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27/4/2005

Art Frankfurt 2005

Messe Frankfurt, Frankfurt

Some 150 international galleries will show what the contemporary art market has to offer

Art Frankfurt 2005 attracts galleries, collectors and art experts to the city on the River Main

From April 29 to May 2, 2005, the 17th Art Frankfurt will be opening its doors with a total of 155 exhibitors. For collectors, experts and art lovers, it will provide an informative and compact overview of current developments in art production and the latest trends on the art market. Works by nearly 1,500 artists will embrace a scope ranging from the art positions of the past 40 years through to new productions by the youngest generation of artists. Art Frankfurt succeeds in combining established positions and young talents to create a stimulating and up-to-the-minute spectrum of contemporary art.

American pop art by Roy Lichtenstein and works by artists ranging from Robert Rauschenberg through to Andy Warhol will be represented, as will those of Gerhard Richter, Markus Lüpertz, Sigmar Polke and Georg Baselitz. However, the focus of Art Frankfurt is on artists who have already established a good market position but have still to achieve a final breakthrough – an emphasis laid by the fair for many years now and making it particularly attractive to collectors who can make purchases before prices start to climb and so see promising prospects for their investments in art. "But young artists at the beginning of their careers are given special attention too," according to Art Frankfurt director Marianne El Hariri. "At Art Frankfurt, collectors have the chance of not only picking up new developments but also tracking down young talents who will be the stars of tomorrow."

21 percent of the galleries come from abroad, including countries like Switzerland, Austria, France, Spain, the UK and the Netherlands, together with Italy, Turkey, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Many of the international exhibitors use Art Frankfurt as a gateway to Germany, an art market well-known for its inquisitive and cosmopolitan collectors.

Art Frankfurt 2005 is divided into three exhibition sections that unite what the art market has to offer this spring in a clearly arranged structure. Modern in Hall 1.2 links art productions of the recent past with the contemporary developments they have seen. Avantgarde in Hall 1.1 concentrates on the present. Along with artists who already play a major role on the international market, there are primarily works of young talents on show. It is here that many gallery owners and artists present their works to a wider public for the first time and use Art Frankfurt as a launching pad to enter the art fair market. Edition, also in Hall 1.1, is the treasure chest for multiples, artists' books, photographic and video editions and covers everything from classics to new publications.

These three exhibition sections are supplemented by a number of sponsored stands offering in-depth treatment of the theme of art. Of particular interest for collectors and "explorers" is the area entitled New & Upcoming, where gallery owners introduce their new young artists not yet seen at art fairs. Projects offer room for installations and media works and One Artist Shows are what the name suggests - the work of one person only.

This year, two special exhibition projects complete and supplement the programme of the participating galleries in an ideal way:

Romance and beauty are in great demand. Today, many artists no longer comply with the criteria of progress in modern art. Current art production is increasingly seeing differentiated presentations of emotional and physical conditions, primarily resembling the era of Romanticism in historic terms. Ludwig Seyfarth, Hamburg, and Nina Koidl, Berlin, are the curators of a special exhibition entitled "Passionate fraud – romantic atmospheres and states of matter", supported by three Frankfurt galleries (Galerie Anita Beckers, Galerie Schuster, Galerie Martina Detterer) on their premises. The exhibition shows the works of contemporary artists who open the door to fiction and are not afraid to tell stories in pictures.

"Subjective obsession – students from the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) at Art Frankfurt“ is the name of the second exhibition project. Painting has always been an area of emphasis in the studios of the Berlin University of the Arts. As part of the “Junge Wilde” (young and wild) movement, an entire generation of artists from Berlin took the world by storm in the 1980s. The art market is in a similar situation today and young art is experiencing a renaissance of interest. The exhibition shows a number of positions selected by the Berlin gallery owner Michael Schultz which may be relevant to the art market of the future.

Art Frankfurt 2005 has again aligned its programme very closely to the art world this year and stands for both topicality and variety. Art Frankfurt is more than purely a sales venue - it provides new stimuli and with its exceptional projects, it encourages visitors to deliberate on the content of contemporary art. So this spring, it undoubtedly represents one of the most important meeting places for gallery owners and collectors.

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The exhibition project "Pathetic Fallacy" is based on contradictions and incorrect interpretations. The English term "pathetic fallacy" is nearly impossible to render "correctly" in German and is merely paraphrased as "Vermenschlichung der Natur" (humanisation of nature). The term "romanticism" is likewise subject to incorrect interpretation - less in terms of etymology, more in that it is applied randomly to new contexts. Todays use of the word usually has little to do with the historical era of romanticism. "Romance" involves anything that can be linked to feelings, from sunsets to emotional ballads.

