The fair looked like a ghost town before the 3 p.m. VIP entry and exhibitors were puzzled as to where the very very special VIP’s were hiding during the noon-to-3:00 p.m. early-access preview.

“I haven’t seen a soul I’ve recognized,” said one irked dealer, who further remarked that the absence of the Museum of Modern Art’s gala benefit, a signature event for the Armory, was a big disappointment. (Apparently MoMA is doing one for the AIPAD fair next month.)

Caution was in the air, but things were not exactly funereal.

“I feel that, for things that are less than ‘must-have,’ people are a little slower about making a commitment,” says exhibitor David Nash of New York’s Mitchell-Innes & Nash. “It takes more time for them to pull the trigger. But if you have something fresh and rare, there doesn’t seem to be any hesitation.”

Nash mentioned a ’60’s Roy Lichtenstein painting that recently sold for close to $1 million as an example of the fresh and rare equation.

Sixty minutes later, the gallery could report sales of two Enoc Perez works from 2008: Don Q, a large oil still life of a bottle of the famous Puerto Rican rum in the $100–150,000 range, and the Art Deco–styled exterior of El Miramar, a smaller-scaled oil on paper in the range of $50,000.

“For the people who say the market is slowing down,” says New York art trader David Mugrabi, “this is very encouraging, because everything I’ve asked about, including these two works by Perez, has already sold.”

There were some standout pictures on offer, including Steven Parrinos Baby Blue Suicide, a torn and distressed abstraction from 1995 at Galleria Massimo de Carlo (Milan) for $600,000.

“There’s a lot of interest in his work now,” says gallerist Ludivica Barbieri. “But he didn’t have such a great career when he was alive.” Parrino died in a motorcycle crash in 2005 and has attained stardom posthumously.

Death was certainly a theme at Cheim & Read (New York), which staged a one-artist installation of Jenny Holzers recent LED artworks (in the $300–400,000 range) and redacted paintings (at $125,000 apiece) on subjects ranging from the War in Iraq to interrogations of political prisoners. The original documents were procured from secret government files Holzer unearthed through a Freedom of Information Act application.

“With the economic situation being in question at the moment,” says gallery director Adam Sheffer, “this was an opportunity to take advantage of a curatorial situation and show a great artist rather than just pulling in inventory and saying a Hail Mary.”

Commerce was in evidence by mid-afternoon, or so it seemed, at Hauser & Wirth (London and Zurich), which had already sold two of the six pink silicone, rubber, and steel casts of Paul McCarthys cute figurine Mimi from 2008 at $450,000 apiece.

Nearby, gallery owner Iwan Wirth was having a friendly chat with St. Louis/New York megacollector Donald Bryant, which went something like this:
Bryant: Oh, we’ve met, I think you’ve bid against me at auction.
Wirth: Yes, you’re right.
Bryant: Yeah, I had to pay a lot more for a sculpture I wanted because of you.

ARTINFO has learned that Hauser & Wirth has poached super-hot Mumbai artist Subodh Gupta from the Jack Shainman Gallery, where he’s currently having a solo show, and expects to debut Gupta in London in 2009. The gallery is also in the process of searching for a New York space.

Corridors away in the vast expanse of Pier 94, Jack Shainman didn’t seem to be in mourning. He’d already sold Gupta’s untitled lilac-hued painting from 2008 for €225,000 to a European collector; Kerry James Marshalls Untitled (Painter) from 2008 for $150,000; and another fresh-from-the-studio Bindi-dot painting on fiberglass by Bharti Kher for €175,000.

Scanning his stand, Shainman ticked off a few more transactions, including Ed Ruschas super-cool 1984 print from 1967, with a painted fly executed on the lower portion of the image (edition 11 of 60), for $24,000, as well as gallery artist Carlos Vegas elegant, 40-by-40-inch oil-on-lead painting What a Wind from 2008 for $15,000. “Nothing’s changed (in the market), as far as I can see,” says Shainman, “I just don’t feel it.”

Various exhibitors were similarly testing the atmosphere but mostly with shrugs of the shoulders.

“Europeans are feeling great,” says Paris/Salzburg dealer and fair veteran Thaddaeus Ropac, “and think everything is cheap over here because of the currency, even if it isn’t a bargain.”

He wasn’t so sure about the mood of the Americans. “It’s too early to understand what’s going on. We used to be able to sell works over here just by sending out e-mails beforehand, because Americans love to make quick decisions. I’m not so sure that’s happening now.”

Ropac sold to European clients two major paintings brought over specially for the fair, including Ilya Kabakovs figurative abstraction In the Park from 1973 (2003) for $450,000 and Georg Baselitzs Mantel (Remix) from 2007 for $550,000.

“They’re going back to Europe,” says the dealer.

Editor's note: The original version of this article stated that Hauser & Wirth had sold two of three editions of Paul McCarthy's Mimi. It has been corrected to read that there are six in the edition.