Recession chill hits Frieze Art Fair
Updated on 14 October 2009
On the opening day of the Frieze Art Fair, Nicholas Glass reports that most auction houses are expecting thin sales and falling prices.
A Damien Hirst piece of art is now worth about 40 per cent less than a year ago.
Dozens of galleries are not attending the art fair, and some collectors are facing such hard times that they are having to put their art up for private "distress sales".
On the opening day of the fair, Nicholas Glass has been speaking to some artists who still have big ideas.
Grayson Perry is one of those. He is at Frieze displaying his newest creation: a 15-metre tapestry. He hasn't been affected by the current economic downturn, he says, because he is "relatively cheap".
"I don't see despair in people's faces this week at Frieze," he said.
"The thing is with art is that people love it, they are passionate about it. Nobody really gets into it just to make money. It's a lovely by-product, but most people in the art world feel lucky if they can make a living from it.
"If your only kind of value system is whether [money] is the bottom line, then you can be apprehensive. I go to Frieze Art Fair because I see the people I like in the art world, have a nice time and also to see what is happening in terms of art."
Perry said his latest piece was about "the way brands have inveigled their way into our minds and our lives."
"That meaningless shopping trip of life, is what it kind of is, really, from birth to death," he said.
"I have a moral standpoint about that fact that I find [brands] uncomfortable in the way they are props for creativity in our lives. Rather than choosing something for its worth, they choose something because of the name on it.
"There are good things about brands also - I like Marmite, I ride a Harley Davidson! So I like brands. I can't say I'm above it!"
Grayson Perry's tapestry is on show at the Victoria Miro Gallery, 16 Wharf Road, London N1
