The appearance was one of several market trends towards traditional favourite subject matter. They included Australiana, ceramics and misty landscapes.
Sales were “in excess of $8 million” and entries, excluding school children and re-entries, 20,000 visitors.
The gross was unchanged from 2010 but far short of the $11.1 million worth sold in 2010 and $12 million in 2008. But the methodology was different. Last year's total for the new and alternating Sydney fair was a little higher.
MAF has moved to the international standards of tracking attendances by not counting re-entries and children.
The dealers, or gallerists as many prefer to be called, reported buyers dithered less this time. The sales were made more quickly. The average unit sale appears to have been a little lower though still not far short of $10,000.
Brian Martin's charcoal drawings of gum trees on William Mora's stand were around the $9000 mark. All eight were sold and Mora reports a return of a boom time phenomenon, the waiting list. He says he has a dozen clients waiting for more of the works.
Martin, a descendant of the Muruwari, Bundjalung and Kamilaroi peoples, has been exhibiting since 1996. The following year he completed a PhD.
Mora was indulging in a familiar fair practice of devoting most of his stand to an emerging artist in whom he deeply believed. He had works by other artists on his stand but other dealers tended to cast their net more widely.
The gum trees kind-of fitted into this strategy as they have long been a favourite with Australian collectors. Hans Heysen and the rather forgotten van Raalte were the towering figures of the old gum tree school.
Often looked down upon as “craft work”, ceramics are usually showcased by galleries just before Christmas as gifts. They tend to be priced a little more lowly than oils because of the chance they can break.) The collector revival of the ceramic market could be seen at Melbourne's Tolarno Gallery among others.
The gallery premiered Ben Quilty's new Jug sculptures and sold three of the five at $15,000 each.
Tolarno sold two paintings by this ultra fashionable artist at $18,000 and $38,000. The gallery also boasted sales by young and established artists, ranging from a drawing by Martin Bell at $1100 to the major King Lake by Tim Maguire.
Maguire's market over-reached itself just to the global financial crisis but as this misalignment settles, his new work is making its mark with collectors.
King Lake 2012 which is in the slightly more contemporary medium of a Duratron on a large box (three panelled) in an edition of three priced at $75,000, of which two editions were sold at the fair.
In the older and also difficult medium of collage which can come unstuck, Tolarno placed four paintings by Brendan Huntley (each $6,000) and eight of his sculptures ( $5,000 each).
Another well-established Melbourne dealer Niagara Galleries sold 35 pieces from its stable of high profile artists Noel McKenna, Rick Amor and Ken Whisson plus two sculptures by Neil Taylor.
The trend towards offering a spread of gallery artists on each stand was also evident on one the smallest stands when Sydney dealer Michael Reid. Yet this probably produced one of the best bottom line results of the fair with a gross of about $300,000 for an outlay of $20,000.
On previous occasions Reid has had very big stands. He is now multinational with a gallery in Berlin as well as Sydney.
His gross total was achieved despite his absence in Edinburgh for the opening of an exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland by an indigenous artist Danie Mellor.
Reid has a theory that as people become accustomed to seeing images through their mobile phones so “opening up” the works in a small environment makes buyers feel more comfortable.
Another multi-faceted collection was offered by the Sydney gallery Art Equity which has specialised in art investment as a business but is now putting a welcome new emphasis on the gallery side.
Its stand was dominated by a collaborative photographic and painted triptych by Doble & Strong which was one of the first day sales. Works by Louis Pratt and Soren Solkaer also found buyers.
A large composite Buddha by street artist Will Coles did not sell despite its high visibility. This compares with an antique Chinese Buddha which soared to $39,000 at an auction by Lugosi Auctioneers in Sydney the same week.
Another dealer to promote ceramics among other works was Martin Browne Contemporary which sold 15 of 16 Peter Cooley ceramics at up to $8500 each.
As these were mainly kangaroos he could also be said to be participating in a drift to Australiana.
From another multi-artist Sydney gallery stand, Sullivan+Strumpf, a major Sam Leach to a went to a collector described as “excellent” , while five of his smaller works were sold at $6600 each. also did “really well.” They sold for $6600 each.
The gallery's stockroom “fired” with works by another Australiana buff Tony Albert benefiting from his win of the Basil Sellers award and the Telstra awards.
Australian expatriate London dealer Rebecca Hossack, the only one to include the prolific David Bromley's paintings on her stand, had to totally replenish her stand overnight after the vernissage.
A prize international exhibitor, Pearl Lam Gallery, which has bases in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore made one sale at $100,000 plus for a work by Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos; and several others.
A Japanese gallery, Yamaki Fine Art Largely of Chuo-ku Kobe devoted to low priced but imaginatively conceived ceramics, was splashed with red sold stickers.
Huge works by Del Kathryn Barton and Richard Larter did not sell but made impressive wallpaper for the event. Watters Gallery's private vendor of the Larter wants $600,000 for the work.
A Sydney old fair trooper, Bill Gregory, sold two Yirrkala poles for $28,000 and $10,000 in a fair much reduced on its Aboriginal desert painting and barks representation.
His Annandale Gallery also sold several Murray Fredericks photos for $8200 each and five small prints by the South Africa artists William Kentridge at between $3300 and $5500.
Continuing the strong performance of three dimensional works, one Zadok Ben-David sculpture was reserved for $90,000.
The gallery's proprietor Bill Gregory found serious inquiries and collectors were less than usual and had difficulties in selling anything for over $5000.
“The ambience was good due to the better layout of stands and corridors,” Gregory said. “It seems the more the fair goes towards private capital running it “ the better it is,” a comment widely supported.
There appeared to be only three western desert works at Fireworks gallery from Brisbane in the whole fair and only two stands with barks (Alcaston and Annnandale). This represented a seismic shift which auction goers will be already well aware of.
Two years ago the fair came under the same new ownership which also launched the Sydney Art Fair. It was feared that two major art fairs even if in different cities would be too much for Australia. Most dealers interviewed were confident that the Melbourne fair would continue and they would support it.
Quality appeared affected slightly with a beleaguered art trade from which there have been many exits, chasing sales.
MAF's character was also influenced to the more conservative by the departure of the more conceptual and installation artists to the Spring fair in rooms at the Windsor Hotel.
A separately owned and run major innovation, the break appeared to be a plus, as it catered for disaffected dealers and others specialising in the way out contemporary who might have been lost to the occasion.
Nearby to the MAF the Spring Fair is likely to becoming a regular addition to the Melbourne art scene, which the now dominant Sydney fair will have difficulty copying. There is no obvious place for it near the venue of the Sydney fair at Carriage Works.
Such hotel room fairs are now regular events on the New York arts calendar and they show how way-out art can be accommodated in small rooms. Not that one wants to go to the bathroom to find the tub filled with Formaldehyde and a stuffed shark or a seeming bloody body.
