A Latin Debut

NEW YORK—PINTA, New York’s first art fair devoted to contemporary Latin American art, made its debut on November 16 in the Metropolitan Pavilion with works by figures ranging from Mexican master Rufino Tamayo to emerging Puerto Rican painter Tony Bechara. Sales at the event, which ran through November 20, totaled $5 million, well above the projected $4 million, and attendance reached 7,100. Referring to the buzzing crowds, Monica Espinel, of Latincollector in New York, one of the 34 participating dealers, notes: “I couldn’t spend more than one minute with anybody, which is all a gallery taking a chance on a first-time fair can hope for.” Espinel sold nine works, the majority to new clients—including New York’s Museo del Barrio, which bought Ana de la Cueva’s Maquila, 2007, a digital-film installation accompanied by an embroidered map of Mexico, for $5,000. That museum, along with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art in New York; and the Museo de Arte de Lima, each received between $10,000 and $25,000 from PINTA’s Museum Acquisitions Fund, which was created with donations from independent and corporate sponsors to encourage institutional participation. Vasari, of Buenos Aires, sold vintage photographs by Argentinean artists Annemarie Heinrich and Anatole Saderman to a French collector, but the gallery’s director, Lauren Bate, complained about the lack of diversity among the clientele, who were predominantly Latin American. Nonetheless, she plans to return next year. As Bate says, “You have to start somewhere.” 

"A Latin Debut" originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's February 2008 Table of Contents.