Hello, I'm Josh Baer, and welcome to the Baer Facts Podcast. As the art world gears up for Art Basel, the biggest, baddest art fair in the world, We're taking a deep dive into the world of art fairs in a special two part episode. Every year around this time, we're busy preparing for Art Basel, although I hate to look at PDFs of the galleries for the fairs, but I've been to a lot of art fairs this year, including Singapore, Art Basel Hong Kong, Mars, Freeze LA, TFAF.
With this being the season for Art Basel, we wanted to give our listeners more comprehensive global perspective on art fairs, past and present. Their purpose, how they can transform a city, and the inner workings of the business behind them. We'll go through their entire histories, from Art Cologne, the world's oldest art fair, to the future of art fairs in Asia, with the fair founder based in Shanghai.
But first, we're going to sit down with key players who've worked behind the scenes of the two largest multi city international art fairs in the world, Frieze and Art Basel.
I think that's a real concern with all of them looking the same and blending. And how do you set yourself apart? And how do you not look dated? You know, how do the fairs stay current and not look dated? I think Basel does an excellent job in Switzerland where they really bring the top,
top work. Frise LA has absolutely kind of galvanized collectors on the West Coast and from New York to come to LA and experience not only the fair but the incredible ecosystem of non profits, of artist studios. And I think it will continue to grow in that way.
In this special two part episode of the Bare Facts Podcast, we sit down with the people behind four different leading art fairs from around the globe. Lauren Tashin, who consulted on the founding of Art Basel Miami Beach, Bettina Korek, the founding director of Freeze LA, Daniel Hook, the director of Art Cologne, and David Chow, the co founder of Art 021.
In Part 1, Josh Baer sits down with Lauren and Bettina, who are involved with the founding of two of the most important fairs in the U. S. Now serving as CEO of the Serpentine Galleries, Bettina will cast light on the surprisingly close knit relationship between museums and art fairs. Afterwards, Lauren and Josh will debate the balance between transparency and confidentiality in the Selection Committee for Fair Exhibitors.
In part two of our double episode, we'll turn away from large international fairs to more local, regional models. We'll go back to the very beginning with the director of the world's first modern art fair, Art Cologne. and look towards the future of Asia with David Chow, a collector and the co founder of Shanghai's Art 021. But first, Lauren and Bettina each tell us the story of the founding of their respective fairs.
Listen as Lauren explains how she helped lay the groundwork for Miami to emerge as a new art hub at a time when New York City dominated the gallery world.
Take us back to the year around 2000. You're from Florida at a certain point. 2000. Juan was set to be the launch of Art Ball's Miami Beach. Obviously 9 11 happened, but tell us what the thinking was before as a founder, basically, of that fair.
Yeah, so I mean, actually going back to even the mid 90s, I was in Chicago working with Tom Blackman at Art Chicago and the Navy Pier Show, and I met Sam Keller, he was a communications manager for Basel, and I also had met the great Lorenzo Rudolph, who also was the, uh, Was not yet the director of Art Basel yet in Miami, but there was a desire to do something in the U. S. and where to do it and looking at New York, L. A., Chicago, and Chicago really was ground zero for the art fair.
It was the only, it was the only American art fair in the 80s and 90s at all, and it was maybe the number two fair in the world at that point?
Absolutely, after Basel, absolutely. So I think the idea with Lorenzo was really bringing something to the U. S. and bringing something to Miami. He loved Miami, had a girlfriend from Ecuador and Miami kind of became the gateway to South America for Latin American art. And Sam and I really, you know, connected on that idea as well. He loved South America, loved Miami, and we really said, let's do something great in Miami. And Lorenzo really spearheaded that.
Was it the North versus South connection? Was it like people want to go have fun? What was the...
I think a combination of things. It was introducing an audience of galleries and artists that could not afford to come to Basel in Switzerland. It was way too expensive for them to ship works and participate at that level in Basel.
