National and International News: ART MOSCOW managed to overcome the art market’s critical point

ART MOSCOW managed to overcome the art market’s critical point
The 16^th edition of ART MOSCOW, International Fair of Contemporary Art, closed on Sunday 23^rd of September. The Central House of Artists was visited by more than 16000 visitors; collectors, curators, art lovers, journalists and other professionals were attracted by high-quality contemporary artworks and in-depth debate program.
ART MOSCOW has overcome this spring’s art market critical situation and shown itself to be ready for changes affecting today society. The art market and perspectives of development were analyzed by ART MOSCOW participants in the frame of the debate program. Many of panelists noted positive dynamics in the consolidation of Russian art community and discussed problems in the market. Experts’, artists’ and art dealers’ opinions were brought to open debates, thus the fair has shown its openness to new ideas and willingness to innovate that will affect Russian art market during the coming years.
Financial fair results in 2012 were better than expected. The total amount of sales of the 16^th ART MOSCOW was $ 3.1 billion, $1.6 billion of which came from direct sales and $1.5 billion - on reserve. The leaders in sales among Russian galleries are Triumph (Moscow) and Lazarev (Saint-Petersburg). The majority of foreign galleries have also sold a number of artworks and the biggest deals were made by the Assar Art Gallery (Iran) and the Collection gallery (Ukraine).
The White Space Gallery from London, which showed artists from Saint-Petersburg, photographs by Lithuanian photographers of 60^s and Andrey Tarkovskiy’s photographs attracted a special attention of viewers as well as Italian Goethe Gallery with Marcello Jori artworks, and galleries from Iran – the Assar Gallery, the Ariana Gallery and the Tirgun Image Works Gallery, which are ART MOSCOW newcomers.
One of the special projects of ART MOSCOW is the exhibition of Alexey Morozov’s sculptures from private collections. The “Warhol Relatives” project showcased artworks by eminent artists from Western Ukraine. Another exhibition called Science Art, which takes place at the Central House of Artists till September 26^th, was also a big success. It is going to be parallel with ART MOSCOW from now on because these two exhibitions complement each other really well.
ART MOSCOW organizers hope that topics covered during the fair discussion program in front of a large audience could improve the situation on the art market. Video records are available at the fair website www.art-moscow.ru.
Key discussion theses are following:

Contemporary art can be developed and used to enhance city attractiveness only if artists, curators and representatives of culture get support from authorities that should respond to today’s new society requirements
Photography should be a full value part of official collections of contemporary art state museums
High level of art education plays a key role in artist’s career
Philanthropists who invest in art should get some tax deductions
Contemporary art development depends not only on artists’ education but also on the quality of the audience which isn’t ready yet to perceive this art. Today art has found itself in a vacuum
Art market in Russia can’t be developed until a high-quality education system is set up to teach art-managers
Today art market in Russia isn’t rewarding. There is a need to create new productive structures. Artist–gallery relationships will be very clear and marked forms (cooperation through contract, price regulation). A famous artist doesn’t have to appeal to gallery services but, if he works on the art market by himself, he shouldn’t pull down the price. Galleries, at their turn, should play an educative role and discover new talents, having no any other way to get in the art market.

