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 Art Cologne
Apr 16-20, 2008, Cologne, Germany |
Final Report: Successful move from autumn to spring
ART COLOGNE 2007:
Rescheduling pays dividends
Attendance figures of 60,000 - strong sales in all sections - International collectors out in force
 ‘When buyers get used to [ART COLOGNE's] new scheduling, they'll notice it coincides with the beginning of spring. What more do we want?' commented Raimund Thomas, owner of the eponymous Munich gallery. Traditionally an autumn event, ART COLOGNE 2007 ran for the first time from 18 to 22 April. ‘The Fair was very enjoyable. It's ideal for interaction with knowledgeable art lovers.' Berlin-based gallerist Clemens Fahnemann echoed Thomas's comments: ‘The rescheduled dates are well chosen. There may be fewer visitors but business contacts are better and sales figures even better.' Both gallerists were in buoyant mood - and for good reasons. Thomas sold two Botero sculptures at €265,000 and €375,000 and a Jawlensky oil at €265,000. Fahnemann sold a Förg bronze at €85,000, and works by Imi Knoebel at prices between €24,000 and €130,000. He also sold an abstract work by Raimund Girke at €65,000, a Hans Hartung oil at €290,000 and three large-format photoworks by Michael Wesely at €24,000 each. Additionally, Fahnemann sold 16 drawings by the young artist Jorinde Voigt - one of the 2006 ‘New Talents' - at prices between €600 and €3,500. Some of these went to Germany's Federal Art Collection. The Fair ran for five days and attracted 60,000 visitors. Exhibitors noted a strong turnout of international collectors from the Benelux countries, Spain, Great Britain, Austria, Switzerland and countries as far afield as Mexico, South Korea and China. Summing up, Oliver P. Kuhrt, Managing Director of Koelnmesse, said: ‘We've invested heavily and made enormous improvements in recent years and this, together with the major change from autumn to spring, has paid real dividends for a large number of our exhibitors.'
Not all the sceptics were entirely convinced that the new spring scheduling was a good idea, but many registered good sales. Dorothea van der Koelen (Mainz/Venice) sold a Daniel Buren Cadre décadré for €34,000 to a Swiss collector. Another work by Buren went to a Rhineland buyer for €64,000. Van der Koelen also sold 20 small-format works chiefly by Lore Bert and Jens J. Meyer in the €1,000 to €5,000 price range. Michael Schultz (Berlin) sold a large-format oil by South Korean artist SEO to a London collector for €45,000 and an oil by Cornelia Schleime to a Munich collector for €38,000. Cologne dealer Gerhard F. Reinz, who has a high opinion of ART COLOGNE as a market platform for sculpture, sold a number of bronzes by Dietrich Klinge at prices between €14,000 and €50,000. He also sold a work by Jean Fautrier at €42,000 and bronzes by Michael Croissant at prices between €6,000 and €24,000. Rainer Kriester's stone stele changed hands at €12,000. All the works went to leading collections.
Christian K. Scheffel (Bad Homburg) sold a Bernar Venet sculpture to a foreign buyer for €92,000. He also sold a Jaume Plensa sculpture for €38,000. Pelaires, an important Palma gallery, sold works by Natxo Frisuelos at prices between €2,000 and €10,000 and by Guillem Nadal at prices between €6,000 and €35,000. He also sold wall-based objects by Jordi Alcaraz to collectors at prices between €4,000 and €20,000. Pepe Pinya, owner of the gallery, is looking forward to the launch of ‘ART COLOGNE Palma de Mallorca' in September.‘A great many of my German clients have made a special note of the date in their diaries and some have even booked their flights,' he said.
