Art fairs as pilgrimage sanctuaries

"…I believe in art. I visit galleries like my mother goes to church."

Sarah Thornton

What are art fairs? They are generally events that are organized by gallery owners’ associations, in cooperation with other public and private institutions. Art fairs are of a social, economic, and cultural nature, which take place in a certain city, which is attended by a group of galleries with their best works of art to show them, mainly for commercial purposes. Gallerists, artists, collectors, and the public interested in visual language meet on this stage, and it is also a timely opportunity to meet and share aesthetic experiences around the different artistic expressions represented and presented by each participating gallery.

In research such as that of Leonardo Santana Viloria, La feria comercial de arte como espacio de redistribución de capital simbólico (2018), we find that the origins of art fairs date back to the Middle Ages, related to religious festivities held by the people who made pilgrimages from remote places to a cult center to which they moved in order to venerate a deity. These trips to places of pilgrimage generated the creation of commercial and tourist components; on the one hand, the pilgrims had to find enclosures where they could settle down temporarily; on the other, they brought products from their regions that they marketed during the trip and in the territory of the festivity. In this way, the religious festivity gradually became a craft fair by creating specific spaces for the exhibition and sale of goods. Paraphrasing the American writer, Sarah Thornton, over time the creed and veneration of a divinity are transferred to art, and churches or sanctuaries are transformed into galleries or art fairs.

With the passage of time, from the artisanal to the industrial pattern, the birth of intermediary figures originated, the bidder, merchant, or dealer, and that of the plaintiff, buyer or collector of the products that were previously exchanged or marketed directly by their producers in the craft fairs. By the way, one of the great events that stimulated the development of international art fairs was the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, also known as The Universal Exhibition, held in 1851 in London, at the Crystal Palace, an event to which several countries of the world sent their industrial and artistic products, where many of an artisanal nature could still be seen.

Among the most important art fairs in the world we can mention Art Basel, which takes place annually in the cities of Basel, Switzerland, Miami Beach and Hong Kong; The European Fine Arts Fair (TEFAF), held in the Netherlands; Art Cologne, which is held annually in Cologne, Germany; Frieze Art Fair, an international fair held in London, New York and Los Angeles; ARCO, international fair that takes place in Madrid, Spain; The Armory Show (International Exhibition of Modern Art), in New York; International Fair of Modern and Contemporary Art (FIAC), held in Paris; Arte Fiera Art First, in Italy; Art Chicago, recognized as one of the leading art fairs in the United States. Of the numerous art fairs that take place in New York, there is Affordable Art Fair in New York, created in 2002, an event that has two annual editions, one in spring and the other in autumn, which take place in the Metropolitan Pavilion, in which, in this second edition of 2022, Arte Original will be participating with some of the artists represented

Now, what will this art fair allow you? Affordable Art Fair in New York will allow you to know the artists, see and enjoy the artworks exhibited there, giving you the opportunity to acquire some of them. In this fair you will be able to contemplate several proposals of contemporary art of national and international artists.

In Affordable Art Fair NYC all people can acquire works of art, the acquisition of these artistic products depends on the economic availability of the person; but, as art is open to everyone, in this space you have many opportunities to find works of very varied and accessible prices, as well as enjoying incredible discounts, which can only be found at fairs.

Why acquire works of art? Well, in addition to generating aesthetic pleasure, enriching you spiritually, ennobling the spaces of your home or office, or increasing your unique collection, works of art also invite you to think, reflect and meditate. In addition, we could say that having a work of art is entering into communion with a part of the artist’s being, it is possessing a significant part of their mysterious and interesting inner world, which is acquired by attending art fairs as pilgrims, a kind of sanctuaries where art is venerated.

Visit us at Stand E-15 of Affordable Art Fair from September 22 to 25! Metropolitan Pavilion. We will be exhibiting the works of 7 of our most unique Latin American artists, at incredible prices. We discover artists from the ground, you will never see them in the US.

Written by José Gregorio Noroño,

Arte Original.

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