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These fairs burned more spiritual and caloric energy than they ever put out.
But Frieze New York is the first of the megafairs to reopen in person.
It turns out this overscaled mall-entertainment complex makes a perfect convention hall.
Frieze looks so good here that it suggests that this is what this place is best suited for.
(Or maybe it should just be torn down, along withthe Vessel.)
Once inside, everything felt safe.
Perhaps because of COVID restrictions, there were very few rest areas.
(A fashion observation: I saw only one pair of high heels in the entire fair.
Good news for those who wear and curse them, and for short men hi!)
Ive always thought art fairs got this wrong.
They should pay galleries to participate.
Emmett was Mamie Tills only son, she said in a statement at the time.
Most of the art at Frieze may not be all that radical or bold.
But if you get quiet inside, you’ve got the option to be transported.
Ive always freakedout at art fairs.
After five or six booths, I go art-blind.
Im optically over-stimulated and geographically addled.
(Thats why the booths generally favor paintings.)
You might have been too.
It was the first time Id really been in a crowd in over a year.
My lifelong bashfulness and social skittishness bubbled back to the surface.
Last week, I seemed to hover through and above it all.
Faces were familiar, like a first day back at school.
I saw pecking orders re-established and scent trails left.
Still, the current system is built on an insane paradox.
(A lot of artists should just be social workers.)
Still, its the job of the art world to take that money.
My job is at the end point, too, of one of those trickles.
All that cash is partly what stopped many art galleries from closing during the pandemic.
A lot of galleries survived.
However, it also means that the possible larger reckoning I saw coming never came.
Then you move on.
I amina place, but also 30,000 feet above it, with a metaphysical escape hatch always available.
I walked home from Frieze happy.
I truly hope we never go back to seeing more than 300 fairs a year again.
When its safe, go to the next local art fair near you.
Then go home and buy larger shirts.