‘I'm astonished that interest in ART COLOGNE is at such high levels only five months after last year's event,' commented Klaus Thoman (Innsbruck). He sold a painting by Arnulf Rainer at €70,000, a painting by Günther Förg at €58,500 and a work by Herbert Brandl at €27,000. He also sold sculptures by Bruno Gironcoli at prices between €14,800 and €44,000. Willy Schoots (Eindhoven) remarked: ‘The lively trade we do is independent of anything like rescheduling.' Schoots sold a number of Kounellis objects at prices between €11,000 and €15,000, four works by Jan Schoohoven at €6,500 each and three installations by ‘New Talent' artist Lisette Verkerk at €4,000 each. South Korean dealer Jung Kwon of Gallery Chosun was impressed by the loyalty of his clients: ‘We've got lots of regular clients in Germany and all over Europe.' He sold six reliefs by Chunhwan Kim at prices between €2,500 and €40,000. Salis & Vertes (Salzburg/St. Moritz) described the Fair as ‘the best in a long time'. Thomas von Salis's top sales included a Matisse oil titled Paysage des environs de Toulouse (dating from 1898-9) for over €300,000. He also sold a Gabriele Münter still life titled Rosa Stilleben (dating from 1908-9) for €185,000 and a 1902 Odilon Redon landscape, Coucher de soleil, in the high six-figure bracket. Laszlo von Vertes said, ‘The spring scheduling is excellent. For us, Cologne is an absolute must every year.'
Galerie Terminus (Munich) had a very successful fair. Its top price was €760,000 for a Baselitz oil titled Glass Drinker (1981). Two Frank Stellas went for €187,000 and €225,000. Terminus also sold a group of 21 works by Peter Anton at prices between €8,500 and €37,000. Benden & Klimczak (Cologne/Viersen) sold two large-format metal works by Tom Wesselmann at €320,000 each - one of them to a private museum in Seoul. The gallery also sold a Roy Lichtenstein titled New York City (1988) at €480,000. Leonhard Ruethmueller (Basel) focused on the Spanish painter Salustiano at his stand and sold three large-format works to international collectors at prices between €8,500 and €32,000. Galerie Edith Wahlandt (Stuttgart) sold a Kricke sculpture titled Große Weiße at €200,000 and a Fruhtrunk painting, Interpretation, to a leading international collection at €35,000. Wahlandt also sold Fruhtrunk's Innerer Zeitfluss at €75,000 to an important private collection.
Paul Schönewald (Düsseldorf) spoke of ‘top turnover' in work by major international names like Polke, Richter, Baselitz and Copley. He also sold five works by Karin Kneffel at prices between €20,000 and €60,000. A steel and sponge relief by Arte Povera artist Jannis Kounellis sold at €100,000.
Dealers in classical twentieth-century art had every reason to be pleased. Schlichtenmaier (Grafenau) sold two Baumeister paintings at €185,000 and €190,000; a Schlemmer oil on paper at €53,000 and a Hölzel pastel at €27,000. Galerie Springmann (Freiburg) sold a mixed-media work by Picasso for €180,000, a Klee drawing at €110,000 and a Picasso print at €37,500. Utermann (Dortmund) sold two Fritz Winter paintings at €85,000 and €95,000, a sculpture by Abraham David Christian at €84,000, a Schumacher gouache at €27,000 and a Tadeusz painting at €9,000. Maulberger (Munich) sold a Schumacher painting at €230,000 and a number of Rolf Cavael oils at prices between €7,000 and €49,000. Maulberger pronounced himself ‘really satisfied'.
ART COLOGNE's contemporary and emerging art sections were stronger than ever before. Stockholm dealer Angelika Knäpper of Galerie Knäpper + Baumgarten agreed, saying, ‘Young art sold really well.' She quoted names like Tilda Lovell, Helena Blomquist, Jan de Vliegher and Maria Miesenberger. Their work sold at prices between €5,000 and €13,000. In the ‘Open Space' section Daniel Buchholz (Cologne) and Alexander Schröder of Galerie NEU (Berlin) reported selling everything at their joint stand. They were showing work by Cosima von Bonin, Sergej Jensen, Michael Krebber and Henrik Olesen priced between €5,000 and €50,000. Fair newcomer Christian Lethert (Cologne) was very pleased with his first showing at ART COLOGNE. He sold four works by Daniel Lergon at €3,600 each, twenty Lergon watercolours and half of the deluxe edition of Katharina Sieverding's Maton F-XI to collectors. This was specially published by Lethert for the Fair in a limited edition of 30 priced at €600 per copy. Galerie Vartai (Vilnius) reported selling nearly everything by Andrius Zakarauskas. Works were priced at €3,800 each.
