The Armory Show 2012 Review

Posted: September 3rd, 2013

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The Armory Show 2012 Review

The Armory Show is considered the largest international art fair in New York and is among the important annual art fairs in the city. This fare is normally conducted along the Hudson River in the 55^th street of Pier 92, 94. In these fairs, both modern and contemporary galleries shed light on fine inventory flaunting young artist from left to right. Personally, I have visited the Armory Show on several past occasions. However, the most recent fair in 2012 prompted me to identify some differences of this particular show compared to previous fairs. On previous occasions, it was notable that piers are normally filled with galleries hailing from across the globe.

In this particular fair however, galleries from Europe and Asia were few. In general, I felt that gallery representation was smaller compared to the fair’s previous presentations. However, I did note that the fair presented a special wing that focused on Nordic countries including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland. At this particular show, audiences were subjected to amazing spectacles with very colorful and conceptual art features. This reason therefore warrants the need of a strong sense of stimulation in order to identify interesting features. Nevertheless, the fair posed several gallery booths that caught my attention.

The first booth was a Richard Heller gallery that had been brought all the way from Santa Monica, bearing fascinating fun and playful artistic features. In additional, the fair also presented many artists hailing from diverse nationalities. One oil painting especially interested me. This painting work was done by Marion Peck in 2011 titled Sacred Grove.  

This piece of art reminded me of Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass. At first glance, it gives the viewer an impression of Renaissance period painting. However, a closer look reveals that dream imagery has been incorporated into her work. The result is a fun, cute looking painting. The second both that seemed to fascinate me was the Howard Greenberg Gallery which has its roots in New York. This artwork is a marvelous representation of photography work. In this case, two photographers caught my attention. One photograph is Saul Leiter’s 6panels of photography that features daily street sceneries. This photograph gives the view a feeling of melancholy, muted and colored. In a way, I had a feeling romantic warm feeling the very moment I viewed this photograph. The second photographer who interested me is Weegee. This was not the first time I savored Weegee’s work. His other works often exhibited photojournalism works and crime scenes. This particular photo however was a very different piece of work titled “The Critic”. Weegee’s work fascinated me because it featured a drunken woman in the midst of fancy gallery visitors. Weegee could have decided to cut the drunken women from the photo but he decided not to. This in my opinion is an interesting piece of art.

When I moved on to the third booth, I was fascinated by the pier 92 gallery that featured modern arts from London including Allan and Cristea galleries. They also included names of big and famous artists. In addition, I also found this gallery interesting not only because I have a passion for Wesselmann and Julian Opie, I was also interested by how the art works were displayed. In an honest point of view, it is not easy to pose a lovely piece of display at the Armory Show because the booths do not possess adequate space. A point to note however that Allan Cristea’s possessed the biggest gallery compared to the rest. They had a well-arranged and organized work of art with an effective display. In particular, I found Julian’s work and the space organization rather interesting. It was a magnificent piece of site in my opinion.

As I walked around the show, I could not help but marvel at the lovely pieces of work and art. If I had a privilege of spending 40 dollars on this particular occasion, I would have considered purchasing the following. Two works in particular appeared to be clinging in my head. One was from the Allan Cristea gallery done by Tom Wesslemann. This is a small piece of work entitled Study for House and Barn in Distance. I think the bright conspicuous image brought forth by the art would have a perfect illumination in my room, therefore would have been a reasonable purchase. In addition, it is fascinating to look at and would be nice to possess a painting done by a famous artist.

The second piece of art I would have considered to buy was Giorgio Morandi’s Natura Morta at Galleria D’arte maggiore from Bologna. This artwork exhibited a somewhat rough textural coloration that had a seemingly still life imagery that fascinated me. This I a piece of art I admired and the grayish background develop a good visual ambiance to my house. In conclusion, the 2012 Armory show was rather smaller compared to previous fairs. However, this does not deviate from the fact that this was a brilliant opportunity to admire the wide range of artistic works from international artists.

In modern art shows, art works are seemingly overlapping a lot. Only a few famous artists such as Tom Wesselmann, Picasso, Alen Kratz, and Andy Warhol managed to avail themselves. It is my hope that next year’s Armory Show will be more challenging.