“This is a German fair!” exclaimed Paul Henkel of Palo Gallery from New York, at the newly revived Art Cologne Palma Mallorca, which runs until 12 April at the superbly placed Brutalist Palau de Congressos in the island’s capital, Palma.
Henkel, speaking at yesterday’s VIP opening, is one of just three US galleries to attend the fair: of the 88 exhibitors, 32 are Spanish and another 26 from Germany. The others come from a smorgasbord of countries, including Denmark, South Africa, Latvia, Czech Republic and Norway.
Mallorca has long been a favourite with wealthy Germans who have second homes on the island, and judging from the chatter in the aisles at the fair, the majority of visitors were indeed from Germany.
The decision to restart the fair in Palma came after Art Cologne director Daniel Hug was approached by the local association of galleries, Art Palma Contemporani, and decided to try again. “It didn’t help that the previous location was a leaky old hangar at the airport!” he said: “And what is very important today is that we have government support, as well as enthusiasm from local galleries and other ones further afield.”
Art Cologne Palma Mallorca is held at the Palau de Congressos
Courtesy of Art Cologne Palma Mallorca
That government support consists of around €500,000 and is part of a thrust to build on the considerable cultural aspects of the island. It has numerous art spaces including the Josep Lluís Sert-designed Miró Foundation, as well as, according to Hug, more galleries than in the Gulf. “There is a growing, much more cosmopolitan scene here today compared to a couple of decades ago, and a clear desire to move from ‘fast food’ tourism to cultural tourism,” said Pep Llabres, whose eponymous gallery is one of Palma’s leading contemporary art dealerships.
A stand-out among the German exhibitors was Eigen+Art. Director Gerd Harry Lybke, resplendent in an African textile suit, said he was delighted with sales on the first day. He ticked them off: works by Titus Schade, Ryan Mosley, Maya Behrmann and Neo Rauch, at prices from the low thousands of euros to about €36,000. By the second day he said he had sold virtually everything.
London’s Paul Stolper was showing small spray-painted abstracts by the musician Brian Eno and had placed a number on the first day, each at €1,400. He had also brought photographs by Dora Maar, notably an evocative portrait of the French surrealist Jacqueline Lamba, the wife of André Breton, asking €1,800.
Thin sales at top end
Further up the price scale, things were slower. Kewenig had a large, typically thickly impastoed Anselm Kiefer in yellows and browns. Wer jetzt kein Haus, baut auch keines mehr (2021-22), tagged at €1.3m, did not make an immediate sale, nor did THK gallery from Cape Town place its Baselitz, Horta de Ebro (1988), rumoured to be priced at just under €1m. One exhibitor, Bastian from Berlin, devoted its entire stand to Pablo Picasso, with etchings and notably ceramics, at prices from €6,000 to €20,000, with two unique pieces priced at €69,000. Director Aeneas Bastian said he sold three ceramics almost immediately after the opening.
“If all the promised sales come through, I will be pleased,” said London’s Darren Flook, “But in today’s world, you just don’t know until they are completed.” He did however sell four Jemima Stehli polaroids at £2,500 each to Es Baluard, the local museum of contemporary art.
When asked if the Gulf War was affecting sales, some exhibitors and attendees responded that Mallorca exists in a sort of bubble and so remains unaffected. However, Justus Kewenig of the eponymous Berlin and Mallorca gallery thought the international situation could work to the advantage of the island. “Now that the Emirates and particularly Dubai are no longer a destination,” he said: “Wealthy holiday-makers are more likely to come here…it offers sun, sea and safety!” And indeed, as the sea glittered just beyond the plate glass windows of the congress centre and a cheerful, tanned crowd lunched in the sun on the rooftop, one exhibitor enthused: “It makes total sense to have an art fair here!”