Monika Sprüth (Cologne) liked the ‘Open Space' and ‘New Contemporaries' sections. She sold a painting by Andreas Schulze to the Einkaufskommission des Bundes [federal art collections fund] for €25,000. Christian Nagel (Cologne) sold two works by Heimo Zobernig at €27,000 each and a painting by Gang Zhao for €14,000. Further deals are pending. André Schlechtriem (New York) sold an Ena Swansea work for €30,000 and a Ralf Ziervogel work for €10,000. Leo König (New York) said he was ‘greatly surprised by the strong demand' for works on paper by the young New York artist David Scher, selling twenty at prices between €400 and €5,500. Thomas Zander (Cologne) did well with work by Anthony McCall, selling a group of 36 laser prints, Stills at 2-minute intervals from 0 to 32 minutes (2006), related to his three-dimensional environment Between You and I. They went to a single buyer en bloc for €39,000. Between You and I featured in the ART COLOGNE supporting programme.
Photography was strongly represented at ART COLOGNE. ‘Photography is the medium people are looking to buy,' remarked Lothar Albrecht of L.A. Galerie (Frankfurt/Main, Beijing). Collectors were strong buyers of a large number of photoworks by Julian Faulhaber at prices between €2,900 and €4,900. ‘New statements in narrative photography are in great demand,' commented Margret Uhrmeister of Galerie Hermann & Wagner (Berlin). She sold photoworks by Raïssa Venables, Miklos Gaál and Jyrki Parantainen at prices between €2,900 and €7,200. Gallerist Bronwyn Rennex of Stills (Sydney) sold two prints by Petrina Hicks at €5,000 each and a print by Merilyn Fairskye at €2,500. ‘Local collectors here are very interested in Australian photography,' she commented. Ruzicska (Salzburg) featured a solo show of large-format photoworks by Giovanni Castell, selling five at prices between €5,000 and €15,000. Galleri K (Oslo) staged a solo show of work by the Cologne photographer Candida Höfer, selling ten of her large-format photoworks in the €50,000 to €65,000 price bracket. Art Seasons (Singapore) sold seven photoworks by Zhang Peng at €3,500 each.
Bonn gallerist Erhard Klein, this year's ART COLOGNE prizewinner, donated half of his €10,000 award to ZADIK, the Zentralarchiv des internationalen Kunsthandels [central archive of the international art trade]. ZADIK staged a documentary exhibition featuring the gallery's work at this year's ART COLOGNE. The ART COLOGNE Young Artist's Prize, also worth €10,000, is funded by Koelnmesse. The 2007 prizewinner is the Hanover artist Kalin Lindena, represented by Galerie Bleich-Rossi (Vienna). The Prize carries with it a solo show of work at the Cologne artothek. A catalogue of her exhibition will be published.
Christian Nagel (Cologne), one of the supporters of the spring scheduling. said, looking back on the Fair, ‘While not everything was as one would have wished, nevertheless the spring scheduling was an important and correct step for ART COLOGNE. Overall, sales are up. In the next three years we'll be seeing ART COLOGNE establish itself as the top-performing spring art fair.'
ART COLOGNE 2008, the 42nd International Fair for Modern and Contemporary Art, will run from 16 to 20 April at the Trade Fair Centre.
A new fair - ‘ART COLOGNE Palma de Mallorca' - will be launched later this year, featuring over 60 leading international dealers. The event runs from 19 to 23 September 2007 and will be staged in Terminal A at the old Palma airport.
Cologne will be hosting two further art-market highlights in 2007 - COLOGNE FINE ART, scheduled for 31 October to 4 November and EXPONATEC COLOGNE, the International Trade Fair for Museums, Conservation and Heritage, scheduled for 31 October to 3 November.
Art Cologne
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