So opening up a new audience, a new audience, the collectors and the market of Latin American art along, mixing it with Western contemporary art and having access to a whole new world that people never knew existed, or really were engaged in with the museums and the curators coming in as well from South America, as well as beautiful weather in December that everyone in Europe would desire. I
mean, skipping ahead a little bit, it probably costs almost the same to do Art Basel Miami Beach as Art Basel Basel now, wouldn't you say? Pretty
much. Yeah. Yeah, I would
agree. Absolutely. So back then all the collectors and museums were, oh my god, this is great. You can come to the house, right? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean the interesting part is, you know, in Miami everyone opens up their homes and shows their collections. They love to show what they have. This isn't as common in Switzerland. A lot of things are kept quiet what you have. Everyone's been so generous in Miami.
The first thing we did in Miami was form a host committee, and that was tremendous, getting the Braemans and the Margulies and the Rubels and all of our great de la Cruzes to be so generous and open up their homes and host people to show them what Miami has and that they've been collecting and that art has been living before the fair in Miami.
So I think that was really tremendous because you're working with a Latin culture and then you're also working with the Swiss culture, which are very different cultures, very open, very closed in some ways of what they buy, what they show, what they have. And that's really made Miami feel so welcoming to people coming from the outside. So opening up collections is a nice way to start building relationships with Latin American collectors as well.
The European galleries were so excited to see what people were collecting and show what they have, as well as the museums and the galleries. And also that artists didn't have to necessarily leave Miami. They didn't have to go to New York to be seen. They could live
in Miami and show. Was this kind of the beginning of the end of New York being the only place in America to be as an artist or show as an artist? I
think it was trying to open up a gate to California and to other places in the U. S., Detroit, other cities that had artists working and had artists not having to just have to be in New York. So that was something that was a door opener.
And now how would you describe it basically 20 years out? What is its role? How's it changed for better and or for worse?
I mean, I think we've just celebrated the 20th year of Art Basel in Miami, which we never thought would happen. I think after 9 11 and after a pandemic, who knew the world would be up and down both of those windows. But I think now it's grown so much. It's solid. It has a platform. I think that we need to get back to having more time to develop in the booths and spending more time with the art and the artists and then rushing through so quickly of these fairs.
I'm hoping the pendulum swings back and that we all can spend a little bit more time learning about the work instead of just acquiring the work.
We've heard from Lauren about how Swiss and Latin American cultures came together to create the United States largest art fair, but in Los Angeles, Art Basel's London based competitor, Freeze, has also had a transformative impact in the few years since the founding of Freeze LA in 2019. Join us for the inside story from its founding director after the break. Don't transact without TheBearFaxed.
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When you were the executive director of Freeze LA, how did you think about community there within LA, within a global company, within the community, the art world, and the real world? Well,
Freeze LA was such an exciting opportunity for so many reasons. The DNA of Freeze London had been kind of built over years and years and had become this city wide event. And with Freeze LA we really had the opportunity to try to set that up from the beginning. Freeze L. A. created a really important annual access point for Los Angeles.
There wasn't that kind of moment where people from the art world were traveling from L. A. And one of the things that we did, really also inspired by the great success of Art Balls of Miami in cultivating collectors and patrons from Miami and South America to really get invested in the fair. We formed a host committee. We were so fortunate to have the backing of Endeavor led by Ari Emanuel, who's an incredibly well respected patron and collector in his own right.
Freeze LA happened at a time when the consciousness around the potential for this kind of moment was widespread. Otis had been producing the report on the creative economy. I was on the L. A. County Arts Commission for 10 years. There was a lot of work kind of raising awareness among civic leaders. Really about the economic impact of the art. So on the one hand, you had the civic realm ready to support the hammer.
