Fine Art Fair Frankfurt — Michael Neff

A ver­i­ta­ble jewel in the art fair land­scape: Fine Art Fair Frank­furt rein­vents itself anew every year so that Ger­many can fully enjoy the ben­e­fits of its diverse and robust art scene which includes renowned artists as well as world-class gal­leries. A wealth of art fairs has been estab­lished in the coun­try dur­ing the past decade and many peo­ple from out­side Ger­many are sur­prised at this abun­dance. The ques­tion is often raised of whether a sin­gle fair would suf­fice in this rel­a­tively small country—an event to cater to col­lec­tors who buy in Ger­many and to accom­mo­date the vol­ume of works. The rea­son for the pro­fu­sion of Ger­man fairs is not obvi­ous, but the iner­tia of tra­di­tions and the pur­suit of pres­tige undoubt­edly play roles. The advan­tages of a loca­tion may sud­denly become just as impor­tant as the laws of the mar­ket. But, in the end, the sim­ple fact remains: Ger­man art fairs will always exist and the mar­ket will always be in flux, with some events com­ing and many going again.

The legit­i­macy of a fair, how­ever, is strongly deter­mined by the clear con­cept of its organ­is­ers. With Fine Art Fair Frank­furt, we have cre­ated and occu­pied a spe­cial niche as a ver­i­ta­ble jewel in the broad land­scape of Ger­man and even Euro­pean events. The fair in Frank­furt will develop into a must-see show for all art fair vis­i­tors in the medium-range. As a small, well-defined, themed event, Fine Art Fair Frank­furt rein­vents itself every year under a new title. Key fea­tures include the lim­i­ta­tion to a sin­gle form of artis­tic rep­re­sen­ta­tion, the qual­ity of the exhib­ited pieces and also their effec­tive pre­sen­ta­tion. While other events often choose to focus on quan­tity (or are forced to do so), I am com­mit­ted instead to uncom­pro­mis­ing stan­dards of quality.

Con­cretely, this means that, in 2007, the fair’s theme of “Qual­ity Street” will be ded­i­cated exclu­sively to sculp­tures. By focus­ing on a sin­gle (and in this case highly rel­e­vant) topic and show­cas­ing the sculp­tures within a spe­cial stand (with archi­tec­ture designed by Wil­fried Kuhn  of Kuhn/Malvezzi archi­tects, Berlin), an incom­pa­ra­ble event awaits both vis­i­tors and exhibit­ing gal­leries. Stage-style light­ing of the indi­vid­ual stands con­tributes to the breath­tak­ing atmos­phere. Some 50 gal­leries from Ger­many and around the world will present works by artists from the 20th and 21st cen­turies. An addi­tional, curated “sculp­ture mile” is also planned to extend the topic into the city of Frank­furt. A num­ber of artists will be cre­at­ing sculp­tures specif­i­cally for this city’s exhibition.

Like “High & Low” in 2006, the fair’s title, “Qual­ity Street,” once again plays with asso­ci­a­tions. The pop­u­lar sweets made famous in the 70s serve as the name­sake for the 2007 Fine Art Fair Frank­furt. The Nes­tle com­pany has also given their kind per­mis­sion to use “Qual­ity Street” in con­junc­tion with the art fair. At Fine Art Fair Frank­furt, qual­ity is the motto in more ways than one!