A chance to be collegial

A more modest art fair this year gave both investors and gallerists a chance to develop contacts and consider their options more carefully.

After a break of several years, the Melbourne Art Fair returned to a new site in the Southbank Arts Precinct.

Thirty-nine galleries were represented from Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, New Zealand and Manila.

When you’re selling art, it’s important to strike the right pose. Too much hype can put a buyer off, not enough and you won’t be noticed.

Michael Lett from Auckland had on display a minimalist wall sculpture by Paul Lee made out of wire and face washers. If someone bought the work, how would they assemble it?

“It comes with instructions,” he said. “If I can put it up anyone can.”

Some critics have called the Melbourne Art Fair the nastiest end of retail because it sells an illusion to punters that they are buying something important with an esoteric meaning.

Lett had nothing further to add to his comments about the wall sculpture except: “If you quote me make sure you make me sound more intelligent that I am.”

Others might come to an art fair expecting to see the next big thing. If you spend ten grand on a work now will it be worth $100,000 within a few years or is it better to buy something you love?

Rumours about curators and art advisors working behind the scenes to get collectors to fork out are difficult to quash when opening night is called a vernissage and the cost of attending is $80 per head.

This year’s art fair, however, was smaller and more domestic than previous incarnations. A white marquee added a more casual note to the event which has been staged on and off for 30 years in the Royal Exhibition Building.

Bill Nuttall, director of Niagara Galleries, helped organise the first fair. A few galleries got together and staged the fair above an agricultural display. He still remembers making the speech and noting who was listening.

“Nobody bought contemporary art in those days,” he said. Press coverage included small children riding on exhibits to make the art more accessible to the public. Now, attendees are more attuned to the zeitgeist and artists to their audience.

Elizabeth Willing at the Tolarno Gallery stand makes no excuses about the purpose of her collages. They glow from a distance and only reveal themselves close-up to be of pictures of fruit cake cut out of cooking magazines.

“I want the work to be absurd,” Willing said. “Fruit cake can last 100 years and still be edible.”

The more casual approach to showing work gave space to younger galleries. “The trouble with the Exhibition Building is that it’s too expensive. Use of a transient space like tents is increasing. The art world can’t afford the hard space anymore,” Nuttall said.

Nicholas Thompson Gallery from Collingwood has 26 artists in its stable. The gallery was able to support one artist at the fair and show Amber Wallis’s pensive, muted paintings.

“It’s a good chance to be collegial,” Thompson said.