Evolution of the Art Fair

Abstract

This paper focuses on one of the key facets of the global art market, the art fair. Art fairs, which have proliferated in recent years and can be found in large numbers all over the globe, provide a crucial infrastructure for the sale and exhibition of works of art. Despite their current popularity, however, the history of the art fair, the development of its organisational form, and its importance to the market and society have largely been neglected in scholarly studies. Therefore, this paper adopts an evolutionary approach to better understand the development of the art fair, including its network-like structure, and how it became the core business structure of the contemporary art world. This paper demonstrates that art fairs inherited a great number of business practices from previous times, such as observational principles for the creation of prices, aesthetic features, and branding strategies to emphasize their outstanding and almost religious nature. Furthermore, the paper shows that the network-like structure of the art fair has contributed to its contemporary success.

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The evolution of the art fair
Morgner, Christian
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Historical Social Research 39 (2014) 3, 318-336 │© GESIS
DOI: 10.12759/hsr.39.2014.3.318-336
The Evolution of the Art Fair
Christian Morgner∗
Abstract: »Die Evolution der Kunstmesse«. This paper focuses on one of the key
facets of the global art market, the art fair. Art fairs, which have proliferated in
recent years and can be found in large numbers all over the globe, provide a
crucial infrastructure for the sale and exhibition of works of art. Despite their
current popularity, however, the history of the art fair, the development of its
organisational form, and its importance to the market and society have largely
been neglected in scholarly studies. Therefore, this paper adopts an evolution-
ary approach to better understand the development of the art fair, including its
network-like structure, and how it became the core business structure of the
contemporary art world. This paper demonstrates that art fairs inherited a
great number of business practices from previous times, such as observational
principles for the creation of prices, aesthetic features, and branding strategies
to emphasize their outstanding and almost religious nature. Furthermore, the
paper shows that the network-like structure of the art fair has contributed to
its contemporary success.
Keywords: Networks, evolutionary economics, history art market, art fair,
economy and society.
1. Introduction
There is no doubt that the art fair has become one of the key events in the glob-
al art market. In their market report in 2005, the art magazine ‘Art + Auction’
described the current era as ‘the age of the art fair’ (as cited in Eckstein 2006),
and Paco Barragán’s (2008) publication ‘The Art Fair Age’ has similarly
dubbed our time. Besides auction houses and galleries, the art fair is an essen-
tial business for the generation of sales in the visual arts market. Art fairs pro-
vide a crucial infrastructure for local and international art markets around the
globe, and have become an important industry unto themselves (Rubalcaba-
Bermejo and Cuadrado-Roura 1995). Not only do art fairs employ a considera-
ble number of workers and have a significant impact on local markets due to
their status as tourist destinations, but they can also influence the branding
strategies of a city and collaborate with a number of other industries, such as
advertising, the hotel sector, art handling, and educational programmes (Eck-
∗ Christian Morgner, International Communication and Culture, University of Leicester, Uni-
versity Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, Great Britain; cm570@leicester.ac.uk.