Mocha LACMA had been doing so much work to grow their base of patrons, their trustees. They were more aware of their responsibility as arts leaders to advocate for the fair, to support the fair, and then you had the entertainment element. And I think, you know, Endeavor and R. A. Manuel's involvement was really crucial to Frieze's success because it made it more aspirational to entertainment people. It gave people in Hollywood a really defined, again, access point to come to the fair.
It was part of their community. I think it also kind of helped different constituents kind of see that this was going to be here to stay because it was also a part of the entertainment system.
What's happened that's interesting is suddenly LA collectors really, and largely from the sports and the entertainment world now want to buy from LA galleries more than they want to go to New York.
I was very candid about that with people. We started a host committee and they were like, well, what does that mean? And I said, we want you to support the fair. We want this to be successful. And I think people really did. And that continues to grow. I mean, LA was really. It's exciting to see how much energy is there. I mean, I think David Zwirner just opened the first of three spaces. You know, we're seeing, you know, new pockets of galleries emerging.
So, you know, while the fair happens once a year, the galleries are consistently generating energy.
Now that you're gone from there, maybe you have a little bit of perspective of what they succeeded in and what they need to do to go forward. I think
Freeze LA continues to be really successful. I was there this year. They had their first fair at the Santa Monica airport. So it was a new location after doing a year in Beverly Hills. And. There was such strong local participation. I think every museum was active during that time. Museums were had great shows that were on.
Now that I'm living in London, from the kind of international traveler's perspective, figuring out that date that's going to be the perfect sweet spot to really attract people from all over the world does take time. But I think, you know, Los Angeles...
Friese LA has absolutely kind of galvanized collectors on the West Coast and from New York to kind of come to LA and experience not only the fair but the incredible ecosystem of non profits, of artist studios, and, you know, I think it will continue to grow in
that way. We'll check back in with Bettina in a bit. But first, Lauren and Josh dig into their do's and don'ts for FAIR attendees.
It's become a little bit of January, it's Singapore, February, it's Freeze LA, March, it's this. How do we get around that? Or how would a FAIR get around just being that slot in the calendar?
Well, I think there's two parts. Part of it is the galleries, which, you know, they feel they need to have a presence at the three fairs, whether it's Basel, Miami, and Hong Kong, and now Paris. And then maybe adding one or two fairs on top of that, it feels like so they pretty much have stuck it to their program of what they want to do.
I think for collectors, things to become a little bit more regional and it's interesting as well if people going to galleries, going to a fair in Art Cologne, and going to that fair and say okay this is a regional fair but if I'm in Europe I'll go or a fair in Tepap and going to those fairs. So in a way, more regional, I think is a little more interesting and less traveling and staying what's in your backyard a little bit.
Instead of having that pilgrimage to have to go all the time and supporting some local artists.
Speaking of going to the fairs, anything anecdotally of like a, uh, doing a don't for an audience member. I have a couple that I tell people, do you have any sort of like how to behave either as a gallery or as a visitor going to the fair?
I think asking questions is the biggest thing for everybody to feel comfortable is asking the dealer's questions. If you're a buyer, a collector, a first time visitor, it's to ask and ask questions and not be afraid to ask. I think that's really important for everybody is to ask questions and not be intimidated.
I think intimidation is something that can kill the art world if we aren't open and receptive to people and new people coming into the market and interested in wanting to learn about art. So I think asking questions is important.
Do you think if everybody put the price up on a wall label that that would be good?
Those were the old days with red sticker dots everywhere what's sold and what didn't sell
But they rehang so it doesn't make the same some people still like the red sticker But the only person I ever saw put prices up was Robert Mnuchin.
Yeah, I think with everything being sent out in previews I think the stickers end up there and that's about it
Now, I tell people, don't ask questions in somebody's booth of the dealer on day one because they, they don't want to talk about your kid's bar mitzvah. They're there to sell art. So don't talk to anybody in anybody's booth unless that's what you're talking about.