ART MOSCOW was widely covered by media – many Moscow newswire editions and leading galleries offered positive reports on the fair, such as:
Zhanna Vasilieva, “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”: “ART MOSCOW made an accent on intellectual discussion program and non-commercial projects. Discussions will take place at The Central House of Artists almost non-stop, twice a day. Some new fresh intellectual ideas are engaged and topics sound interesting. These projects intend to educate a new collector who doesn’t have to be a billionaire, told organizers at the ART MOSCOW press-conference”.
Julia Vinogradova, “Nezavisimaya Gazeta”: “The Fair managed to handle the difficult situation! They made an accent not on art (they still compliment it, indeed, there are interesting artworks at the fair)” but on discussion program. The difficult situation of the fair is explained by critical moment: definitely, all of us, who are interested in well-being of Russian art sphere, should meet and discuss what to do now”.
Velimir Moyst, “Gazeta.ru”: “In general the fair doesn’t give a depressive impression, as we could imagine with today art market state. The average level of artworks is good and the genre diversity - substantial”.
Experts’ opinions:
Irina Filatova, Fine Art Gallery’s art director: “ART MOSCOW is a very important event for us and we prefer to exhibit in Moscow. First of all, artworks by Russian artists are mostly acquired by Russian collectors. Although our experience with foreign fairs shows that there is an interest in Russian art but sales there aren’t as good as here. Also, a lot of clients come to the gallery after the fair and buy artworks there, in quiet atmosphere, they can think as much as they need to”.
Elena Selina, XL Gallery: “Whatever we do with ART MOSCOW, if the market doesn’t splutters into life, nothing will happen. Yes, of course, it is a very efficient idea about Moscow Art Week; it’s good that the fair exists, that exhibitions exist. But I have to tell you a boring thing: since there are no tax deductions and no organizations that would buy artworks and problems with customs aren’t solved, any other measures will be futile”.
Vladimir Frolov, Frolov Gallery: “Big galleries, that have being participating at ART MOSCOW for 15 years, closed; Moscow and Vienna fairs are held at the same time, it’s objective that the general level is lower. But negative reasons have also positive effect, as people begin to activate their resources. There are a lot of things to do. The general impression is that a restart took place. For example, the exhibition space is very well organized and if they find a sponsor, it can be developed further”.
Summarizing the 16th ART MOSCOW, the organizers underline positive dynamics and expect the stabilization of Russian art market by next year.
The next edition of ART MOSCOW takes place September 18-22, 2013 at the Central House of Artists.
Shortly before the show, visitors could download the ART MOSCOW application, which is available after the fair too. The application offers a virtual free catalogue, list of galleries, artists and art capture exclusive function developed by our partners.
Information and pictures can be downloaded directly from ART MOSCOW website. You can also sign in to the newsletter to receive information about ART MOSCOW and other EXPO-PARK Exhibition Projects.

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EXHIBITORS
11.12 Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Acacia Gallery (Havana, Cuba)
AL Gallery (St.Petersburg, Russia)
Ariana Art Gallery (Tehran, Iran)
Art & Space Gallery (Munich, Germany)
Assar Art Gallery (Tehran, Iran)
Collage Habana Gallery (Havana, Cuba)
Cordeiros Gallery (Porto, Portugal)
Dias Gallery (Irkutsk, Russia)
Dimitry Semenov Gallery (St.Petersburg, Russia)
Frolov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Glaz Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Goethe Gallery (Bolzano, Italy)
Grinberg Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Iragui Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
KnollGalleries ViennaBudapest (Austria-Hungary)
Lazarev Gallery (St.Petersburg, Russia)
RuArts (Moscow, Russia)
Shazina Gallery (Sukhum, Abkhazia)
Tirgun Image Works (Tehran, Iran)
Triumph Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Vostochnaya gallery (Moscow, Russia)
White Space Gallery (London, UK)
Whitestone Gallery (Tokio, Japan)
Zvono Gallery (Belgrad, Serbia)
Tsekh Gallery (Kiev, Ukrain)
Collection Gallery (Kiev, Ukrain)
Kultproekt (Moscow, Russia)
Les Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Fine Art Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
H.L.A.M. Gallery (Voronezh, Russia)
Heritage International Art Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Warhol's Rodychi / Special Project by Ya-Gallery
Pop-art Prints / Special Project by Citadel 51 Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
Polymers / Special Project by Public Totem (Moscow, Russia)
Toward the unknown. IoCA (IPSI) gradute exposition / Special Project (Moscow, Russia)
Serenitas. Sculptures by Alexey Morozov in private collections / Special Project (Moscow, Russia)
Jurgen Dahlmanns. From abstraction to Tibet / Special Project by Kover Buro (Moscow, Russia)
Videolounge / Special Project by Sorbonne's contemporary art foundation (Paris, France)
Heliotropism. Olivier Passieux / Special Project by Iragui Gallery
Nevsy Ave. Vita Buyvid / Special Project by RuArts Foundation&Iragui Gallery
The reader portrait / Special Project by The ArtNewspaper magazine
Luxury Home, magazine (Moscow, Russia)
Free Artists (Moscow, Russia)
TooLate, Artists Goods (Moscow, Russia)
Shaltay-Boltay, Artists Goods (Moscow, Russia)
KulTTovary, Artists Goods (Moscow, Russia)
KurekhiN Prize (St.Petersburg, Russia)
Viplounge
FineArtWay Ltd.

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