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 319
stein 2006). In consequence, study of art fairs has grown over the last decade.
Studies have examined a broad range of art or art-related fairs, such as luxury
furniture fairs, high-class fashion weeks, designers, architectural shows, or art
fairs (see Larson 1994; Skov 2006; Power and Jansson 2008), all of which exist
in a contemporary setting. However, the focus of these studies has often not
been on the fair itself, but, for instance, on specific galleries attending art fairs,
or the effects of art fairs on export markets, platforms of knowledge exchange,
identity formation, or market strategies (see Corrado and Boari 2007; Moeran
2011; Yogev and Grund 2012). Publications that dealt with the art fair in par-
ticular addressed mostly the glitz and celebrity status of these events (see
Thornton 2008; Thompson 2011) and did not discuss the socio-institutional
features on which these ephemeral qualities might be based. However, as
Morgner (2014) has demonstrated, the success of the art fair is to be seen in its
structuration based on the concept of the network. Network refers in this con-
text to three qualities, 1) the art fair is a network as it links up art dealers, pro-
fessionals and collectors from distant regions, creating a small-world network,
2) it is a network of mutual observation and 3) it is a network as its results, for
instance, related sales or presentation of new talents, sets out criteria for other
players in the market, which are thereby drawn into its network and aims to
activate the weak ties in the market. As Morgner (2014) indicates this structural
invention is not just a modern phenomenon, but is based on a long institutional
history. However, this aspect remains largely unexplored. Therefore, it is the
goal of this paper to shed light on the historical-institutional background of the
art fair by adopting an evolutionary approach to better understand how the
development of particular structural elements (evolutionary theory speaks of
pre-adaptive advances), namely a network-like structure, has contributed to the
rise of the art fair and how it became the core business event of the contempo-
rary art world with all its associated qualities of the glitzy and exceptional.
In examining the historical evolution of the art fair, this paper will attempt
to answer three questions: how has the structure of the network contributed to
the rise of the art fair despite many historical transformations?; what have been
the core institutional features of the art fair as network over time?; and to what
extent is has the contemporary art fair implemented the these previous develop-
ments and thereby enabled its current success? In seeking answers to these ques-
tions, this paper does not simply aim to extend knowledge of the art fair, but also
to reconstruct the selective nature of its evolution, to show how changes in socie-
tal structure have favoured and fostered new features of the art fair, and to recog-
nize that the historical evolution has resulted in a differentiation of different types
of art fairs (e.g., mission art fairs, niche art fairs, peripheral art fairs).
In order to answer the aforementioned questions, this paper will focus on
three socio-historical settings throughout the overall development of the art fair
that provided important structural features for later developments. The first part
of this paper is devoted to the role of religious festivals, which played an im-

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 320
portant role in settings up some core institutional features, but more important
to cloak these structures through a related semantic. In the second part of the
paper, the rise of the artisanal fair as a new type of business and development
toward the art fair will be discussed, as the artisanal fair developed several
important organisational features that were adopted in many different regions
of the globe. The focus is here on the external reach of the art fair and its inter-
nal organisation, which enabled the creation of prices and transactions. The last
part of this paper is devoted to the rise of the contemporary art fair, and will
pay particular attention to the early development, spread, proliferation and
changing functions of the art fair in the last sixty years.
2. Religious Festivals, Fairs, and Messen
Fairs are thought to have originated from religious festivals, pilgrimages, and
other gatherings of worshippers in which religion was blended with commerce
(Walford 1967). In ancient times, religious festivals occurred on particular days
of the year and were related to seasons or the name days of specific gods.
These festivals were known in virtually all of the great ancient empires, includ-
ing the Roman and Greek Empires, the Aztec and Inca Kingdoms, and during
the Han-Dynasty (see Wilson 1847; Wrigley 1919; Pierssens and Bradshaw
1972; Lazarus-Yafeh 1978; Cohn 2011). These civilisations were each marked
by strong social differentiation, including the division of labour. Throughout
the history of civilization, clerical castes began to emerge, and hierarchical
organisation grew to progressively dominate social structures (for an overview,
see Finer 1997). The status and power of the ruling elite came to be legitimised
through a religious codification of the god-like ruler who possessed other-
worldly qualities.
The annual religious festivals of these civilizations were important because
they were meant to confirm the exceptional qualities of the ruling elite by
means of a display that gathered together the vast population of an empire
(Wrigley 1919; Pierssens and Bradshaw 1972; Cohn 2011). For the organisa-
tion of such festivals, the daily activities of a population had to be interrupted
or even stopped, and people from different areas, tribes, and strata had to gather
in a single location. This in turn required a sufficient transportation system, and
in particular, safe roads that could only be secured by a powerful ruling elite.
Furthermore, to confirm the exceptional nature of the event, it had to be attrac-
tive so that a vast number of people would come. Finally, the people attending
the event had to be fed, and in many cases they would bring food, goods, and
other valuable items with them. These events made use of the networks as
follows. They reached out into every corner of the empire, like a spider in a
web and thereby gathering vast numbers of the population to one location and a
particular time. At these gathering the elite could ‘educate’ their audience,