Romance and beauty are definitely "in". Our love of contradictions is reflected in the staging of an exhibition that brings together art under the label of romanticism. In the process, we maintain that in fact no "new" romanticism exists.

Modern art is broadly considered "unromantic", hostile towards the need for beauty and narrative. But is modern art as it has been invoked up to the present not a posthumous abridgement? It involves the teleological skeleton of "modernism", which began with the dissolution of the object in impressionism and continued linearly to the anti-illusionist, gesturally executed, and finally
completely monochrome surface. Even expressionism and surrealism hardly fit into this formula, and extensive battles against modernistic dogmas were waged in the "post-modern" era. Styles and means of expression that were taboo in modern art were "allowed" in a certain manner once again. In 1993, painter Peter Duka admitted that "the things which are forbidden to a modern painter, for instance to flee or to seek consolation in pictures, excited me". But was it really the "modern" artist to whom these things were forbidden, or rather the political and socially aware "context artists" of the 1990s who borrowed from the harsh didactics of certain conceptual artists and displaced the hedonistically cynical painters of the 1980s?.

In addition to disdaining romanticism, modern art is also said to have disapproved of beauty. But even Wassily Kandinsky continued to pursue as late as 1911 the very principle of beauty the Romantics had used to rebel against the antique ideals of classicism, proclaiming beauty to be that which corresponds to an inner spiritual need. John Ruskin, the famous 19th century English writer and art critic, would have agreed with Kandinsky in principle. But Ruskin was also critical of romanticism, more specifically the tendency to project ones own feelings into external nature. The twelfth chapter of the third volume of his "Modern Painters" series, published in 1856, details Ruskins criticism of pathetic fallacy and served as the inspiration for the title of the exhibition.

Strong feelings require suitable metaphors, which can also originate from nature. But in this process, nature itself is subjected to a false perception. That vision is possible without knowledge is one of the greatest fallacies that art and art theory have ever subscribed to. "Interpreting" and "visually understanding" the external world were of equal importance in historical romanticism. Its fascinating complexity is characterised by effusive longing for nature and meticulous scientific observation, by mystical immersion and narrative delight in detail. A key characteristic of art from the period around 1800 is the exploration of the rendering of emotional states through a broad range of material qualities. Every attempt to "re"-orient towards romanticism and the period around 1800 must address the issue of whether historical romanticism isnt in fact much more sophisticated and diverse than the phenomenon that 200 years later is supposed to differentiate itself from existing trends and discourses.

As early as 30 years ago, Robert Rosenblum countered a reductionist theory of modern art (whose longobsolete array of prohibitions was intended to lend even the most harmless representational imagery an aura of freedom from decades of subjugation) with a continuation of a "romantic" tradition ranging from 1800 to the era of abstract expressionism, from Caspar David Friedrich to Mark Rothko. Interest in art from the period of 1800 has consistently manifested itself in the past 40 years, so it is hardly surprising that a romantic tradition can be identified even in the seemingly unromantic field of conceptual art.

The exhibition "Pathetic Fallacy" features works of contemporary artists who are not disconcerted by Ruskin-style verdicts. Inspired by the history of European art, they open the door to fiction and are not afraid to tell stories in pictures. In addition to the narrative potential, a range of dissolutions and aggregations, cycles and metamorphoses, oceans and forests, hermetic universes
and meticulous observations of nature represent various attempts to counter the complexity of the modern era (including the pervasiveness of digital visual media) with a new "naturalness".

"Pathetic Fallacy" will take place as part of Art Frankfurt 2005. The programme of participating Frankfurt galleries Anita Beckers, Helmut Schuster and Martina Detterer runs through early June or early July, depending on the gallery. Tour of participating galleries on April 29, 2005, 8 - 10 p.m.

A catalogue will be published including contributions from curators Ludwig Seyfarth and Nina Koidl (Ger- man/English).

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Press contact:
Sylvia Spamer / Christine Kern
Telephone: +49 69 75 75-67 38 / 60 84
Telefax: +49 69 75 75-69 50
sylvia.spamer@messefrankfurt.com
christine.kern@messefrankfurt.com

Opening: April 28, 2005, with invitation only

Messe Frankfurt
Hall 1, City Entrance
Frankfurt
11 a.m. – 8 p.m, last day of the fair until 6 p.m.

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