The 12 Best Booths at Frieze Masters
Frieze Masters increasingly competes with its contemporary equivalent for visitor attention, with an array of solo presentations, joint gallery offerings, and curated booths. Now in its fourth year, the fair has a loyal following of collectors, and dealers are working hard to capture their interest. Here are some of the best offerings among galleries exhibiting at the 2015 edition.
Dickinson
Main Section, Stand C4
With works by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger, Paul Cézanne, Auguste Herbin, Piet Mondrian
Dickinson’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
Billed as “Masters of Cubism,” this booth has a prime spot—and a novel take on the art movement’s history. There are some clear showstoppers—not least a $4.25 million Picasso, Guitare, Verre, Bouteille de Vieux Marc (1912)—but also some less obvious inclusions. A 1915 plate by Mondrian is apparently the only one he ever made, and “is not” for sale, according to Dickinson’s associate director Aurélie Didier. Alongside the big names, including Braque, Léger, and Cézanne, are some equally arresting paintings by Auguste Herbin.
Richard Nagy Ltd.
Main Section, Stand E6
With works by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Henri Matisse, Otto Dix, and Max Ernst
Richard Nagy Ltd.’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
Nagy’s salon of work by Egon Schiele is undoubtedly one of the fair’s highlights, with the Austrian Expressionist’s piercingly twisted drawings and paintings—including an unfinished portrait of juvenile Herbert Rainer— proving a steely eyed counterpoint to grandstanding pieces elsewhere. In an adjoining room, Matisse, Picasso, Ernst, Dix, and Klimt jostle for attention.
Helly Nahmad Gallery
Main Section, Stand G1
With works by Jean Dubuffet
Helly Nahmad Gallery’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
This Cork Street gallery caused a buzz at Frieze Masters 2014, thanks to its recreation of a fictional Parisian art collector’s 1960s apartment. This year, production designer Robin Brown has been rehired to fashion “the clinics and sanatoria” that inspired the work of Jean Dubuffet, who is credited with founding Art Brut—“raw art” made outside of mainstream culture. Titled “The Asylum,” Brown’s imagined rooms, with period furniture and props sourced from London and France, as well as photographs, sit across from Dubuffet’s work. “It was a fantastic project,” said Brown. “And Frieze provides a unique opportunity to observe how people react to it.”
Marlborough Fine Art’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
The London gallery showcases a pristine solo presentation of work by Frank Auerbach, following its popular Francis Bacon focus last year. Timed to coincide with Tate Britain’s concurrent show, which opened last week, and preceding Marlborough’s own Auerbach exhibition later this month, the booth features highlights such as a 1950 charcoal portrait of the artist’s fellow painter and friend Leon Kossoff.
Peter Freeman Inc. and Kunstkammer Georg Laue
Main Section, Stand B7
With works by Yves Klein, Ed Ruscha, Agnes Martin, and Claes Oldenburg
Peter Freeman, Inc. and Kunstkammer Georg Laue’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
This joint stand, organized by New York gallerist Peter Freeman and Munich gallerist Georg Laue, includes a $1.1 million Yves Klein, Untitled Fire Painting (1961), and work by Ed Ruscha and Agnes Martin. According to Freeman, a 1967 model of an oversized ball attached to London’s Lambeth Bridge by Claes Oldenburg is one of only two such works in existence. “We each bring objects to our taste with a level of quality,” said Freeman of the joint arrangement. “Things retain their voice, and we discover how they speak to each other.”
Ben Brown Fine Arts’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
This London gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of the work of Spanish Neo-Expressionist painter Miquel Barceló. Ahead of the artist’s upcoming show at the Musée National Picasso-Paris in March, the booth features the sprawling, figurative violet-blue canvas España Económica (1990).
Anthony Meier Fine Arts and Schönewald Fine Arts
Main Section, Stand A5
With works by Richard Serra, Yayoi Kusama, Donald Judd, Georg Baselitz, Sigmar Polke, and Josef Albers
Anthony Meier Fine Arts and Schönewald’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
San Francisco gallerist Anthony Meier, who serves on the fair’s selection committee, and Dusseldorf’s Schönewald Fine Arts focused their booth’s offer around two key pieces: a large, dark Richard Serra canvas, Sioux (no. 4) (1990), and a mixed-media work by Yayoi Kusama, A Snake (1974), which weaves its way across the stand’s floor. “This mix of material is a classic presentation for us,” said Meier, hinting that he’d already enjoyed some strong sales.
Castelli Gallery’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
Castelli’s stand focuses on a fine array of Roy Lichtenstein sculptures, including the Pop master’s witty 1984 piece, The Conversation, showing the deconstructed profiles of a man and woman conversing. There are also four iterations of his “Brushstroke Head” series, versions of which were first shown at Castelli in 1964. “We normally see Pop Art as something easy, but it’s also interesting to see it in relation to art history,” said gallery director Barbara Castelli, referring to Lichtenstein’s sculptural allusions to Picasso.
Hauser & Wirth and Moretti Fine Art
Main Section, Stand D1
With works by Andrea Della Robbia, Hans Arp, Louise Bourgeois, Santi Buglioni, Maestro di Pio II, Luca di Tommè, Marlene Dumas, Lo Scheggia, Allan Kaprow, Fernand Léger, Fausto Melotti, Barnaba da Modena, Hermann Nitsch, Francis Picabia, Richard Serra, Bartolomeo Vivarini, Guido Cagnacci
Hauser & Wirth and Moretti Fine Art’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
A classic pairing of old with new—an Alexander Calder next to a Florentine School bust, a Richard Serra Corten triangle rubbing shoulders with a 17th-century oil work by Guido Cagnacci—puts these two gallleries in direct conversation with each other. A Louise Bourgeois “Nature Study” sculpture (part man, part woman) glimmers gold next to three 15th-century works from the Demidoff Collection, amassed by a dynasty of Saint Petersburg collectors.
Annely Juda shows early work by Christo, who has had a longstanding relationship with the London gallery, “from Documenta 1968 on,” according to a gallery spokeswoman. Obvious standouts include Yellow Store Front (1965), Wrapped Paintings (1968), and Packed Supermarket Cart (1963), large objects swaddled in cloth and twine that presaged the monumental wrapped interventions that Christo and Jeanne-Claude became famous for.
Tomasso Brothers and Karsten Schubert
Main Section, Stand C3
With works by Bridget Riley, François Girardon, and Luigi Valadier
Tomasso Brothers and Karten Schubert’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
Another binary arrangement—primary colors versus cold white stone—characterizes this presentation, with untitled works on paper by Bridget Riley around the booth’s perimeter and marble busts, including those by Louis XIV’s sculptor, François Girardon, within.
Luxembourg & Dayan
Main Section, Stand D7
With works by Arman, Enrico Baj, César, William Copley, Lucio Fontana, Raymond Hains, Yves Klein, Niki De Saint Phalle, Martial Raysse, Jesús Rafael Soto, Takis, and Jean Tinguely
Luxembourg & Dayan’s booth at Frieze Masters, 2015. Photo by Benjamin Westoby for Artsy.
It’s an arresting opening for this curated booth, titled “An Homage to Iris Clert,” in reference to the late Greek gallerist whose base in Paris is closely associated with the rise of Yves Klein. French sculptor César Baldaccini’s The Breast of Hélène Rochas (1967) sits outside the booth alongside a dense blue Klein monochrome. Inside, two versions of Concetto Spaziale—spiked-through canvases by Lucio Fontana—draw visitors to pieces by César and U.S. artist William Copley.