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 321
inform them about general norms and rules, but the audience could also experi-
ence the other-worldy quality of the ruler or ruling elite. The event ensured that
the norms and rules, where not relevant within the festival, but reached out into
the territory being ruled. The religious events was, therefore, based on a struc-
tural model of a small-world network. Small-world does in this case not so
much refer on the number of links or connections, but on the density created
and the strong ties being temporality formed (on this dynamic, see Watts 1999).
It is in this context that events developed a semantic describing their extrav-
agant quality, which draws on the structural features of the network. The word
‘fair’ derives from the Latin feriae meaning holidays, or, holy days. The term
also speaks to being free of labour (feriata) (Walford 1967). The German word
for fair, Messe, speaks to the religious origins of fairs as well. Messe literally
means religious mass, but referred historically to any large-scale religious
event. The German word itself derives from the Latin missa, which refers to the
religious event of the last supper (Mohrmann 1958). However, missa also re-
fers to the Greek pompe, which means a mission or festive procession
(Mohrmann 1958). In summary, the semantic fair embodies three notions: 1)
the festive, splendid, and extravagant through connecting distant lands and
foreign items; 2) an interruption of daily life, people were being summoned;
and 3) a particular purpose or mission, which meant to linkup the social life of
these empire apart from the festive occasions.
An important side-effect of the linking of distant lands and people was the
accumulation of a large number of items, some of which might be rare and
therefore of great value, in a small geographical area. Precious gifts were thus
brought to festive events, and special temporary houses were erected for the
presentation of these goods. Due to the influx of goods during religious festi-
vals, which were very important to and deeply embedded in the customs of
ancient societies, the festivals became increasingly associated with trade.
Members of the elite that could afford luxury items were present at the festivals
to acquire them for social distinction. The infrastructure of the old kingdoms
and empires enabled the transport of rare goods, and resources were available
so that these events could occur on a regular basis (Burbank and Cooper 2010).
The regularity of imports in turn led to the idea of a consistent regular market.
Producers and sellers knew that on the same festival day of the following year
they would have the opportunity to sell certain types of goods (Mead 1967).
Karl Polyani (1975) has discussed the transformation from gift trade within
religious festivals to the market trade of fairs, which was a trend that occurred
in most of the great civilisations (for an overview, see the special issue of the
Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin, 5: La Foire, 1953).1
1 The Inca elite or council ordained festive occasions when labourers were to come in from
the fields to the market and such events were called catu, or later catto or cattu (Wrigley
1919). The Chinese Temple Fair (miao-houei) underwent a similar transformation, from a

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 322
While religious festivals were rooted in spirituality, and all attendants were
to believe in shared values, these festivals developed a central platform for the
presentation of valuable goods and amassed a great number of people from
distant lands, including powerful elites. The religious event not only provided a
structure from which more business-like structures could develop, but also
brought a context of religious symbolism to the very actions of business. This
religious quality persists in the buying and viewing of art to this day. For ex-
ample, Sarah Thornton (2008, xi) defines the art market as a group of believers:
‘The contemporary art world is a loose network of overlapping subcultures
held together by a belief in art.’
3. The Development of the Artisanal Fair
Early fairs did not emerge as exclusive art fairs,2 but as artisanal fairs3 that
developed as an unintended effect of religious festivals. Religious festivals
were, however, more frequent and held in a wide range of different locations.
In contrast, the important annual artisanal fairs were smaller in number and
occurred only at a few particular locations. The early artisanal fairs were a
common fixture in the Roman Empire. With the disintegration of the Roman
Empire in the late 5th century, however, all such organised commerce ceased
until the late 7th century and the rise of the Frankish Kingdom. The fair estab-
lished at Saint-Denis near Paris is an early example of great importance for the
later institutional development of artisanal fairs in Europe. From here such fairs
spread eastwards4 to the Champagne and Flanders regions in the 12th and 14th
centuries respectively. In particular, the fairs in Champagne proved to be of
great importance for the developing economic practices of the artisanal fair.
From here the fair business extended to Geneva and Lyon until the religious
wars in France in the 16th century, when the golden age of fairs in Germany
and England emerged. Yet such fairs went into decline again in the 18th centu-
ry while moving further east into Russia trade (the fair in Nijni Novgorod),
which greater connected Europe and Asia in. The Russian fairs, however, went
out of business in the late 19th century (Allix 1922).
public religious event in which many commodities and types of entertainment were pre-
sented, including Chinese opera, horseracing, magical and medical treatments, works of art,
and religious rituals, into a commercial or festive occasion (Balazs 1993; Lai 2004).
2 The term artisanal is used because the main focus of the fair was on the crafted quality of
the goods. Paintings or sculptures were therefore together with other similar items.
3 The term artisanal is used because the main focus of the fair was on the crafted quality of
the goods. Paintings or sculptures were therefore together with other similar items.
4 This development has been similar in other regions of the globe (In the case of Latin-
America, see Wrigley 1919 and for China, see Balazs 1953).