Yeah, absolutely. No, only about our talk about not the social part, but just the, if you're interested in learning about
someone new. Yes. And you do the social stuff in the aisles rather than someone's booth or at night. Or at night. I mean, how many times do you get stopped by people walking around, you know, our possible Miami beach on opening day, like 300
times. Absolutely. I miss the mask. Honestly, everyone being in masks during the pandemic and be able to get through a show and
see work. We'll put you in a Barefax hat, maybe that, you know, in the future, we'll do something to help there.
I doubt it. I doubt it. That actually has more questions. I think it's got more Josh.
Yeah. Well, you're telling people to ask questions. You're opening yourself up for, I mean, the question people ask all the time is what'd you see? What'd you buy? That's a good question. That's
always a good question. What's interesting.
I like to ask museum curators that I know what they saw, big and light, because sometimes they'll send me someplace that I've never heard of. And that for me is the only people I want to ask. You know, like a Philippe Verne says, Oh, go look at this thing and such and such gallery. There's no way I would have gone. Right. Right. Yeah. No,
absolutely. I saw, you know, you see a lot of the advisors and collectors there. It was an interesting time. You know, we had Hans in town. We had, Klaus Spies in Bakkenton, everyone checking out, seeing everything before everyone headed to Venice for the Architecture
Biennale. By the way, don't ask me in the aisles what I saw, what I liked. I'm not going to answer. So I use that with kind of a different sense of that. Probably smart on your side. Yeah, probably smart. Maybe perceived as a bit obnoxious that way.
We'll hear more from Lauren later, but first up after the break, Josh and Bettina explain the importance of art fairs to non profit institutions like the Serpentine for building their local community. And their collections. Don't transact without TheBearFaxed. Consider bundling your newsletter subscription with access to our auction database. The only platform that lets you know who bought what, and who tried to, but didn't get it. With over 12, 000 data points going back to 1994.
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Now that you're on the other side running an important institution, How do you feel about the role of how these things connect in general, art fairs and institutions? We see museum groups coming to acquire things. Sometimes we see museum directors maybe coming to look at art. What is the synergy and how does such a commercial... of that play into it?
Well, I mean, the art world is, again, it's a very intertwined ecosystem of both commercial and non commercial entities and activities, and art fairs are such an important access point for increasingly, I think when you look at fairs in the U. S., New York, L. A., Miami.
There are places where emerging collectors are really meeting galleries, they're going to events for museum, and they're getting an introduction into this kind of vast metabolism of organizations that make up You know, what we think of as the art world. So everything is connected again with Frees LA. We really wanted it to have a spirit of patronage behind it.
So whether that was, you know, articulated through inviting nonprofits to have spaces on the back lots, changing the name of the conversations to conversations on patronage. You know, as I mentioned earlier, encouraging the Museum leaders, the collectors of the city, to really think about it as an opportunity for them to advocate for people who come to the fair and get introduced to continue their relationships all year round, whether that was through joining museums or starting to collect.
And we all work together to kind of support artists, whether that's through galleries selling their work or museums presenting it. And I think. Again, even though we were going to kind of pass through this portal after COVID and slow down, I don't think that's what we're experiencing right now.
Event culture continues to be really important and You know, for the sustainability of non profits we need to leverage those moments to continue to bring new people in, get them involved and give them a sense of how collecting art is one part of being a patron, but supporting institutions and artists directly is also an important element to that.
It's interesting how critical the art fairs have become for the institutions. How many are you able to go to in a year? It
depends on the year, but it's also a sort of benefit of being involved with an institution. We help our patrons get VIP passes to the art fairs. We often will program special events. We'll visit artist studios and visit collectors with our patrons who are also in town. It's a moment when we cultivate new donors. The Serpentine has an incredible community in the States. who support our Serpentine Americas Foundation. So we're quite active.
