Who knew?

The faithful in Miami are staying positive:

The shocking thing about this fair is how much is being sold. If you had asked me yesterday I would never have thought there would have been so many sales,” said major Miami collector Don Rubell. [Emphasis added] On the opening VIP day Emmanuel Perrotin (D2) had given over his stand to a solo show by Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri. It contained just two large mixed-media canvases valued at $250,000 each—one of which was bought by a Belgian collector right at the beginning of the fair. “I sold 50% of my stand within the first 20 minutes of the fair!” quipped Mr Perrotin.

Loyal Buyers Secure a Positive Start (The Art Newspaper)

Lightyears Ahead

Donald Marron, chief executive officer of Lightyear Capital, took a break from art hunting and sat beneath the Picasso, chatting on his cell phone. His curator, Matthew Armstrong, said they were “on the cusp” of buying four works.

The slowdown was visible around Miami, beyond the convention center. Attendance at the Tuesday night opening of the edgy NADA fair, for younger dealers, was sparse. Sales were healthy, though at much lower prices.

Matthew Higgs, director of the nonprofit White Columns, brought “a recession-proof booth,” including $150 Xerox prints by hot artists in editions of 50. Twenty-six prints by Wade Guyton, of a flaming page, sold in the first two hours. Miami collector Dennis Scholl loved the price and bought two.

Miami Art Fair Sports Slower Pace, Lower Prices, Careful Buyers (Bloomberg)

Coming Down in Size

Advisor Todd Levin agrees: “That whole big ‘I’m going to build a museum, here’s the huge coffee-table book’ thing has gone ‘poof!’ So all those huge installations have disappeared from the fair. Now people are returning to cocooning, so they want domestic-size art that they can live with.”

Is Glitzy Art on the way out? (The Art Newspaper)