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 323
The particular quality of the artisanal fair was no longer through its association
with the sacred, but due to its quality as a platform for sales, formation of prices,
creation of further transactions and rarity of the items being traded.5 It therefore
relied on some previous structural features of the festival. The gathering of rare
items and people from distant lands and their exchange and delivery to other
distant regions.6 However, as it will be shown the artisanal fair reformulated the
inner structure of the fair. Whereas the religious festivals employed them as
platforms to transmit their clerical and political messages, the artisanal fair made
use of the fair as a platform for mutual observation. The linking up of observa-
tions was important for two reasons, the creation of prices for similar goods and
the importance of aesthetic appeal and display for a better differentiation.
3.1 Economic Integration and Formation of Prices
In the 12th century, the great fairs of Champagne appeared. These cities were
located near major caravan route intersections, but more importantly, the no-
bles of these regions (Henry the Liberal and Theobald the Great) managed to
create a protective system for those travelling to these fairs, as well as for those
who conducted business at them (Bautier 1953; Berlow 1971; Schönfelder
1988; Edwards and Ogilvie 2011). In regards to these fairs, two particular
network-like features stand out, the so-called ‘conduct of fairs’ and the ‘ward
of fairs’. The former refers to a protective system for all merchants travelling to
a fair. Since such protection could in principle only be exercised on the territo-
ry under the direct rule of a lord, a system of neighbouring lords had to be
established to ensure the conduct of travellers. Thus, the organisers of the fair
ensured that merchants from distant lands could be linkup at a particular loca-
tion. The ‘ward of fairs’ principle refers to a system of wardens or police that
protected trade at a fair by ensuring that contracts were fulfilled, and that its
attendants and goods were kept safe. If a contract went unfulfilled, the wardens
could sanction the perpetrator by confiscating their goods, or by excluding
them from the fair. The fairs “were regularly frequented by merchants from all
parts of Europe and northern Africa, Palestine and Syria, and Asia Minor”
(Alliex 1922, 536). They were also visited by Russian and Chinese merchants.
Due to their international nature, the fairs thus had to install a financial system
of credit and money clearing (as all sorts of ‘currencies’ were circulated), as
5 The rarity of the items at these fairs was a result of three main factors: 1) materials were
not readily available to buyers in the area of the festival; 2) nor was the expertise of a mas-
ter craftsman available to make the items; and 3) the fair occurred only a few times a year,
which restricted access to the items. Thus, the geographical location of a fair was of great
importance, where for a short time these rare goods would be concentrated (for more de-
tails on the notion of rarity, see Moulin 1978).
6 As Walford states, “the great fairs have succeeded because of their situation on great
highways of communication” (1967, 541).

