NEW YORK— The 21st edition of the Art Dealers Association of America (ADAA) Art Show kicked off Wednesday night with a preview for the benefit of Henry Street Settlement. Things started out rather quietly at the 5:30 bell, but by 7:30 the aisles were thrumming with activity, even if it was more of the air-kiss than the deal-making variety. A stroll from one end of the fair to the other produced sightings of collectors Adam Lindemann, John McEnroe, Martin Margulies, and Beth Rudin DeWoody, as well as museum honchos like MoMA’s Glenn Lowry and critics Jerry Saltz and Peter Schjeldahl.

The Art Show, which features 70 galleries (60 of them from New York) this year and runs through February 23, has gotten increasingly contemporary in spirit, and for this edition it has branched out to include more ambitious installation works. Tavares Strachan’s actual excavated 3,000-pound, 20-square-foot portion of Crown Street in New Haven, complete with cement, earth, and parking meter, took over Ronald Feldman’s booth. And Gavin Brown, a first-time exhibitor, let artist Laura Owens, whose paintings he had on display, curate a large bookshelf, with a little help from other artists in Brown’s stable and book suppliers Printed Matter and Glenn Horowitz.

There was even a performance. As part of his group show “Body as Prop,” James Cohan hosted Chinese artist Xu Zhen’s In the Blink of an Eye, in which a person seems to levitate, with only one foot touching the ground. (Different performers took turns for 45-minute intervals, and though this writer discovered how the feat is accomplished, she refuses to give away the trick.) “We’re in a good mood, because we’ve done something unusual and people are confounded by it,” said Cohan on the fair’s second day. He might also have been in good spirits, because he sold Bill Viola’s video piece Tempest (Study for the Raft) (2005) to a collector Cohan referred to as “an old friend and supporter of the gallery.” The dealer was reticent to disclose the price, but similarly sized pieces by Viola have sold in the low to mid six-figure range in the recent past.

There appeared to be few sales on opening night, but one of the few obvious red dots went up next to Eight Bells (1883), by Winslow Homer, a large etching of a man measuring the horizon with a sextant, at the booth of New York dealer David Tunick, a veteran of the Art Show. Tunick says the piece is priced “in the low-to-mid six figures,” and he even had a second offer on the piece. (As though to drive home the point, he added a second red dot beside it.) By the fair’s second day, Tunick had put an 1803-05 study of trees by John Constable on hold, at $150,000. “If it doesn’t sell here, I’ll sell it at [the European Fine Art Fair in] Maastricht.” Tunick seemed confident in the market for Old Masters despite the hard times. “Last December was the best December we’ve ever had,” he said, and added that he had made sales in January to museums and private clients. While he admitted that this is looking like the worst recession in his 42 years of business, he said that with “Old Masters things don’t change that much.” In what was perhaps a sign of the times, dealers were initially urged to put an artwork on the outside wall of their booths that was priced at $10,000 or less and marked with a gold label bearing the word’s “Dealer’s Choice.” (The price rules were later relaxed.) “These are expensive walls!” Tunick said of his panel featuring the twice-sold Homer.

But it wasn’t only Old Masters that sold well. Sperone Westwater had a solo booth of William Wegman and quickly parted with Ray-O-Vac (1973) for $80,000. The work features six black-and-white photographs of one of the artist’s Weimaraners prancing on some electronic equipment.

Front and center at the fair, PaceWildenstein was presenting a solo show of the late Sol LeWitt. “There’s the same enthusiasm as in previous years, and we’ve had an excellent response,” said Pace’s David Goerk of the event’s opening night. “The economy will have an impact on everything, but not on people coming and seriously looking.” The gallery reported making several sales.

At the booth of Galerie St. Etienne, director Jane Kallir, standing in front of works on paper by Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, Gustav Klimt, and Käthe Kollwitz, reflected on the market. “The good news is that there is still a market, if you price things correctly. Prices are down, but if you are committed, there has never been a better time to buy.” The important thing, she said, is “to be honest with clients and realistic about pricing. In the ’90s, the recession was protracted because no one would reduce prices. That’s looking different now, as long as auction houses and dealers and sellers respond quickly.”

New York’s Kraushaar Galleries sold a Robert Kulicke work on paper, Flowers (1979), for about $950. “Attendance is clearly down,” said director Katherine Degn. “But the opening was a nice party. People are cautious — not impulsive — but good material is good material. A sense of value has become more important, and people are looking for things that have stood the test of time. They aren’t going to spend a lot of money on a 20-something contemporary artist."

Avuncular modern art dealer Achim Moeller had a green dot, designating a museum reserve, next to a vintage print of Victor Obsatz’s iconic black-and-white Portrait of Marcel Duchamp from 1953, from an edition of 3. “The museum is trying to raise the money,” said Moeller, politely declining to disclose the price.

Although sales seemed thin in the first days of the fair, as ADAA president Roland Augustine pointed out, the Art Show has never had the run-and-buy mentality of, say, Art Basel Miami Beach — and even dealers who had seen little action didn’t seem particularly discouraged. Unfortunately, the dealer who may have had the most success on Wednesday night wasn’t even at the fair. Alexander Grey sold more than a hundred works by Cary Leibowitz at his Chelsea gallery at the very same time the ADAA show was opening. Leibowitz’s prices? A recession-friendly $15 a pop.

Sarah Douglas is Staff Writer at Art+Auction. She blogs at The Appraisal.