Tuesday 10 October 2017

Sex and Work at Frieze 2017


Cathy Lomax digests a female-centric Frieze art fair.

Mamma Anderson, Side by Side, 2017 at David Zwirner

Many contemporary artists (whose work is not included) scream in horror and put their heads in the sand during Frieze week in London. Of course the entrance price is enough to dissuade many from visiting, but if you can cadge a ticket, Frieze really should be a must-see. Sure it can be distasteful with restaurant tables of be-suited ‘wealth management’ types (the Deutsche Bank Wealth Management Lounge actually existed at this year’s Frieze) and designer dressed, super-rich roaming the aisles sporting their plastic surgery experiments. But these are the people (or collectors as we prefer to call them) who finance art – maybe their taste is questionable, but surely its best to know who they are and in my experience there are very few artists (and even fewer galleries) who check the ethical credentials of their buyers before taking their cash.