As art festivals become luxury experiences they become distant from local communities.
In 1942, the German city of Cologne was raided by British bombers in the infamous ‘Thousand-bomber raids”. Cologne was flattened. More than 20,000 people were killed in the air raids. When the American troops entered Cologne in 1945, the majestic Gothic Cathedral in town was one of the few buildings they found still standing.
In the 1960s, when post-war rebuilding was going on, a few young gallerists gathered and set up stalls selling prints of German artists, mainly from the iconic Art Academy in Dusseldorf, 40 kilometres away. Thus, from the rubble of a war-torn city, in 1967 was born Art Cologne, widely regarded as the first modern art fair. The idea then—often at odds with the art fairs of today—was to take art outside of the elite environs of galleries to the people.
Modern art fairs trace their origins to the medieval trade fairs, the art markets of 17th- century Netherlands and the Paris and London expositions of the 19th century which were also a showcase of the colonial plunder of “exotic” lands, people and craft.
In 1970, Ernst Beyeler, one of the most influential art dealers and collectors of the 20th century, along with some other gallerists in Basel, Switzerland, started an international art fair, which became Art Basel, the most successful art fair in the world. Unlike Art Cologne which was open only to German artists, caught as it was in a moment of post-war nation-building, Art Basel was international. The first edition, in 1970, saw more than 90 galleries and 16,000 people participate. Since then, art fairs have taken over the world. In 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, there were more than 400 art fairs in the world, more than one a day for every day of the year.
In 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach was launched, a fair that aimed to focus on Latin American and American art. Held under the December sun in Miami, the fair has been a huge success; often, the parties and the throngs of rich and famous descending from their private jets overshadow the art itself. The Covid years forced a recalibration with more than 70 art fairs shut down or put on hold. The MCH Group, a Swiss company in the business of making “unique experiences” and owner of Art Basel, cancelled or sold its stake from many art fairs after a loss-making year in 2022. The most notable was the cancellation of the multidisciplinary art fair, The Masterpiece, held in London.
These have also come at a time when gallerists have found art fairs to be a loss-making proposition. Stall costs run into thousands of dollars—extras like power outlets start from $128 in Art Basel—there are significant transportation costs, and after splitting the sale with the artist, the numbers often don’t add up for gallerists.
This, however, has not stopped the fair juggernaut from rolling into new moneyed territories. Art Basel Qatar launches in Doha next month, while Frieze is taking over Abu Dhabi Art. The art fairs have State backing in the Gulf countries, which are reimagining their nations as hubs of capital and soft power and less reliant on oil. While the world’s preeminent art fairs search for the new millionaire collectors, attempts like the Affordable Art Fair, now in 13 cities across continents, are closer to the original mission of taking the galleries to the people.