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 324
well as ensure that debts incurred by merchants from far off would be paid.
This aspect was of great importance, because it assured that the business and
transactions conducted at the fair, would not only be binding within its imme-
diate and interactive setting, but stretch out and thereby integrate and linkup the
sales-partners outside of the fair.
As such, the new artisanal fair evolved into a central institution of pre-
modern economies. These economies relied on two key institutions: the house-
hold, and patron-client relationships (Egner 1985; Lytle and Orgel 1981). The
concern of the household was the provisioning of its members, while patron-
client relationships were built on a concept of mutual exchange (for instance,
providing protection in exchange for goods). Both structures were thus based
on a concept of subsistence economy that did not provide a great surplus of
resources (Egner 1985). Therefore, the artisanal fair became an important struc-
ture in this kind of economy, as it allowed for economic surplus and profit with
regard to scarce items (Epstein 1994). These network-like structures are not
different from older models. The linking-up of merchants in an interactive
setting brought about a new possibility within this mere economic setting,
namely, the formation of prices through mutual and direct observation. The
market model inherent is that of the market as mirror, as developed in the theo-
ry of the network by Harrison C. White (1981). The main idea of White’s mod-
el is that the formation of prices is not according to their possible demand, but
due to the observation of other competitors in the market. As it will be shown
the spatial structure of the artisanal fair is crucial is providing a platform of a
comparative nature, which resembles modern markets. In this context, it is
important to mention that the production of goods was not very standardised at
the time, thus the quality of products varied. This is one of the main reasons
why the buyer, seller, and goods all had to be in one location: goods could be
inspected and prices could be negotiated first hand. As Face (1958) notes that
the fairs were divided into different temporal stages. Goods could only be sold
on particular days of the fair. Thus, within a number of days, all of the goods of
a particular category were amassed at the fair and could thereby be compared.7
Prices were then determined by comparing the different products, and as such
they were an observational category. Harrison C. White (2008) notes that a
network is formed when elements of the network try control other elements and
when these elements led themselves being guided by these control efforts.
Thus, prices were formed through linking and contrasting the different goods
being presented.
7 This arrangement support the bandwith hypothesis, which suggests that strong and redun-
dant connections ensure a reliable flow of data, so that everyone in the network is in-
formed. In such a setting the impression of certainty is much more likely to develop.

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 325
3.2 Display, Arrangement, and Aesthetic Appeal
The temporal organisation of the fairs, as well as the great numbers of mer-
chants, were arranged according to the goods sold. This ensured that the same
products could be compared to others in the same category. Due to this, the
spatial organisation of the fair naturally began to develop along with questions
of display and aesthetic appeal. Daniel Defoe (1927) provides a vivid account
of the Stourbridge fair8 in his A Trip to the Stourbridge Faire:
the shops are placed in rows like streets, whereof one is call’d Cheapside; and
here, as in several other streets, are all sorts of trades, who sell by retale, and
who come principally from London with their goods; scarce any trades are
omitted, goldsmiths, toyshops, brasiers, turners, milleners, haberdashers, hat-
ters, mercers, drapers, pewtrers, china-warehouses, and in a word all trades
that can be named in London; with coffee-houses, taverns, brandy-shops, and
eating-houses, innumerable, and all in tents, and booths (81).
In the next citation, Defoe goes on to describe important parameters of the fair,
namely, its size and the wide range of industries it covers. The fair had an
orderly arrangement, including rows with designated labels and shops gathered
in a specific area in tents or booths. If the fairs were not organised in an open
space, they were held in temporary buildings or tents that were specifically
erected for the fair. There was also a pavilion with refreshments for the various
classes of visitors.
In another street parallel with the road are like rows of booths, but larger, and
more intermingled with wholesale dealers, and one side, passing out of this
last street to the left hand, is a formal great square, form’d by the largest
booths, built in that form, and which they call the Duddery […] This place is
separated, and peculiar to the wholesale dealers in the woollen manufacture.
Here the Booths, or tents, are of a vast extent, have different apartments, and
the quantities of goods they bring are so great, that the insides of them look
like another Blackwell-Hall, being as vast ware-houses pil’d up with goods to
the top. In this Duddery, as I have been inform’d, there have been sold one
hundred thousand pounds worth of woollen manufactures in less than a
week’s time […] I saw one ware-house, or booth, with six apartments in it, all
belonging to a dealer in Norwich stuffs only, and who they said had there
above twenty thousand pounds value, in those goods, and no other (81).
The above passage speaks to the functional and aesthetic way that booths and
products would be arranged to enhance the quality of the goods. The quality of
the display of the goods presented is enhanced by a clustering of similar indus-
8 The Stourbridge Fair was one of England’s most important fairs. It was established in the
12th century, but went, with the arrival of canals and improved roads, into decline in the
late 18th century. Dafoe’s account refers to the later stages of the fair, but the peripheral
status also meant that the fair could survive relatively untouched in contrast to its conti-
nental counterparts. Additionally, it can be said that similar, but more fragmented, accounts
have survived of earlier fairs (see Addison 1953).

