Market fair in Milan: MiArt and MIA
MiArt is the leading art trade fair in Italy, and thanks to its international appeal it offers various insights into market trends, starting with contemporary art where the long wave of figurative painting, especially colourful large canvases, continues. In this context, the painting of the 1980s with the Transavantgarde and artists such as Salvo are also making a strong comeback on the market.
The millionaire collector still looks at the Spatialism of Fontana and 'disciples', and Arte Povera with Pistoletto, Calzolari, Kounellis, Ceroli and Pascali, passing through the irrepressible creativity of Alighiero Boetti.
There was also a renewed interest in the historical movements of modernism, including the revival of Futurism with the dynamism of Balla and Depero, and Aeropittura of the 1920s-30s.
Confirming the relative strength of historicised art, on the same days Sotheby's Milan office successfully sold a catalogue of post-war Italian art including a rare work from Lucio Fontana's metal series.
For the first time, MIA, the 'satellite' trade fair specialising in photography, was held alongside the main fair, confirming the liveliness of this more affordable sector in terms of content and prices.
Historical Art and Discoveries at the Venice Biennale
Instead, the Venice Biennale aims to represent recent developments in Art on a global level, without an immediate commercial feedback in terms of sales.
There are actually 3 'biennials': the exhibition of the curator on duty, the official national representations, and the heterogeneous set of other side events scattered around the city.
Brazilian curator Pedrosa focused on non-Western art, very often with naïve characters and works of a textile nature; only time will tell whether these artists will have taken root, despite in many cases the absence of a local market to support them.
A careful analysis of the proposed artists (contemporary and otherwise) could reveal opportunities for 'rediscovery' of their respective markets, as happened with the surrealist women protagonists of the previous Biennale.
National representations are already largely influenced by the major global galleries, which use the occasion to give greater visibility to their leading artists, as in the case of the United Kingdom, the United States and Egypt just to name the main ones, strongly influenced by identity politics even to the detriment of the search for new languages, as proposed by Matthew Attard's technological installation representing Malta.
The wealth of collateral events ranges from historicised artists such as Williem de Kooning at the Accademia and Cocteau at the Guggenheim, to the contemporaries William Kentridge and Martha Jungwirth, and the very young protagonists of the Atelier dell'Errore.
The added value of the exclusive days, before the opening for the public, lies in the incessant networking activity involving major collectors, starting with those who have a home in Venice such as Prada and Pinault with their respective Foundations, museum directors and curators from all over, as well as artists together with the galleries representing them: the art system with all its strengths, weaknesses and contradictions.