G-tokyo: The 'boutique' art fair

Quality over quantity: A view of G-tokyo art fair, which was held on Jan. 30-31 and had only 15 booths, including one from the Kodama Art Gallery (below). KEIZO KIOKU PHOTO

Although its contemporary art market is considered small in relation to the country's overall economy, Japan has no shortage of commercial art fairs.

Events held in the past year including Art@Agnes (since discontinued), Art Fair Tokyo, 101Tokyo Contemporary Art Fair, Tokyo Photo and Ultra: Emerging Directors Art Fair have all sought to tap into a limited collector base, all to varying degrees of success. Some fairs focus exclusively on local art galleries and others attempt to attract international participants while Art Fair Tokyo, notably, presents contemporary art alongside antiquities and other genres.

The latest fair to join the crowded art calendar is G-tokyo, which launched on Jan. 29 with a VIP preview and concluded Jan. 31. Organized by a committee of five leading galleries and fair director Toshiko Ferrier, G-tokyo was designed with the limitations of the domestic market in mind. It featured only 15 participants, with boxlike booths arranged along a single connecting corridor in the Mori Arts Center Gallery on the 52nd floor of the Mori Tower overlooking Roppongi.

The no-nonsense layout and the venue's wood flooring, high ceilings and crisp lighting resulted in a clean, easy viewing experience. All 15 participating galleries recorded sales by the end of the fair's run, and collectors expressed satisfaction with the wares on offer.

Dealers who spoke with The Japan Times said that they conducted most of their business during the preview. Sueo Mizuma of Mizuma Art Gallery devoted his booth to artist Akira Yamaguchi's "The Art of Electric Pole Arrangement," comprising drawings, paintings and sculptures imagining a fictional society dedicated to the aesthetic presentation of electric poles in the urban environment. Mizuma said that he sold almost all of the works, starting from ¥500,000, within the first 10 minutes of opening, and eventually sold out his entire booth.

Hidenori Ota of Ota Fine Arts was also busy, selling works by gallery artists Tomoko Kashiki, Yayoi Kusama and Yee Sookyung. A Korean collector beat out an Indonesian competitor for Kusama's colorful self-portrait, quoted by a gallery staff member as being between ¥20 million and ¥30 million. Wako Works of Art found numerous buyers for its installation of Gerhard Richter's mixed-media "Overpainted Photographs," which ranged from ¥2.9 million to ¥3.6 million although there were no takers for a ¥240 million large-scale painting by the German blue chip artist.

Works that remained unsold by the third day underscored the limitations of the local market. Measuring over two meters high, Tamotsu Ikeya's handsome canvas covered in a patchwork of thick, colored paint scored with concentric lines was a steal at ¥450,000 at Kodama Art Gallery, but remained unclaimed. Gallery staff said that potential buyers were hesitant about the size of the work, which would not fit into most Japanese homes.

Still, Tokyo's leading collectors all turned up for the preview, including Toshio Hara, founder of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art; Eijiro Imafuku, publisher of the online art publication ART-iT; and Takeo Obayashi, whose nonprofit Backers Foundation sponsors international artist and curator residencies in Tokyo. Additionally, snatches of Mandarin, Korean, French and English could be heard throughout the venue.

Imafuku said that he was impressed with the professional look of the fair.

"With only 15 galleries, there's a limitation on what you can see, but the booths with new works are very interesting," he said. "I think the concern going forward is how to expand the fair without losing quality."

Obayashi was also positive, saying, "In the current economic climate, if you have clients coming from overseas and have dealers making sales, then that's a success."

Shinwa Art Auction President Yoichiro Kurata, launching a new joint venture in Hong Kong, the Asian Art Auction Alliance Company, brought collectors' groups from China and Taiwan to visit the fair. He explained that although the Chinese collectors were not so active on this trip, he expected them to return. "They are not very familiar with international contemporary art, so this time their focus was on looking and studying," he said. "They are very interested and I think they will be back."

While visitors generally said all the right things, fair participants themselves took the initiative in offering suggestions for improvement. Dealer Ota jokingly compared the fair to the Liberal Democratic Party, the conservative party that has run Japan for most of its postwar history.

Similarly, Junko Shimada of Gallery Side 2 said that while she felt G-tokyo's central location had provided incredible visibility, one aspect to improve upon with future editions would be to allow room for more project-based participation.

Galleries not included in the fair, which did not have an application process, organized their own counter activities. Wada Fine Arts spearheaded Mancy's Tokyo Art Nights on Jan. 30 and 31 at the Azabu-Juban venue Mancy's Tokyo, a deluxe karaoke and nightlife parlor where exhibitors were each given private rooms. Wada played video art on the karaoke monitors, while Mori Yu Gallery spread paintings, drawings and other works across a king-size bed.

Taking a long-term approach, the young galleries association New Tokyo Contemporaries has organized a series of monthlong events and collaborations between artists and emerging creators from fields including architecture, design and fashion, which kicked off with a party at the still unopened Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum in Marunouchi on Jan. 30.

Prior to the launch of G-tokyo, director Ferrier, who has a background as a collector and art consultant, said that she would seriously consider expanding participation to other local and international galleries, although she stressed that producing a navigable, "boutique" experience was core to the fair's identity.

"Collectors want good works; they don't want events," she said. "They want to be assured that if they go to a fair then they can find good works, and that's what G-tokyo offers."