We have our event every year with Sybil Robson Orr and Matthew Orr in Los Angeles. We have our Art Basel Miami breakfast every year. So it's definitely an important part of our calendar. Like
much of the art world, art fairs protect VIPs like billionaire collectors and top curators behind a maze of interns and velvet ropes. Before they open to the public... Each art fair has a special VIP preview day, by invitation only. One of the most closely guarded secrets of art fairs is the selection committee for art fair exhibitors.
Fairs charge high fees to galleries to have a booth at their fair, but first, each gallery must submit a proposal of their booth to be considered for selection by a confidential panel of judges. Listen as Josh and Lauren debate the challenges of democracy and transparency in art fair organizing.
There's a group that pushes in line at 11 a. m. to get in day one. I don't know who all these VIPs are, how they can all be VIPs. Many of us OGs kind of wonder, who are these people? But the people who come on day three, four, and five, who pay 40, 50 bucks to get in, sometimes buy something. Is there a way that the fairs do or can track how many of those actually move up a notch or is it speaking the same way to that audience? It's challenging
with VIPs because who moderates it, who goes through those lists, and then who do you add and who do you don't? And I think that's one area that really is a big job for VIP relations managers is to really figure out how do you introduce the next generation of collectors? We know the top collectors that come to the fair, we know that list. How do you introduce the next generation and get them interested and engaged and, and have access as well?
So I do think that's a real challenge for shows is to really work hard on keeping the VIP and also having the public engaged. I think equal are so important to the fair. Public and private VIPs need to balance and have both access to everything. So I think that democracy is something that needs to always be in check. And I know there's times where the fairs feel really crowded on day one and overcrowded. And you can't even move in a booth and everyone is unhappy about that.
And then there's the days where it's super quiet the next day or on a Friday and you can, you know, roll a bowling ball down the aisles and not hit anyone.
This challenge of transparency and democracy is always one for the art world. I think it would be good if there was a more transparent process of articulating who's a VIP and what, but the question I'd like to pivot to within the same thing is, I think. The biggest issue inside the Beltway is like the selection process for the galleries and how that happens. Could you comment on that in general and then maybe listen to my age old suggestion?
Absolutely. I mean I think the selection committee exists in most of the fairs and they're all different for each fair in each city, and their international advisors that are coming in that have galleries that go through thousands of files and applications to submit to the fair. And whenever I've talked to young galleries, I've really advised them to have a focus. What is their focus of their gallery? What is their vision? And to present the best curated booth they can for the fair.
Really curating their booth, because that's what makes Basel and all these other fairs pay attention, is really, and then also being able to rehang the next day a beautiful booth, and really each day really program something solid and curated. I think that's the number one thing a gallery has to do and bring A plus work. Which is challenging when you're
doing 10 to a gallery, to a gallery, do like three different hangings with three different curations? Yeah, absolutely. Or five, you know, five one person shows one day in a row would be...
Yeah, either one person show or a group show that has a content and really is trying to say something of what your vision is for your gallery. Now
here's where my weird suggestion comes in. I think... That these meetings, the selection committee meetings, should be open to the public. And they should see the committee going through the applications and hear the discussions about it. I think people, it'll never happen, but I think it would solve a lot of problems. It would really show that there's a better, more, it's like being on a jury. If you ever sat on a jury to the deliberation, people take it really seriously. Absolutely.
I think this is a jury. If they showed how they were really talking about things, I think it would actually help.
Yeah. I mean, it would have to be a really quick one because I know people's attention span now, it just couldn't sit through.
You tape it and people can dig in and out and index it and they can hear how they're described and they can learn what other people are thinking about them and that it wasn't because they're not buying art from this one or this one says that bad thing about them. I think there's a lot of fear as to how this thing is done and if we made it transparent and open, I would be very curious. Any chance that could ever happen? It'd
be an interesting reality show for sure. Love to see that on a television
well If I was starting a new fair That's what I would do. Yeah. And say, okay, here's how we're different. We're going to show you what it is that we're looking for, and then there's a review process after the people do what they said, and, you know, for all the BS about how we want an open art world, and by the way, I make my living for not being transparent, so I'm sort of like in mixed terms there. I'd like to see it happen. No, I
think it'd be phenomenal. It'd be really phenomenal if it did happen. Let's start a new
fair. Yeah, you and I will start one.
