there since its inception in 2010.
Managing Director Emmaward has been masterpieces for years, with Dickinson selling important works such as Picasso, Leger, and Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte, sometimes at a price of millions of dollars, to become a great new client there. Said I met. “I’ve always been a big fan and a supporter of the fair.”
She said Masterpiece is “very accessible” in terms of both its size and the variety of objects on display. Unlike other art fairs, a variety of fair gores, including very young fair gores, who weren’t afraid to get lost, browse the objects on display, or buy anything that could be the beginning of a collection. I fascinated the age group.
Ward confirmed that Brexit created bureaucratic hurdles and complexity for those working in the London art market. But she said it wouldn’t get in the way of foreign travelers attracted to many attractions and art buyers in the British capital. She remembered that the same week as her masterpiece, there was an auction of contemporary and contemporary art, and an old master.
“We don’t think we’ll see fewer footprints,” she said. “London is still a very popular destination.”
