Taking place alongside Frieze Art Fair, Frieze Masters returns this October for its sixth edition, featuring highlights from the last 6,000 years of art history. Charting the trajectory of individual artists and canonical galleries, the edition brings more than 130 dealers of vetted artworks to glimpse upon the history of art that has brought us to today. Like its sister fair, the event hosts a talk series amongst a curated selection of strands, which offer a contemporary environment through which to see avant-garde visionaries right through to medieval sculpture. The fair promises to open up perspectives about the nature of artistic expression, charting diversity and innovation through a variety of forms and media reflective of world-class imaginations.
The 2017 programme includes, like previous years, a Spotlight section for rare solo presentations. Curated by Toby Kamps (Blaffer Art Museum, University of Houston), the section offers 21 displays from international artists, spanning Asia, Europe and both North and South America. These include politically charged pieces from Alfredo Jaar (Galerie Lelong), as well as women artists that interrogate positions of identity and gender through the lens, for example Eleanor Antin’s staged photographs featuring a host of her alter-egos (Richard Saltoun) and the collage works of Tomaso Binga, also known as Bianca Menna, symbolising her quest for liberation from the constraints of gender and male domination (Galleria Tiziana Di Caro). This unique and awe-inspiring section brings social and topographical issues to light, acting as a mirror through which to see our modern world. As Kamps notes: “Spotlight continues to reveal extraordinary, under recognised figures and, in the process, to question traditional canons and shed new light on recent art history.”
This is offered alongside Collections – a strand that sees pieces from specialist galleries gathered by Sir Norman Rosenthal, including works from Anthony Caro, Roberto Burle Marx and Lynda Benglis – and the main display of Historical and Modern Galleries, offering a returning platform to world-renowned institutions including Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Lévy Gorvy, David Zwirner and Luxembourg & Dayan. Charting diversity through important figures in the cultural sphere, Frieze offers a keen insight into the aesthetic and investigative practices that have influenced the world around us. Victoria Siddall, Director of Frieze Fairs comments: “It is the extraordinary range and quality of work that defines Frieze Masters and I am thrilled to welcome back the world’s leading galleries, from Old Masters to antiquities, tribal and 20th century art. The fair has always been a place full of unexpected juxtapositions and new encounters and this year is no exception.”
Frieze Masters runs 5-8 October, Regent’s Park, London. For more information: www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-masters
Credits:
1. Roberto Burle Marx, ‘Mineral Roof Garden’, São Paulo, 1983 © Leonardo Finotti.
