Noah Horowitz was interviewed on Arttactic’s podcast wrapping up the Armory show. Midway through, Horowitz explains the importance of art fairs for many gallery’s overall business sometimes accounting for as much as 80% of their annual revenue.

Jane Sutton gives her Armory diary on ArtForum.com:

There’s no denying that Independent is casting formidable weight for a sophomore fair. This year there was less exposed brick (Maureen Paley managed to pull off another show-stopping booth, claiming one of the walls for a massive David Salle) and a cleaner feel, no doubt heightened by the presence of galleries like Sprüth Magers, Stuart Shave/Modern Art, Bortolami, and Gavin Brown. It all gave the impression of a much older fair. “There’s always a car sculpture, isn’t there?” artist Peter Coffinremarked, reminiscing over Duncan Campbell’s DeLorean project last year for Artists Space, before the absurdity of the word “always” sunk in.Continue Reading

• Ricco/Maresca: a 90-by-36 inch Martin Ramirez “Madonna” from circa 1952-53 in graphite, tempera, and crayon on crinkled and beautifully patinaed brown butcher paper “for north of $400,000;” Megalopolis 789,” by North Carolina outsider George Widener — a so-called “Lightning Calculator” — for approximately $50,000
• Fleisher/Ollman: Tristan Lowe‘s “Lunacy: Near Side,” a 21 ½ inch-diameter relief in felt on wood that sold to a Chicago collector for $5,000; and “Glamour Guide,” a prime 1973 work by the late Chicago Imagist Christina Ramberg in the artist’s painted frame, to a private American collector for a sum in the $100,000-135,000 range
• UNTITLED had sold over 35 of  [Andrew] Hahn’s silkscreens, priced at an affordable $2,000 apiece.
• Jack Shainman Gallery: No fewer than ten works from Shainman’s booth had sold just a few hours into opening day, including a “sound suit” sculpture by Nick Cave, priced at $85,000, and a striking Barkley Hendricks painting of a seated woman, for $130,000.

• Andrew Kreps: David Wojnarowicz’s seven brightly colored plaster busts from his 1984 series “Heads” are arrayed on shelves — out of 23 — sold for $300,000 to a longtime gallery client.
• I-20: hand-painted studies for painted-metal “module” sculptures by artist Don Dudley were selling like hotcakes at $5,000 apiece. Twenty-five had sold in total, with a set of seven being picked up by the Whitney Museum; Sylvia Sleigh titled “Annunciation,” which depicts a man with a voluminous afro standing in a garden, to the bank Credit Suisse, for $585,000
• Bortolami: a Richard Aldrich work featuring an unfolded case for Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” went for $25,000, and a smaller work for $8,000. And two other works by the artist that weren’t on view also sold, for $8,000 apiece
• Sean Kelly: already sold pieces by Leandro Erlich, Robert Mapplethorpe, the collective Los Carpinteros, and a recent addition to its roster, Kehinde Wiley. Two recent Wiley paintings on paper, in hot demand, flew off the walls at $40,000 apiece.
• Lehmann Maupin: Gilbert & George pieces made from postcards , some 25 of them had sold, for £16,750 (around $26,000) apiece
• Hauser & Wirth: sold several works by gallery artists, including Martin Creed, Louise Bourgeois, and Paul McCarthy; prices ranged from $25,000-250,000
• Thaddaeus Ropac:  Georg Baselitz‘s mammoth 2006 “Adieu (Remix)” painting for €600,000, a signature 2008 Tony Cragg sculpture titled “Bent of Mind” for €520,000, an untitled 2010 painting by Jason Martin for £65,000, and a Robert Longo drawing for $30,000
• White Cube:  Antony Gormley sculpture, for £250,000, two recent abstract pieces by Sergei Jensen for €38,000 and €42,000, as well as pieces that were not on view by Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst

A Slow Start for the Armory Show’s Modern Section, Though a Sprinkling of Connoisseur Pieces Caught Buyers’ Eyes (Artinfo.com)

Bargains Were the New Bling at the Armory Show’s VIP Opening, With Affordable Works Joining Blue-Chip Art for Lively Sales (Artinfo.com)

The same folks who put together the Armory Show on New York’s Pier 92 are creating a show for unrepresented artists a few weeks after the 2011 edition of the Armory Show:

The Artist Project, an exhibition of fine art by a selection of unrepresented international artists, will make its debut in New York City at Pier 92, March 17-20, 2011, co-located with the 10th Anniversary edition of the Architectural Digest Home Design Show at Pier 94.

Unlike art fairs that only allow art galleries to exhibit, the artist project provides artists with the opportunity to reach the contemporary art world directly in spaces that maintain gallery and museum like production values with state of the art exhibition walls, lights and generous public spaces. The four-day show will offer an eclectic program of talks, special features and art installations.

Information on getting into the program is available below:Continue Reading

The Art Newspaper tracked down deals at the piers late last week:

• White Cube reported sales including Damien Hirst’s Skull with Glass of Water, 2007, which went for £3.1m .
• Lisson gallery director Nicholas Logsdail […] sold the “seriously vintage” Two Black Squares by Art & Language, 1967, for £35,000
• Anish Kapoor’s Void, 1991, for £500,000.
• Jack Shainman had sold Nick Cave’s Birdbush, 2010, to a US collector for $75,000Continue Reading