After the break, Josh and Lauren discuss how art fairs are facing the challenges of an ever more crowded fair calendar and technology driven future. Don't transact without the BareFaxed. Consider bundling your subscription with our Art Advisory Membership Program, offering on demand access to our diverse team of international specialists for a low annual fee. V valued by both collectors new to the market and experienced players like galleries and even other advisors.
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For a while, Basel's done a really good job of like adding something new like Art Unlimited came. That was kind of like, Wow, that was great. I remember the shipping containers on the beach, uh, South Beach, it was like, okay, we have these things already here and we have all these things, how can we use them? And it seems like the money's gotten the better of things and the creativity is a little bit lacking because it's so necessary for the galleries to make their money at the art fairs.
Yeah, I think that's a responsibility of the fairs to control that and manage that better and have more creativity and have more. Otherwise, they all start looking the same. We need to get back to having the soul in these fairs. And, you know, when Sam and I were working on the shows early 2000, we really were developing a program of Art Loves.
And it was Art Loves Film and Art Loves Fashion and Art Loves Architecture and Art Loves Design and bringing a lot of crossover to the art world and creating content with people that were not in the art world at the time. But we're interested in it, whether it was Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed, Karl Lagerfeld, Zaha Hadid, you know, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls. And we rocked both sides of it. And that made it interesting because it had content. And I think content is something that's really important
to these fairs. Well, it seems like once they get a piece of it, it stays, like when the design fair started, and I know design's important to you, it's like, well, that was pretty cool, and then it just seemed to me, it's like, well, design fair can't make it unless it's attached to an art fair, and that's sort of like, if we want it historic, we want it expensive, we can't stand on our own two legs.
We need to do it, you know, in the parking lot next door, or down the road, from that, I find that a little bit. Sad that those sort of quirky things get assimilated too easily.
Yeah, no, I think that is a concern. I mean, when we started design Miami, we realized that the people that were buying art were buying design and we tried to bring it into the convention center and another hall and build a design Miami in the convention center. And it wasn't possible at that time. We asked Craig Robbins if we could use the design building at the Moor and invite a couple dealers from Paris to show and the success was there and saw that people wanted it.
Now design has become so marketed that we really need to, the market's been so saturated, there's not enough furniture to go around, there's not enough, anything available, it's become less and less unique. So how do you keep up with that as well? Or how do you
innovate? So what are the discussions like now? I think they're
still trying to find a niche as it's showing young, young, bringing the next generation in, which I think is always important. And how far do you go back? Which period are we swinging into now? What are people looking at in design? What are people looking at in art? Which periods are we looking at? We're going back to the 70s. We're going back to the 50s where everything now is also, which is interesting here in Hollywood is everything's 2010. So we're looking in the only 10 years ago.
That's the old days. That's the early work. the early work 2013 or something like that. I think fairs have a hard time sort of like identifying themselves, who's their audience. And they try to be everything to everybody and you run the danger of being nothing to, to anyone.
Absolutely. No. And I think that's a real concern with all of them looking the same and blending and how do you set yourself apart and how do you not look dated? You know, how did the fairs stay current and not look dated? I think Basel does an excellent job in Switzerland where they really bring the top, top work. It still will always be the number one pillar in the art world for bringing A plus work, curating your booths, making them look great.
But then there's room for the next generation of artists, and I think that's where the other fairs are really important to show. L'Estée in Basel and all the other young fairs are so important to having a platform for the next generation.