Later, she acknowledged the bottom line in the fair business. "If you don't create a hierarchy," she said, "the market can't develop."

Giacometti statue claims highest price ever at auction

A sculpture from the 1960s has achieved world fame overnight after becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold at an auction. Its previous owner, a German bank, already has plans for the profits generated by the sale.

A life-size bronze sculpture entitled "L'homme qui marche I" ("Walking Man I") by Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti has been sold by the Sotheby's auction house in London for 65 million pounds ($104.3 million). This is the highest price ever paid for a work of art at an auction.

According to Sotheby's, it only took eight minutes of "fast and furious" bidding between ten prospective buyers before the piece was sold to an anonymous phone bidder. It had been estimated to sell for 12 to 18 million pounds.

The thin sculpture depicts a man in mid-stride with his arms hanging at his side. Commenting on the price achieved in the sale, Helena Newman, vice chairman of Sotheby's impressionist and modern art department worldwide, said, "The price is a reflection of the extraordinary importance of this exceptionally rare work, and the only life-time cast of this iconic subject ever to have come to auction."

The piece broke the price record previously held by Picasso's 1905 "Garcon a la Pipe" ("Boy with a Pipe"), which had sold for $104.2 million at a 2004 New York auction.

German bank's giant asset

Cast in 1961, "L'Homme Qui Marche I" belonged to the art collection of Germany's Dresdner Bank before coming into possession of Commerzbank when it took over Dresdner Bank in 2009.

Following the unexpected price record, Commerzbank is "very happy about this big success," a spokeswoman for the bank told Deutsche Welle. Proceeds from the sale are to go towards supporting Commerzbank's foundations and a number of selected museums.

"Promoting cultural education is one of the key aims of the Commerzbank foundations," said Klaus-Peter Mueller, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Commerzbank and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Commerzbank Foundation."

Established in 1970, the Commerzbank Foundation has an endowment capital of 53 million euros ($73 million) and is the most significant of all foundations operated by the bank. In 2008, the Commerzbank Foundation committed funds of approximately 1.5 million euros, 35 percent of which went to art and cultural projects.

Commerzbank is set to restructure the art collection of the former Dresdner Bank as part of the ongoing integration process. Around 100 outstanding modern and contemporary works will be made available to museums in Frankfurt, Dresden and Berlin on a permanent loan basis.

"We want as many people as possible to be able to see the works in the art collection of the former Dresdner Bank, and are keen to support the museums in expanding the focus of their collections," said Martin Blessing, CEO of Commerzbank.

Johns, Picasso to Top $30 Million Sale of Writer Crichton’s Art

Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Christie’s International is to sell four paintings from the collection of the best-selling author Michael Crichton, with a total value of at least $30 million.
A Jasper Johns “Flag” and works by Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichtenstein bought by the late Beverly Hills-based novelist will be sold in New York on May 11 and go on show in London today, the auction house said in an e-mail.
Confidence is returning in art sales after record prices, said dealers, such as the 65 million pounds ($103.4 million) paid for an Alberto Giacometti sculpture at Sotheby’s.
“We wanted to capitalize on the marketplace in London,” Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie’s, Americas, said in an interview. “The new emerging buyers such as Russians are much more present. It’s the perfect time to offer a 1960s Picasso.”
Like all four works in the Crichton group, Picasso’s 1961 painting of a woman and two girls, “Femme et Fillettes” (Woman and Children), has yet to receive an individual valuation. The writer’s family beneficiaries have not been guaranteed a minimum price, said Gorvy.
“We’re waiting to see how the London sales perform next week, then calibrate the estimates from there,” said Gorvy. The Crichton works will be shown next to lots that Christie’s will be offering in its Feb. 11 contemporary sale.
Late paintings by Picasso have been in demand from wealthy collectors. At Christie’s Feb. 2 auction, Picasso’s 1963 painting “Tete de Femme (Jacqueline)” was the top lot with a price of 8.1 million pounds with fees, double the upper estimate.
Graff’s Picasso
The painting was bought by the London-based collector Laurence Graff, chairman of Graff Diamonds Limited, against competition from Russian bidders. The purchase was confirmed yesterday in an e-mail to Bloomberg News from Penny Weatherall, Graff’s personal assistant.
Crichton, who died aged 66 in November 2008, was the author of scientific thrillers that sold more than 150 million copies worldwide, such as “The Andromeda Strain” and “Jurassic Park.” He was also known for the television series “ER.”
The novelist was an authority on -- and friend of -- Johns, writing the catalog for the artist’s retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1977.
Johns’s painted newspaper collage “Flag,” dating from 1960 to 1966, is likely to be the most valuable work in the group. The 2-foot-3-inch-wide canvas was acquired by Crichton directly from the artist in 1974 and has never appeared at auction, said Christie’s.
The artist’s ‘Flag’ paintings are recognized as among the first images of Pop Art, challenging the supremacy of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. Much prized by museums and private collectors, they rarely appear at auction.
The 1973 example, “Two Flags,” sold for $12.1 million in Sotheby’s, New York, in November 1989. The price is an auction record for a Johns ‘flag,’ according to the Artnet database.
Rauschenberg’s “Studio Painting (Combine)” dating from 1960 to 1961, and Lichtenstein’s 1965 “Girl in Water” complete the quartet. The paintings are on show in London through Feb. 12.