NEW YORK—While the art market undergoes a price correction of unknown proportions, dealers twiddling their collective thumbs at the Armory Show’s new Modern division at Pier 92 are coming up with the kindest things to say about the first-year endeavor, an offshoot of the decidedly contemporary-focused main event at Pier 94.

This marks a change from the old days — that is, last year — when dealers had no time to express kind thoughts, and hard-knuckled commerce was the sole plat du jour.

“I like that they added this section to the fair,” said New York exhibitor Edward Tyler Nahem. “We’ve had great visits from serious collectors.”

“There’s still money out there,” added Nahem, who had just returned from showing at ARCO in Madrid, “but people are waiting for the dust to settle.”

The dealer’s eclectic stand had works ranging from Ed Kienholz’s Solid States (c. 1965), a found Sony TV set in concrete priced at $65,000, to a stunning Sam Francis abstraction, Toward Disappearance Three (1957), set at $5.8 million. So far, no takers.

“This fair is fantastic,” said seasoned New York dealer James Goodman, a former president of the ADAA. “We’ve never had so many clients come in. It reminds me of the first Art Basel Miami Beach in 2002.”

But Goodman admitted (and he had plenty of company): “We haven’t sold anything yet. But we have had a lot of interest.”

Among the unsold gems in Goodman’s stand was Jackson Pollock’s Vertical Composition (1953–55) for $3.5 million, Philip Guston’s brawny figurative work The Sculptor’s Shoe (1975) for $1.8 million, and a rare and signed Constantin Brancusi Portrait de Femme from 1918 in gouache and pencil on paper laid down on board for $450,000.

Despite the lack of commerce, Goodman said, “I’m for sure going to do this again next year.”

The jury was still out at the booth of New York dealer Joan Washburn. “Come back on Sunday, (the last day of the fair),” she said. “We just have no idea, but I haven’t heard of any sales.” 

Washburn explained that Armory president and cofounder Paul Morris had approached her to participate in the fair during last summer’s Art Basel.

As was the case at many competing stands, Washburn had her share of first-rate material, from Christo’s Wrapped Movie Projector in plastic, rope, twine, and metal storage bin from 1966 for $350,000, to a small (at 4 ½ inches high) but fierce David Smith figurative bronze from 1947, War Landscape, for $135,000.

The first word of a transaction came at the booth of Galerie Thomas from Munich, where a small steel-cut reclining nude by Tom Wesselmann from 1985 had sold for $40,000.

The gallery also had reserves on a fantastic Anselm Kiefer mixed media piece on canvas with a funky model-aircraft carrier attached, Merkaba (2002), at $1.48 million; and a pristine Wassily Kandinsky in watercolor and colored ink, Von Kurve zu Kurve (1933), at $380,000.

“We have a good impression of the fair so far,” said the gallery’s Bettina Beckert. “We’ve met a lot of our old clients, so we’re very optimistic.”

It’s amazing to encounter optimism of any sort these days, but there is a lot of it on Pier 92.

“I think having Picassos on this pier reflects well on the young artists in the next pier [94] and vice-versa,” said Los Angeles dealer Michael Kohn. “The two fairs inform each other beautifully.”

Kohn reported selling three new, small-scaled paintings by L.A. artist Mark Ryden for $30,000 apiece. The works, titled Dark Bear, Dark Girl, and Little Cernunnos, each measure seven by five inches and come in frames carved by the artist. Ryden is a current favorite of Japanese contemporaries Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami, said Kohn.

The dealer had also sold a Richard Prince collage from 2007, Untitled (Nurse), for $50,000.

But as of this writing, none of Kohn’s pricier fare had sold, including a large and crisp Andy Warhol “Mao” drawing from 1973, which was once in the collection of John and Kimiko Powers and was priced at $600,000, and the 1958 Bruce Conner assemblage Ladies Walking Around, priced at $190,000.