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 326
tries and products. Booths at the squares appear to be of a higher quality, as
they were easier to spot, and the quantity of products is astonishing and surpris-
ing. Furthermore, the vast tents give an impression of greatness, providing the
retailers with a semblance of glamour.
3.3 The Rise of the Dealer
The buyer-seller relationship at fairs was usually a direct one. Those who
brought the goods to the fair owned them, and buyers bought them for them-
selves (for their own consumption or further trade). Early on, a middleman or
dealer who organised the business at a fair was not common. However, this
changed in 16th century Antwerp and at the early book fairs.9 The city of Ant-
werp became a great place of trade in the 16th century, with a respectable por-
tion of foreign merchants living in the city and exporting goods to many re-
gions. Art professionals thus found therein a well-developed market, an
audience for their products, and skilled workers. As proto-industrial workshops
introduced the division of labour and standardised production methods, the
commercial infrastructure of Antwerp could boast sales en masse to an interna-
tional clientele. New formats and themes (landscape paintings and depictions
of everyday life) emerged as the city reacted to a new community of buyers,
and Antwerp progressively became the leading centre of commercial trade in
Europe (Stock 1993).
It is in this context that the first dealers and their shops, called Schilder-
panden (the painters’ hall), first appeared (Vermeylen 2000, 2001). The word
pand means gallery or cloister, a place where one sells certain merchandise or
walks around. The panden were once the central sales platforms run by reli-
gious institutions, but new forms of commercialisation eventually overtook the
Schilderspanden (Vermeylen 2002, 81). The Schilderspanden became linked to
artisanal fairs as art dealers could lease a booth from fair organisers (for exam-
ple, the civic government of Antwerp). Here, for a temporary period, art dealers
could come together and form a collection of dealers to attract a local and in-
ternational clientele. The art dealer became a brokerage structure, which over-
comes gaps in the network (see Burt 2005, 15), namely the dealer links seller
and buyers, but also enables the sales through provision of external funding. On
this basis the dealers formed large network of friends, families, and other pro-
fessionals. They had the education, social capital, and man-power to organise
and build ties with buyers and artisans from other countries for sales in distant
regions (Vermeylen 2006).
9 The early book fairs developed a similar type of dealer, known as the publisher (see Wei-
dhaas 2003, 31).

