SEOUL — The
art world landed in
Seoul this week for the inaugural edition of Frieze in
Asia, as the vibrant South Korean capital looks to position itself as the region’s
next art hub.
اضافة اعلان
Previous Frieze
fairs have been held in traditional art capitals like London, Paris, and New
York, but industry experts say Seoul was a natural pick for the first Asian
edition of the prestigious event.
South Korea has
emerged as a cultural powerhouse in recent years with the global success of the
Oscar-winning film “Parasite” and the Netflix series “
Squid Game”, and with
K-pop superstars BTS sweeping the Billboard music charts.
“Frieze looks to
cities where there is a vast appreciation of culture,” Patrick Lee, the
inaugural director of Frieze Seoul, told AFP.
People visit the Frieze Seoul 2022 art fair in Seoul on September 2, 2022.
Seoul boasts a rich
art scene, he added, with “incredibly talented artists, world-class museums,
corporate collections, non-profits, biennales, and galleries, which make it an
ideal location for an art fair”.
The fair also takes
place at a time when the art world is turning away from Hong Kong — long
considered the hub of the lucrative Asian art market — over looming financial
and political uncertainties, as well as quarantine restrictions still imposed
on visitors.
“Seoul is
definitely the most vibrant and exciting market in Asia for now,” said Alice
Lung, director of Galerie Perrotin, which opened its second Seoul gallery last
month.
Tim Schneider, art
business editor of Artnet News, said the openings by major Western galleries
like Pace,
Lehmann Maupin, Perrotin, and Thaddaeus Ropac, followed by Frieze,
confirmed that Seoul had “leveled up” on the international art stage.
“Frieze Seoul is
just the final confirmation that the demand has been here,” he told AFP.
COVID boost
The local art
market has seen explosive growth since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic, with
local art fairs seeing record foot traffic and sales figures last year.
“When the borders
were closed for a while, people focused on online viewing,” Lung of Galerie
Perrotin told AFP.
“This helped Korean
artists and galleries grow faster without any physical limitation, bringing in
new collectors,” especially millennials and Generation Z, she said.
During this time,
skyrocketing housing prices prompted many young South Koreans to seek alternate
investment options, such as stocks, cryptocurrency, and, for some, artworks.
incredibly talented artists, world-class museums, corporate collections, non-profits, biennales, and galleries, which make it an ideal location for an art fair
“Many young people
tasted bitter losses from stock and crypto investments and artwork appeared a
safe bet, especially after high-profile success cases,” said Hwang Dal-seung,
president of the Galleries Association of Korea.
The late Samsung
chairman Lee Kun-hee left a trove of antiques and artworks — including works by
Claude Monet, Salvador Dali, and Pablo Picasso — reportedly worth two to three
trillion won ($1.5–2.2 billion) which had soared in value during his
decades-long ownership, Hwang added.
Schneider said
South Korea was a “microcosm of Asia” in terms of the rise of collectors born
after 1980, who now exercise heavy influence on the market.
“Buyers from this
age group and this region have been reshaping the hierarchy of which artists
are most in demand internationally, as well as significantly ramping up the
speed at which artists can transition from the emerging level to blue-chip
prices and global fame,” he added.
The country’s art
market was estimated to be worth around 532.9 billion won in the first half of
2022, according to a July report from the state-run Korea Arts Administration
Service — more than the whole of 2021.
Fresh approach
Thaddaeus Ropac, who opened his Seoul gallery last year, said South Korea
offered a balanced demographic of collectors.
“You have very established collectors who are not
too young anymore and who have incredible experience and who collect art for 30
years or 40 years, and you see the results, which I think is quite astonishing
in its quality,” Ropac told AFP.
“But then you also
feel a very fresh new approach to art” from younger collectors, he added.
The Austrian gallerist,
who began working with
South Korean artists nearly two decades ago, said the
country’s art scene — artists, curators, collectors — had been “built for
generations”.
The arrival of
Frieze Seoul would certainly open new doors for South Korea’s art market, he
said, but it was “also a result of what Seoul has become”.
Schneider added:
“Historically, anytime a grade-A international fair sets up shop in a new city,
it simultaneously confirms that the art-market infrastructure there is
sustainable.”
But he dismissed
framing Seoul’s rise in terms of Hong Kong’s potential fall.
“I think it’s misguided to act as if
Asia — a massive
continent composed of numerous countries with unique cultural histories and
tremendous wealth –– can’t support two legitimate art-market hubs,” he said.
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