A mixture of freezing rain, sleet, and snow across New York City last night did nothing to deter hordes of collectors and eager viewers from descending on the Park Avenue Armory on the Upper East Side of Manhattan (see Inside the ADAA Gala Preview, Where Peter Brant, Alberto Mugrabi and Other VIPs Toast Armory Week). The opening night gala of the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual Art Show appeared to be in full swing moments after the doors opened with collectors thronging the aisles, sipping cocktails and nibbling hors d’oeuvres as they feasted on a vast array of art ranging from classic 19th-century paintings by Whistler to cutting-edge sculpture by Alice Aycock. Selfies with Michelangelo Pistoletto’s mirrored works at Luhring Augustine were a common sight.
It seems this fair gets a little more contemporary each year, and this edition was no different. By the end of the evening, artnet News was already fielding reports from various galleries about sales that were made. (See What Top Galleries Are Bringing to the ADAA Show and artnet Asks: Dorsey Waxter, ADAA President and New York Gallerist.)
Lehmann Maupin gallery reported having one of its strongest opening nights to date. The gallery placed roughly half a dozen new paintings and works on paper by Tracey Emin, who joined gallery partners Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin at the booth. The solo presentation is curated around a new bronze sculpture titled The Heart Has Its Reasons (2014), which takes its name from the famous line by Blaise Pascal: “The heart has its reasons of which reason knows not” (“Le coeur a ses raisons que la raison ne connait point”). (See Tracey Emin Says Female Artists Can’t Have Kids). Prices of the works sold ranged from $70,000–$90,000.
Among sales at Sean Kelly were five new sculptures and two related drawings from the gallery’s solo exhibition of British artist Antony Gormley. The works are from Gormley’s ongoing “SMALL BLOCKWORKS” series, which he began in 2003. The blocks either sit one on top of the other or side-by-side, using space and mass to represent and define the human body. Each of the five sculptures sold for about $190,000 (£140,000) and each of the two drawings sold in the range of $20,000–$30,000 (£15,000–£22,000).
Miami gallerist Frederic Snitzer, a first time exhibitor, showed works on paper and kinetic cyclone-like sculpture by Alice Aycock, whose much larger series of white steel, public art sculptures “Park Avenue Paper Chase,” stormed the Park Avenue median last spring.
Cincinnati gallery Carl Solway was also among the dealers who opted for a single artist booth with an eye-catching show of works by Nam June Paik (see VIDEO: Nam June Paik’s Avant-Garde Tech Art). One of our favorites was Enlightenment Compressed (1994), an installation featuring a seated Buddha facing a five-inch screen, inside of which is a video camera. As the viewer approaches the installation, the camera captures their image on the screen behind the Buddha.