Lindsay Pollock surveys TEFAF’s attendees for ArtForum’s Scene & Herd:
For dealers, it’s a chance to brush up against the world’s wealthiest, and also to critique (but not too much) the money parade, a crush of stiletto-spiked and fur-swaddled babes and their big-wallet honeys. “Those are not real collectors,” a veteran dealer pal whispered to me a few hours into the fair’s opening. We were seated on a bench outside his stand, stocked with nineteenth- and twentieth-century paintings. “Do you know how I can tell?” he asked. I glanced at the trio: two men and a woman. Nothing stood out. “They are carrying their catalogues,” he said, nodding at the five-pound books. “Real collectors pick up their catalogues on the way out.”
[…] If TEFAF’s “contemporary” art is familiar, the crowd is not. Part of the fair’s exoticism is that the usual contemporary-art posse isn’t around. Some familiar faces did surface, however. Art Basel co-honcho Marc Spiegler made the rounds. Art adviser Thea Westreich breezed through on opening day, en route to Brussels and Paris. New York collector Adam Lindemann accompanied his wife, dealer Amalia Dayan, who was exhibiting with partner Daniella Luxembourg. Lindemann beamed. “You come here to break out of contemporary art fairs,” he said.
Gray Zone (ArtForum)