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 327
3.4 The Decline of the Artisanal Fairs
With improvements in communication and transportation in the 17th and 18th
centuries, as well as the global standardisation of goods that came with the age
of the machine, the artisanal fair was gradually replaced by the sample fair
(Luckhurst 1951), where local, national, and international fairs would assemble
their objects. In contrast to artisanal fairs, these fairs were not designed to sell
products on the spot, but to encourage industrial production and advertise new
items. While these industrial exhibitions began to present artworks from vari-
ous countries, they did not immediately become the leading structure for art
fairs, as the French salon style of art exhibition and similar forms in other
countries were still quite popular (White and White 1965).10 This period of the
French salon and industrial exhibitions was short-lived, and with the decline of
world exhibitions and the academies due the collapse of the European Empires
and aristocratic class, older models of selling precious works enjoyed a reviv-
al.11 The market of commissioning works was replaced by a market of collec-
tors. Nonetheless, this type of art market was still in its infancy, and would
require the sales platforms provided by the great cities of the early 20th century
to truly flourish.
4. Contemporary Art Fairs
It is not surprising that contemporary art fairs emerged in countries such as
Germany and Switzerland.12 Cities such as New York City, London, or Paris
had already attained a high density of networked art dealers, yet those in Ger-
many and Switzerland had no such concentrations. While in Cologne there
were only a few modern galleries before 1967, the Rhineland had a solid base
of collectors and an overall stable market. While art dealers were scattered
across Germany, they were well-connected via informal networks that were
hidden to the international art market. Art Cologne thus meant to provide a
platform where, through the concentration of art dealers and through which a
10 The Salon exhibitions or early biennials did not include dealers, but a juried commission
selected the artists, who sold their works directly. Few contemporary art fairs have copied
this model.
11 At religious festivals around the Place Dauphine in Paris, a sort of art market/fair emerged,
where everybody could display and sell their items.
12 There were other experiments around this time, like street fairs, with the 57th Street Art
Fair in Chicago as an early example of such a juried exhibition. These fairs copied the Salon
exhibitions or early biennales, but only assembled the artists and not art dealers. This type
of fair remained in a minor position in the overall art market.

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 328
greater visibility for the German art market could be achieved (Baus 2000).13
Early attempts at structured selling in Cologne included holding an art exhibi-
tion (much like Kassel’s Dokumente) (see Baus 2000, 50), but the structure of
the art fair ultimately proved more successful for Art Market Cologne (Kunst-
markt Köln), later to be called Art Cologne. As Art Cologne fair was modelled
after the Stuttgart Antiquarian Book Fair (a fair of highly valued and rare ob-
jects) (Mehring 2008), it was felt that it should pay attention to its self-
presentation and quality of display so as to bring international attention to
Germany throughout the year.14 In the beginning, Art Cologne was geograph-
ically restricted to German galleries. It was also restricted in terms of its space,
and thus to a certain number of attendees. These constraints led to the for-
mation of another art fair, namely Art Basel. Although Art Basel was mainly
local in terms of art dealers and collectors, these attending dealers expressed an
interest in finding collectors from abroad. Basel’s fair is similar to Cologne’s in
terms of its arrangement and display (both resembled artisanal or antique fairs)
(cf. Harris 2011), and only art dealers, not auction houses or single artists,
could participate. There was a juried selection process, and the art dealers had
to rent a booth within the fair. Art Basel utilized a dual network structure upon its
inception: first, it sought to assemble informal networks of art dealers and galler-
ies at one place at a particular time to facilitate connections between them and
expand their outlook. Second, it created a network that connected dealers, collec-
tors, and professionals from outside of the local networks attending the fair.
This arrangement of these contemporary art fairs resembles earlier events,
where a certain number of professional art dealers come together under one
roof to display and sell paintings, sculptures, and other craftworks, such as
silverware or jewellery. However, the contemporary arrangement stressed the
notion of the network itself. The linking-up of the different art dealers meant
that they would not only pass their reputation upon each other, but also to the
event itself. Art Cologne or Art Basel became labels of their own bringing
greater attention to the location and attracting an international clientele. The
dealers can multiply their efforts by networking with other dealers and acquir-
ing new buyers. For instance, buyer that would come for a particular gallery,
could also discover artists of other art dealers. Thus, the contemporary art fair
embraces, in particular, the role of weak ties for their organisation (see Grano-
vetter 1973). Whereas former fairs had to rely on a network of direct or strong
ties, it is now the quality of potential contacts or weak ties, which the fairs
means to activate.
13 The art fair combines the concept of the network in two ways; 1) as a linking up of re-
sources, also common among family businesses (see Colli 2003, 24) and 2) a linking up of
information and mutual observation, which is typical for creative industrial districts (see
Camagni and Salone 1993).
14 This idea was soon copied, and the fair ‘Prospect 68’ opened its doors in Dusseldorf in 1969.

