“For the first time in many years, we have all the good Austrian galleries here!” So says Francesca Gavin, the recently appointed artistic director of Viennacontemporary, which is being held in the Austrian capital (until 15 September).
This is the tenth edition of Viennacontemporary, housed in the functional, high-ceilinged Messe Wien Exhibition Centre and which this year features 98 galleries, up from 61 last year. One third is Austrian, another third Eastern European and the final group is from the “rest of the world” but overwhelmingly European—Italy, Denmark and just one, AshesAshes, from the US. “Vienna is the perfect location to bring together galleries from across the region,” says Gavin: “Not everyone’s going to visit Bucharest, Budapest or Vilnius.”
Bearing out her words is Lizaveta German of Kyiv’s The Naked Room, one of two Ukrainian galleries at the fair. “We just put the works in the car and drove,” she explains. In her booth are humorous ceramic pieces by Kinder Album, priced at €2,000, and a wool tapestry showing a sofa by Kseniya Bilyk, for €5,000.
Annamaria Molnár, of the Budapest-based Ani Molnár Gallery, is showing geometrical works by Tamás Konok from the 1970s and 80s, and reported strong interest, plus a few sales for the smaller pieces, at prices between €2,800 and €23,000. “Hungarian artists always do well at home, but Konok, who has an international reputation, also has a market here in Vienna,” she says.
“At no other fair in Europe do you see so many collectors from Poland, Hungary and around the region,” says Thomas Krinzinger of the eponymous Viennese gallery. At the opening he sold a large-scale painting by Oska Gutheil, to an “international collector” for €35,000 and a sculpture by Hans Op de Beeck.
Eastcontemporary from Milan was pleased to have placed, also early in the fair, three works by the Bosnia and Herzegovina-born artist Mila Panić, including a tyre filled with cigarettes and perfume bottles and a series of four sculptures by the Lithuanian Anastasia Sosunova—prices for her work range from €2,000-€13,000.
André Verlon’s Wasted Land (1991), shown at the stand of Heike gallery
Courtesy of Heike
There is a section for emerging galleries, and another, Context, which aims to rediscover once-major but now-neglected artists. One such is André Verlon (1917-1995), shown by Hieke gallery from Vienna, whose paint-and-collage works are in a number of museum such as the Albertina and Tate. Prices range from €4,500 to €55,000; one work, Wasted Land (1991), is being offered for €7,500.
These price points reflected the affordable nature of the event: “It’s not just about commodity trading and speculation,” said Gavin: “We are developing a local market, and creating a price point where people can take a risk. It’s a much more affordable fair, but I’m hoping with a sense of professionalism and quality.” Luciá Holms, the Barcelona-based owner of the think-tank Talking Galleries, confirmed he found the quality considerably higher: “This year it is much more curated than previous editions,” he said.
Viennacontemporary, owned by a group of Austrian investors, is not alone, by any means, in the Viennese fair landscape: in fact, a stunning 15 art fairs are planned for next year.
A previous investor in viennacontemporary is the Russian Dmitri Aksenov, who has now created Particolare, a “curated contemporary art salon”, which also runs from 11 to 15 September with some major dealers including Esther Schipper, Lisson, Pace, Mennour and Giorgio Persano. The location in the ornate, Italian Renaissance-style Kursalon is in fact the old home of viennacontemporary. There is no charge for participating, but exhibitors pay a commission of around 20% to the organisers in case of sales. Some of the participants are also showing at the main fair: for example, Pinksummer from Italy. Inevitably, prices are at a different level: Persano has a three part Michelangelo Pistoletto mirrored work, Smartphone Giovane Donna (2018) priced at €2m.
No-one can deny that times are tough for the art trade at the moment, and a lot of booths at viennacontemporary had sold nothing on the first day. Nevertheless Vienna is seeing an influx of residents—30% of its population today was born outside Austria. With its extraordinary museums, strong support for cultural affairs and still affordable housing, it will likely remain an attractive destination when—we hope not if—the art market improves.