Frieze Art Fair Is a Search Engine ... Or Something
Here at Hyperallergic, we're big fans of The Art Newspaper, but we can't stop snickering at this Frieze New York Daily story about the blue-chip art fair (which ends today) being like "a search engine for art." That is, in fact, the title of the article.
Here at Hyperallergic, we’re big fans of The Art Newspaper, but we can’t stop snickering at this Frieze New York Daily story about the blue-chip art fair (which ends today) being like “a search engine for art.” That is, in fact, the title of the article.
It’s also a misleading headline, because there’s no actual mention in the piece of any such thing. Instead, there are two places in which art fairs are said to be “like the internet.” Those are the actual words.
The first instance comes from Whitney Museum Curator Chrissie Iles, who handles film and video art at the museum but clearly not digital. Iles confusingly told The Art Newspaper reporters that art fairs are “almost like the internet itself: [they’re] open and [dealers] can bring anything, so you can take the temperature of what’s going on [in the art world].” After this, there’s a brief detour into the assertion of, like, an actual, real thing, which is that the web gives artists easier and quicker access to history and what’s come before them. Yeah, old news. Boring. Soon we move on to the second meaty art-fair-as-internet analogy, courtesy the authors of the article: “Like the internet, fairs show art from around the world.”
Based on these few lines, we can surmise that the story does meet standard qualifications for the identification of a trend, since it includes three points: 1) art fairs are open, 2) dealers can bring anything, and 3) they show art from around the world. Now, whether or not fairs like Frieze are really “open” is probably up for debate, but let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. In that case, art fairs have three qualities that the internet also has! Which makes them alike! Which makes Frieze like a search engine! Because you can “search” for art there! Get it? If a then b … or something!
Oh, Art Newspaper, we heart you. Keep trying. You’re so close.
