Frieze Frame
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

LONDON — London’s Frieze Art Fair opened today to VIPs who immediately began snapping up some of the estimated $200 million of works on the stands. New York’s Roni Horn, Dijon’s Yan Peiming and Berlin’s Carsten Nicolai are among the featured artists.
Some 41,000 people will shop at the fair’s 150 galleries through Oct. 15. Artists and dealers from Gagosian and Hauser & Wirth to Thaddaeus Ropac may benefit from a 10-year tripling of contemporary prices after booming businesses created billionaire buyers in the U.S., Russia, and China.
“The high price of young work and the extreme competitiveness to acquire it has taken some fun out of the pursuit, though I still love doing it,” California collector Robert Shimshak said. “Popular artists aren’t willing to keep prices below their peers, or feel they won’t be respected unless the price is high.”
Hauser & Wirth’s highlights, valued at about $1.7 million, include Paul McCarthy’s 2002 “Jack,” in red silicon, for $400,000, and Horn’s “Black Asphere 2,” in solid copper, for about $250,000. The gallery had sold six works by mid-afternoon, including two by the Chinese painter Zhang Enli. The McCarthy had been reserved by a private collector.
Visitors to the stand included the German model Claudia Schiffer, the French billionaire Francois Pinault, and Mr. Saatchi. Some artists featured in Mr. Saatchi’s “USA Today” show at the Royal Academy, including Jonathan Pylypchuk, Terence Koh, and Matthew Monahan, are listed in the Frieze catalog.
Barbara Gladstone of New York had sold or reserved almost everything at her booth. A Richard Prince work consisting of 12 photographic panels of entertainers was among them.Three people had put reserves on Anish Kapoor’s 2006 stainless steel semi- sphere priced at 210,000 pounds.
Aided by a strong economy and a growing number of wealthy art collectors, four-year-old Frieze has grown to be the third- or fourth-largest European 20th-century artfest. Frieze, whose sales jumped 27% in 2005, has more competition this year.Auction houses are targeting visitors with $147 million of art.London-based galleries are holding openings elsewhere in the city.
White Cube has $4.2 million of Gabriel Orozco works — mostly sold already — at Jopling’s new $20 million gallery in Mason’s Yard. Gagosian of New York and London is offering works by Jeff Koons at its new West End gallery on Davies Street and by Douglas Gordon at Britannia Street.
Gagosian, which earlier sold Mr. Broad a Koons in the West End, also had several works on reserve at Frieze. Among those sold was a 2004 Damien Hirst painting, “Incision,” of a surgeon’s hand.
Francis Picabia nudes, only about four of which are for sale, are on show at Zurich and London-based Hauser & Wirth’s newest space on Old Bond Street. Christoph Buchel works are on offer at Iwan Wirth’s Coppermill in East London.
U.K. and U.S. galleries dominate, with more than 30 from each country. Germany has 23 dealers. The catalog lists one gallery each from China, Russia and Slovenia.
David Zwirner of New York is offering a new abstract painting by Germany’s Daniel Richter and works by Luc Tuymans. “We tend not to bring work that is more than $200,000 to Frieze,” the gallery’s director, Bellatrix Hubert, said. “We keep more expensive things for Basel.”
New York’s Matthew Marks has U.K. and Swiss artists: Gary Hume, Darren Almond, Rebecca Warren, a sculptor who is a Turner Prize nominee, and Peter Fischli and David Weiss, who are on show at the Tate Modern. Prices range from a few thousand dollars to $225,000, said Stephanie Dorsey, associate director.
Tanya Bonakdar of New York has new work by four artists who will each be on show for a day. Prices range from $10,000 to $150,000. Tomorrow, the gallery is showing Thomas Scheibitz paintings, photographs and sculptures. Then comes a light installation by Olafur Eliasson, who has a show next year at a San Francisco museum.
Booth prices, up 5 percent this year to 210 pounds a square meter, are higher than Basel’s.