2016.10.13 Thu, by
Frieze Masters (you know you want it)

Likes moles we pop out of Regent’s Park tube station, hurry over guarded crossings—avoiding the free art magazine touts and brightly colored desperate art students— and into the Frieze London tent to grab our tickets, and then run, RUN, out and off, through the park (hello squirrels!), right past the retirement education groups nodding at the sculpture installations, and ten minutes later we’re at Frieze Masters. Things are quieter here, but the show is usually better than its older “contemporary” cousin (though this year Frieze London was definitely much better than in past years—read our report here).

Everything is so beautifully presented, the light is so graceful, and the shift in time from 2,000 B.C. to 1920 is barely to be noticed, and the small matter of how one pays for it is a trivial irritant. Because unless you live in the British Museum, you will have to take it home with you. There are ancient maps, stone-age spearheads, Renaissance furniture, de-nosed nobility. Art history is just a bank transfer away.

For a short while, it is a magical place to be. Even if one cannot afford the Frans Hals portrait with the perfectly painted thumbnail dead-center, or the giant Man Ray photograph from the 1920s, there is an added frisson from thinking it’s all there for the taking—you just have to want it badly enough and, with a confident smile, whip out your Amex Centurian card.

I’ve been watching Leonardo DiCaprio in Catch Me If You Can. Great movie. Gets you thinking.

Go on, no one’s watching. You know you want to. It’s easy.

Some power

Frank Stella at the three graces - Marianne Boesky Gallery, Dominique Lévy and Sprüth Magers

Frank Stella at the three graces – Marianne Boesky Gallery, Dominique Lévy, and Sprüth Magers

Power booth - just 3 Picasso's at Helly Nahmad

Power booth – just 3 Picasso’s at Helly Nahmad

Some subtlety

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) at David Zwirner

Ruth Asawa (1926-2013) at David Zwirner

Zhang Peili at Boers Li

Zhang Peili at Boers Li

Zhang Peili at Boers Li

Zhang Peili at Boers Li

Some Anni Albers (instead of her husband—about time too)

Anni Albers at Alan Cristea

Anni Albers at Alan Cristea

A discovery—a Chinese artist who spent most of his time in rural Devon, England.

Li Yuan-chia, surprise discovery at Richard Saltoun (London)

Li Yuan-chia, surprise discovery at Richard Saltoun (London)

Some old

Man Ray

Man Ray “Untitled (Enlargement of ‘Projet pour une Tapisserie’) 1925/26 at Kicken Berlin

Frans Hals at Johnny van Haeften

Frans Hals at Johnny van Haeften

Daniel Buren early work at Galleria Continua

Daniel Buren early work at Galleria Continua

Some sculpture

Almine Rech booth at frieze Masters

Almine Rech booth at frieze Masters

And some painting (from Japan)

Kazuo Shiraga at Axel Vervoordt

Kazuo Shiraga at Axel Vervoordt

And elsewhere in London….

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman in Soho

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman, Soho

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman, Soho

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman 3

Giuseppe Penone at Marian Goodman

Also Mike Kelley at Hauser & Wirth

Mike Kelley at Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair. Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction

Mike Kelley at Hauser & Wirth, Mayfair. Framed and Frame (Miniature Reproduction “Chinatown Wishing Well” Built by Mike Kelley after “Miniature Reproduction ‘Seven Star Cavern’ Built by Prof. H.K. Lu”) 1999

and Laura Owns at Sadie Coles (a future Meisterin)

Laura Oens at Sadie Coles, Soho

Laura Oens at Sadie Coles, Soho

Laura Owens at Sadie Coles Kingly Street, Soho

Laura Owens at Sadie Coles Kingly Street, Soho