ARCOmadrid 2017 confirms the market recovery with particularly dynamic sales
ARCOmadrid 2017, the fair organised by IFEMA, will close the doors of its 36th edition today, confirming the market recovery. Just a few hours before closing, it is estimated to have received over 100,000 visitors in total, particularly highlighting the quality of the fair’s contents and the standard of national and international collectors. ARCOmadrid gains weight and recognition on the current international art scene, and is confirmed as a key date for the art market in Spain, and a point of meeting and exchange between Europe and Latin America.
courtesy ARCOmadrid and IFEMA, Feria de Madrid
The positive balance of the fair and confirmation of the art market recovery, with particularly dynamic sales were the salient aspects of this International Contemporary Art Fair, inaugurated by the King and Queen of Spain and the President of Argentina, Mauricio Macri and his wife, Juliana Awada.
The general opinion of the Fair was positive, particularly thanks to the high quality of the collectors and the sales volume at ARCOmadrid. Hence, the P420 gallery claims to be highly satisfied with the programme of collectors invited to the Fair as “it is very well organised and works wonderfully. It’s an aspect we’ve talked about with other galleries and we are all in agreement about it”. Jocelyn Wolff, on her third participation in the Fair, coincides with this perception, stating “we are satisfied because the collectors have shown a lot of interest and we managed to make some very good contacts. The effort ARCO makes to bring such receptive collectors should be appreciated”. Likewise, Lelong, which reached its Fair objective, added that “we are especially happy with the international collectors programme”. José de la Fuente “we’ve perceived a great deal of interest since the inauguration and we particularly stress the quality of both the international and the Spanish collectors”.
The Argentine galleries, which took centre stage at this edition as the Guest Country, also expressed their enthusiasm and confirmed the event’s success. The Barro gallery states that important sales have been made right from day one, in line with Slyzmud where they referred to it as a “very successful fair, an impression shared by all the Argentine galleries”. Along the same lines, the Portuguese 3+1 Arte Contemporànea commented “we are very satisfied because we have sold practically the entire stand”, and the French Mor Charpentier and the Spanish Casado Santapau also confirmed brisk sales on the professional days.
ACQUISITIONS
Among the institutional and corporate acquisitions confirmed on this edition of ARCOmadrid are those made by Fundación ARCO to a value of 146,000 euro, defrayed by individual donations and the proceeds of the Dinner held to present the Fundación ARCO 2017 Awards. The works acquired, on the advice of Miguel von Hafe and Manuel Segade, are by 7 artists from 7 galleries participating in the 36th edition of the International Contemporary Art Fair: Falke Pisano -Ellen de Bruijne Projects-; three pieces by Ivan Grilo -Casa Triangulo-; Daniel Steegmann Mangrané -Esther Schipper-; two works by Sergio Prego -Ethall-; two by Von Calhau! -Pedro Alfacinha-; Gwenneth Boelens -Klemm's-, and Irma Blank -P420-, which will go on to formally form part of the Colección Fundación ARCO, housed in CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo de la Comunidad de Madrid.
As per tradition, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía also acquired works at ARCOmadrid. This year, it purchased a total of 18 works by 12 artists, both national and foreign, for a total of 389,200 euro. Among others, it has purchased works of historic importance, such as those by Eloy Laguardia and Mathias Goeritz, from the Escuela de Altamira; a number of works by artists linked to the Centro de Cálculo, as well as works by Mladen Stilinovic, Ferran García Sevilla, Anna Opermann, Anne-Marie Schneider and Adriana Bustos.
For his part, Eduardo Costantini made acquisitions for his personal collection. Particularly noteworthy among the works acquired are the pieces by Alejandra Seeber –Barro-; Augusto de Campos -Luciana Brito Galería-; Marta Boto -Galería María Calcaterra-; Analia Saban -Tanya Bonakdar-; Sebastián Días Morales -Carlier Gebauer-; Mirtha Dermisache -Mauro Herlitzka-; Juan Tessi -Galería Nora Fish-; Elda Cerrato -Henrique Farias-; Ximena Garrido Lecca -Galería Livia Benavides-; Jorge Macchi and Edgardo Rudnitzky -Galería Continúa-.
The Sánchez-Ubiría collection will be enriched with the pieces acquired at the fair by the artists Jorge Machi –Galería Continua-; Matt Mullican -Mai 36 Galerie-; Kader Attia –Krinzinger-; Yonamine - Cristina Guerra Contemporary Art-; Faivovich & Goldberg - SlyZmud-; Teresa Lanceta -Espacio Mínimo-; Fabio Kacero -Ruth Benzacar-.
DKV Seguros purchased works by Daniel Jacoby – Maisterravalbuena; David Bestue -García Galería-; Rosana Antolí -Espai Tactel-; Teresa Solar Abboud -Joan Prats-; Elena Aitzkoa -Rosa Santos-; Leonor Serrano Rivas -Marta Cervera-; Diego Delas -F2 Galería-; Jorge Yeregui -Alarcón Criado-; Yann Leto -T20- and Rodríguez-Méndez -Formato Cómodo-, among others.
Fundación Helga de Alvear acquired pieces by Antoni Tàpies –Cayón-; Miquel Barceló –Elvira González-; Jorge Oteiza - Marc Domènech-; José Luis Alexanco -José de la Mano-.
Additionally, there were also other institutional and corporate purchases at ARCOmadrid including those made by the Colección Banco Sabadell; Fundación EDP; Mariana y Eduardo Hochschild; Fundación María Cristina Masaveu Peterson; Des Moines Art Centre; Artium; MoMa.
These were joined by other entities and institutions which support purchase through awards. This is the case of the ARCO/Comunidad de Madrid Award for Young Artists which this year went to the artists Julia Spínola -Heinrich Ehrhardt- and Lawrence Abu Hamdan -Mor Charpentier-. Similarly, on this occasion the ARCO BEEP Award for Electronic Art was awarded to the artist Luis Lugán -Galería José de la Mano-; the Solán de Cabras Award for Young Art, distinguished Antonio Montalvo -Espacio Mínimo-; the Cervezas Alhambra Award for Emerging Art was bestowed on José Miguel Pereñíguez –Rafael Ortiz-; Antonio Ballester Moreno, represented by the Christopher Grimes gallery, was pronounced winner of the ART Situacions Award. Meanwhile, the III Premio NH Collection de Arte Contemporáneo was awarded to Claudia Weiser - Casado Santapau-, and the I Catalina d'Anglade Award went to Fernanda Fragateiro -Elba Benítez-.
The Organisation is already working towards the 2nd edition of ARCOlisboa to take place from 18 to 12 May, in the Cordoaria Nacional, as well as the next edition of ARCOmadrid 2018, to be held from 21 to 25 February.
