ARCO closed with a massive return of visitors and good sales

The International Fair of Contemporary Art (ARCO) in Madrid closed with more than 95,000 visitors

There International contemporary art fair (ARCO) in Madrid closed its 42nd edition with excellent figures, as it exceeded 95,000 visitors, returning to pre-pandemic attendance, and galleries recorded sales boosted by an “exceptional” offer.

The director of the fair maribel lopez explained that “the content of the fair has been exceptional, the efforts of the galleries have been incredible, the projects are designed for each booth”.

The number of visitors exceeds 93,000 in 2020, with which, according to him, “we have returned to true normality” after the pandemic. The statements of the director agree with those of the gallery owners, who have perceived an increase in the number of international visitors and a large influx of the professional public, some 38,000, but also new collectors.

ARCO 2023 brought together some 400 international collectors, who are paid for hotel and travel expenses, a record for the fair.

Inigo Navarre of the Leandro Navarro gallery, noted the increase in the number of international collectors, although he did not sell the most expensive pieces he brought, a Gray Jeans and one Miro both over one million euros.

At the Malborough Gallery, they also failed to sell their most expensive piece, a Chirino which exceeds half a million, but they assure that the fair also serves to give visibility to this type of offer and they have noticed an increase in Latin American collectors.

Guillaume d’Osma points out that the most expensive pieces are not the ones that tend to sell the most at this type of event: “We are not in a fashionable world, it is normal for sales to take time to buckle.

On the first day of the fair, which began last Wednesday, the Association of Women Artists mounted a “performance” to denounce the low presence of artists at the fair and demand more specific measures to give them visibility.

In 2021 and 2022, the fair has already awarded “Artist Projects” to women, a series of spaces distributed by ARCO with special or more complex proposals.

“This year, of the twenty places, fifteen are reserved for women, so the number is positive. It is a gesture that we had made these two years to explain this importance. We will be vigilant in case it is necessary to do so in the future, it is important that we do not lose this perspective”, said the director.

Institutions such as the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid come to the fair every year to buy works and this year the Ministry of Culture of Spain granted this art center 400,000 euros, with which it bought works by established and young artists. Thus, through the Ministry of Culture and Sports, it disbursed 400,000 euros and brought 26 works by 18 artists, including Argentina Cécile Bengolea and the Uruguayan Joaquin Torres Garcia.

They also bought parts Aldo Rubino Foundation for him Buenos Aires Museum of Contemporary Art a photo of the Cuban Waldo Balart (proposal an acrylic on canvas from 1979), or the Francesca Thyssen Foundation for TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary in Madrid.

“These works, which cover different artistic disciplines (installation, video, painting, photography, collage), will be part of the Museum’s Collection and will belong to different generations of artists: historical, like Torres-García; creators with consolidated careers such as Marisa Gonzalez oh rose torres; and to younger artists whose works made in the last three years have been acquired,” Reina Sofía reported in a statement.

Some international galleries have avoided being so specific about their performance, such as the case of Jocelyn Wolff from Paris, who participated in ARCO for many years and who reported “successful sales in this edition” or the Beaux-Arts Berlin contemporaries, who reported works sold between 180,000 and 670,000 euros, without specifying the artists.

Several works by the Brazilian painter were also sold at the fair Lucas Arruda including the personal exhibition “Assum Preto”, presented by the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation and organized by Hans-Ulrich Obrist kicked off activities in Madrid, with its inauguration in the splendid Library of the Ateneo de Madrid.

Institutions such as the Museum Collection of the Dos de Mayo Art Center in Móstoles (with the help of the regional government), the City Council of Madrid, which purchased six works, worth 226,000 euros, to be incorporated at the Museum of Contemporary Art -MAC – the Helga de Alvear Foundation and TBA21 Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary.

Argentinian sales

Regarding Argentine artists, the works of Gabriel Chaile, Diego Bianchi, Florence Bohtlingk, Ana Gallardo oh Andrea Ostera They were sold to different collections.

Buy a piece of Ana Gallardo to the Ruth Benzacar gallery to the Argentinian collector living in Miami Jorge Perez; the acquisition of six works by the Arco Foundation itself for its private collection -which has more than 300 pieces- and which incorporated the Argentinian Diego Bianchi (Parisian gallery Jocelyn Wolff) or the sale of one of the Tucuman ovens Gabriel Chaile for 60,000 euros to a European collector, they also make up the results of the five successful days of the fair.

Likewise, other Argentinians monopolized the attention throughout the property, as happened with the pieces of Victor Grippo (a few rare small-format watercolors) sold at the 1 Mira gallery in Madrid, or the installation with 200 kilos of potatoes spread out on a six-meter table, which transforms the potatoes into batteries, which provide energy energy and ignite other elements in the circuit.

In this edition, the International Contemporary Art Fair had four sections organized, including the Mediterranean, as the main theme, and the participation of 211 galleries from 36 countries.