| Description | ‘The Nineties’ was a section of Frieze Art Fare 2016 that comprised a series of one man shows, exhibited simultaneously. The section revisited seminal art exhibitions from the 1990s highlighting key collaborations between dealers and artists that have had a lasting impact on contemporary art.
‘The Nineties’ was a response to the significant institutional attention to this decade – for example, the New Museum’s 2013 exhibition ‘NYC 1993’ or the group show ‘Récit d’un temps court’. It recreated critical moments that first took place in galleries across London, Paris, Cologne and New York. The Nineties featured galleries that are both new to the fair and presented within the main section, as well as era-defining spaces that no longer exist. The exhibitions were selected by Geneva-based curator Nicolas Trembley.
The inclusion of artist Richard Billingham comprised a ‘replica’ exhibition of his first and seminal solo exhibition at the Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London, 1996. The 1996 exhibition was a an edited selection of his first serious photographic body of work called ‘Ray’s a Laugh’. The Frieze exhibition comprised the same iconic gallery works as the 1996 historical show. Works from the 1996 exhibition were also later included in the ‘Sensation’ exhibition at the Royal Academy, 1997, further establishing the work in art and photographic history. Critic Adrian Searle (The Guardian) wrote of Billingham’s Frieze show – “…They remain wonderful, awful images, and have more bite than much at the fair, or anywhere else come to that..”
Also in the section, Massimo De Carlo gallery, Milan, revisited ‘Aperto ’93’ - the exhibition at the Venice Biennale conceived by Helena Kontova and Giancarlo Politi, which introduced a generation of artists to the global stage including Maurizio Cattelan, Carsten Höller and Rikrit Tiravanija.
Other exhibitions included Wolfgang Tillmans’s very first exhibition at Daniel Buchholz’s gallery in 1993, then located in his father’s Cologne bookshop and a series of performances ‘Characters to be reactivated’ (1991-1995) by French artist Pierre Joseph, which contributed to the art world’s understanding of ‘relational aesthetics’ (Air de Paris, Paris).
The participating Galleries in The Nineties Section at Frieze London 2016 were 303 Gallery, New York; Air de Paris, Paris; Buchholz, Berlin; Galerie Andrea Caratsch, St. Moritz; Massimo De Carlo, Milan; Thomas Dane, London; Karsten Schubert, London; Mehdi Chouakri, Berlin/Salon 94, New York/Sprüth Magers, Berlin; Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin; Galerie Neu, Berlin and Esther Schipper, Berlin. |
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