Junk Food and Studied Consumption at Armory Preview

Yves Klein Hank Willis Thomas Hernan Bas Antony Gormley Callum Innes Bharti Kher Iran do Espirito Santo Nick Cave

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In its earliest moments at least, the fair had more of the feel of a newly opened library or an out-of-the-way contemporary exhibition space than an art market of the boom times with its manic buzz and sharp elbows.

That said, there was some commerce on a moderate level, as the 177 contemporary galleries in the fair’s main section, and the approximately 70 galleries in the even quieter Armory Modern on Pier 92, welcomed a familiar contingent of top-end collectors, including Athens-based Dakis Joannou, Miami-based Mera and Don Rubell, New York’s Hubert Neumann, and St. Louis’s Ron Pizutti.

Asked about the state of the market, Joannou said, “We’ll have to see,” as he disappeared into the huge pier.

An armada of art advisers and private dealers were also seen patrolling the generously scaled aisles, including Neal Meltzer, Sandy Heller, Louise Eliasof, and Ruth Catone, though it looked like they were there for sincere tire kicking rather than bare-knuckled buying.

“It’s hard to tell the mood,” said Glenn Scott Wright, director of London’s Victoria Miro Gallery. “People are taking a lot more time.”

Still, the gallery sold Hernan Bas’s studio-fresh painting In the Reeds (2009), in acrylic on linen, during the first hour of the preview for $85,000.

“That has had a lot of heat,” said Wright, who pointed out that Bas is currently in a show at the Brooklyn Museum (featuring works from the Rubell Family Collection).

Things looked promising at New York’s Sean Kelly Gallery, where Brazil’s Iran do Espírito Santo’s solid crystal sculpture Waterglass 2 (2008) sold in the opening minutes for $12,000, and Edinburgh artist Callum Innes’s Untitled No. 13 from 2009, a cool abstraction with 50 percent of the linen unpainted, went for £14,000 ($19,860).

Kelly also sold two drawings by British sculptor Antony Gormley, from 2006 and 2005, for £8,000 and £4,000.

A steady pulse could also be felt at New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery, as U.S. artist Hank Willis Thomas’s light-jet print Time Can Be a Villain or a Friend (2009), a 72-by-60 inch airbrushed visage of a young Michael Jackson, from an edition of 3, sold to a European collector for $18,000.

Shainman also found success with red-hot Indian artist Bharti Kher’s Diamonds from 2007. The work in bindis on painted board went to an American collector for €100,000 ($126,700). “It sold immediately,” said gallery partner Claude Simard. “People love her work.”

Simard also cited several reserves on works ranging from a mixed-media, 8-by-15 foot El Anatsui tapestry to sculptures by Claudette Schreuders and Nick Cave. “Considering the recession, it’s not bad,” he said.

The early impression that this fair would offer a relaxed, unhurried opportunity for viewing struck a chord at PaceWildenstein’s blue-chip and contemporary art–studded stand as gallery president Marc Glimcher offered soft drinks and unrestrained commentary on the state of life in the art world. One corner of the booth was set up as a comfy café bar with brimming bowls of Devil Dogs and Twinkies artfully placed between a stack of tabloid newspapers and art books.

“This is the first time we’ve given away junk food,” deadpanned Glimcher, casually dressed in jeans and a monochrome blue sports shirt, which nearly matched the brilliant shade of the $2 million Yves Klein sculpture from 1959 that stood opposite the Devil Dogs.

Asked about the crowd, Glimcher said, “I’m seeing all the usual suspects, and I didn’t see them two weeks ago at the ADAA fair — that was the Typhoid Isolation Ward.”

Generally speaking, cutting-edge works by younger artists seemed in strong demand, as evidenced by the trio of small-scaled figurative pieces — including Finding Zebra from 2008 — by Saatchi-anointed Iranian-American artist Tala Madani, which sold between $8,000 and $14,000 at the booth of New York’s Lombard-Freid.