In Real Life
25 JUNE 2020
Why do we go to fairs in an age of e-commerce?
Edward Orlik
Edward Orlik is a writer and artist based in London.
Months ago and worlds away, I found myself watching a gnarly farmer in a Stetson peer over the metal bars of a cattle enclosure, as his grandson slouched nearby, picking his nose and rubbing it on his shorts. High on an umpire’s chair over the hubbub of the crowd, an auctioneer introduced lot 42, a jet-black, three-thousand pound bullock. The animal looked right through me as I took a sip of Lady Grey and adjusted my pyjamas, unperturbed because I was watching the event – a cattle market in Northumbria – over video link from my bed in south London, and shaking my head in wonder. I could literally buy a cow over the Internet. Is nothing sacred?
Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. (1802-1873), ‘Portrait of a Gentleman with spectacles’, pen and brown ink and wash, 22.9 x 17.3 cm.
Apparently not – and over the past few months online shopping has proven a godsend for small businesses. As coronavirus lock-downs eradicate private views and in-person sales, online markets have proved a necessary lifeline to businesses in every sector, including fine arts and crafts, driving even the most Luddite dealers to focus on their online inventories in a bid to continue selling.
Sadly, online sales can only do so much to help. So far this year dozens of art fairs, in their physical form, including The Open Art Fair, have been curtailed for the sake of public health. This will be a blow to many dealers, much of whose income is derived from sales at the shows. Shows like these are not only about sales, either – they’re also opportunities to mingle, socialise, and learn with buyers and sellers alike.
“Art fairs have become an integral part of the social and cultural calendar”, I’m told by Lily Le Brun, who manages an established private collection of British art. Globetrotting collectors typically spend March in Maastricht, May in New York, and June in Basel. Because of this, fairs often coincide with the auction season, but where auctions supply an adrenaline rush to would-be buyers, she says, “fairs are a chance to slow down, make new discoveries and build relationships”.
Vanessa Curry agrees. An art consultant who has been advising collectors for over a decade, she values the opportunity to meet new dealers and discover interesting new works: “The great thing about fairs is all the new stuff that’s there which I hadn’t accounted for. It sparks inspiration.”
I ask Curry what makes an object jump out for her. “Serendipity is a really important thing when it comes to art and antiques – and it can be quite emotional – we can be at a point in our lives where an object has a certain resonance with you, and you think ‘I have to have it!’”
When I spoke to Curry, the lockdown had not started, but her words have a special resonance after several months holed up at home. I’m now intensely aware of the emotional value I associate with my favourite objects and the circumstances in which I acquired them, many of them having come to me through lucky finds and conversations at fairs and markets.
Collectors are not the only ones that feel this way. Richard Atkinson, a silverware specialist and one half of Forrest & Fraser, confided that, for him, being at the fair is mostly about personal contact.
An exceptional pair of late 19th century French silver and crystal claret jugs.
As one of a growing cadre of online dealers, Forrest & Fraser are not affected in quite the same way by the global health crisis. While his business doesn’t have the overheads of a bricks-and-mortar gallery, being a digital dealer brings its own challenges: “showing our personality is incredibly important,” he enthuses. When fairs do eventually reopen, it’ll be a chance to take that personality back into the real world. “On our website, we try to give a sense of the evolution and personality of objects,” Atkinson says. For him, fairs promise an exciting opportunity to connect with colleagues and collectors, to talk to them about his pieces, and how they might use or display them.
Conversations like these feel impossibly far away right now, as public health concerns take precedence, but one thing the lockdown has done is remind us of the joy and excitement of the old fashioned art fair. When we’re sick of online orders and the sight of our own living rooms, we can look to the big social and artistic events as a bright light at the end of the tunnel.
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