Is there one thing you can imagine looking ahead 10 or 20 years from now with all the different things of technology and communication that you see, whether the art fairs will still exist and what they might look like in 10, 20, 50 years, whatever timeframe you think of? Yeah. I'm
wondering if it's all going to condense again in a way that everything else has, is it going to become like a subscription based where the fares are going to be less as many, but they're going to be more AI, or they're going to have, you know, technology is something that I haven't seen a lot going on at the fares, no one taking these risks yet with technology and pushing these limits.
No one's taking any risks, hardly in the fares at all, because it's too financially crucial,
right? I think the moment right now, they're afraid they feel painting is safe right now. Going into where we are the next year or so. So I think they're not taking the risk and I think it's a time to take risks. We have to keep pushing and having these new ideas. Any
last thoughts about what to expect for the second half of 2023, both in the art market and at the next round of art fairs?
I think, you know, going forward, Japan is going to be interesting. I think the fair is, there's going to be something going on in Tokyo in July, which is coming up. Free Souls, another interesting platform. Are people going to be coming back or going for the first time? And Paris in October. I mean, all of those areas have had such growth with galleries moving to these locations, collectors starting to look in a different area to go.
So this fall, we've got kind of a big platform of Tokyo, Seoul, and Paris coming up.
I'm really looking forward to see what Paris Plus does year two, having not been sure with COVID if they could be there at all and how they could up their game to what extent that'll be. I think the most interesting thing. And
design, the design show for Paris Plus as well because it got canceled last year, last minute. So them having a presence this year for the first time as
well. I'm going to tell them, have food there, because we all have to have lunch, and then you have some wine and you don't go back. My other idea then is when everybody walks in VIP day, give them a box lunch so they stay in a place to grab something. And then they won't leave the fair and try to go to a restaurant and go, you know what, I'm not going back, because I saw that happen in Paris, because three hour wait to have a table in the VIP room wasn't going to happen. Yeah, that staircase
was tough in that platform. Getting up and down that VIP lounge chair was impossible.
Give everybody a baguette with some, you know, saucisson and a bottle of water and they'll stay three times as long and they'll buy more art. Snack bag
is always a good idea.
Awesome. So Lauren, I look forward to seeing you in Basel. You're going to be there. We'll be there. I will say Basel Basel is a level of a fair above all others. And if you only go to one art fair a year, that would be the one to go to. Plus it's easy to get food at Bratwurst in the middle there. So I'll see you in the line for Bratwurst, hopefully.
If you get one, get one for me. And if I get there first, I'll get you one. Yeah. And I'll take a
beer. Thanks. See you. See you in a few weeks. Thanks Lauren. Cheers.
Thank you. Thank you, Josh.
While I do look forward to drinking 700 beers and eating 600 brats at one sitting, not all of our friends love the large international art fair model. Basel draws collectors from all over the world. There was a time when our Cologne was the worldwide leader in the contemporary art market amongst art fairs. That went from about 1967 until the mid 90s, and then it was replaced by Art Basel.
I
probably wouldn't recommend anyone's first art fair to go to Art Basel. It's too overwhelming. You won't be able to buy anything. You know, everything good will be, already be bought. So, I'd probably recommend people to go to more of a smaller regional and smaller fairs. And then, you know, when they're ready, you go to Art Basel.
In part two of our special double episode on art fairs, out next Thursday, we turn towards a different perspective from the large international models of Art Basel and Frieze. We'll look back in history at the origins of the regional art fair model with Daniel Hook, the director of the world's oldest art fair, Art Cologne. We'll also look towards the future in Asia with David Chow, a major collector and the co founder of Shanghai's pioneering art fair.
Art 021. Join us next Thursday for Art Fairs Part 2 on the Bear Fax Podcast, brought to you by the leading news source for the art world since 1994. Our host is Josh Baer, founder and CEO of the Bear Faxed. Our executive producer is Luyang Jiang. I'm Will Griffith, our assistant editor. Our content advisor is Boliang Xin, and our editing team is Mona Productions. Special thanks to our guests for this episode, Lauren Tashin and Bettina Korek.
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