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 329
Art Cologne and Art Basel were both highly successful
15
in employing this
kind of network structure, it is no wonder that FIAC in Paris and Arte Fiera in
Bologna both reproduced the structure in 1974. Since the late 1960s, the num-
ber of art fairs has grown to the point where several hundred are known to exist
today.
Figure 1: Number of Art Fair Foundations, 1954-2011
Source: Artfacts 2011 and my own research, n= 315 Art Fairs.
Until the 1990s, the foundation-rate of art fairs remained relatively low, with
no more than one or two founded each year. This was due to the function of the
art fair up to that point, which sought to create a network only for galleries
located in or specialising in a peripheral market. The first great art fairs did not
emerge in places such as London or New York City, but in countries that did
not possess a great concentration of galleries in a particular city and did not
have a highly developed art market. These countries’ galleries were often geo-
graphically scattered or clustered in relatively small areas, which, as a result,
could not attract wide attention. Nonetheless, they possessed an array of
wealthy collectors, or were able to attract them from abroad. The first type of
these art fairs appeared in cities such as Basel, Cologne, Ghent, Madrid, Brus-
sels or Bologna, which were not hotspots in the international art market before
the 1990s.
15
Within five days, a turnover of 1 million German Marks was achieved at the first Art Co-
logne. At that time, a new VW had a price of about 5,000 German Marks. The price of a VW
was therefore three times higher than the price of a painting by Gerhard Richter, which cost
1,500 German Marks.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1954
1970
1975
1980
1982
1985
1987
1989
1991
1993
1995
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
2011

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 330
In the late 1980s, a second type of art fair, the niche art fair, appeared in
places such as New York City and London. These small fairs were closely
attached to the hot spots of the world art market, and thus could make use of an
existing network of art dealers. The niche art fair brought attention to more
peripheral products that were usually not exhibited, namely, works on paper,
drawings, watercolours, and other similar works. In 1988, art fair producer
Sanford Smith (1988, n.p.) observed that ‘Almost every gallery [he] visited had
a closet full of works on paper; drawings, prints, watercolours […] Works that
could not compete with more expensive artworks for wall space.’ One year
later, Smith founded the art fair ‘Works on Paper’ in New York City.
Table 1: Niche Art Fairs Founded in the 1980s
Name of the Fair Foundation Location
London Art Fair 1988 London (England)
20/21 British Art Fair 1988 London (England)
The London Original Print Fair 1985 London (England)
Modernism: A Century of Style and Design 1986 New York City, NY
IFPDA – The International Fine Print Dealers Association 1987 New York City, NY
The ADAA Art Show 1988 New York City, NY
Works on Paper 1989 New York City, NY
Source: Artfacts 2011 and my own research.
Niche fairs (Table 1) are located within a well-developed market and require a
varied structure because their attending galleries tend to be engaged in side
businesses. London-based shows have focused on prints, drawings, and other
such mediums, typically by British modernist artists only. New York-based
shows have focused on prints and fine art. All of these shows were founded in
the late 1980s during a brief boom in the art market, when financial security,
the economic bubble in Japan, and other markets contributed to constantly
rising prices and specialisation within the world market. In this context, a new
wave of dealers and artists began to market themselves. The art market devel-
oped such a great demand that even niche products could, if presented in a
more cohesive or condensed form, be successfully sold (Ardenne 1995). In
sum, the active and strong art markets of economic centres and a developing
periphery in the world art market contributed to the revival of the art fair. Art
dealers from distant countries would present their unique selections in a partic-
ular space at a particular time, and create an atmosphere of exceptional art to
attract even more dealers and professionals from abroad.
However, the golden years of the art fair came to an abrupt end in the late
1980s with the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy (Hiraki 2009).16 The
16 With the collapse of the Japanese bubble economy in the late 1980s, Japan lost its signifi-
cant position as an importer of paintings, drawings and other works of art, from 36.1%
($3.4 billion) in 1990, down to 6.6% in 1995, to a mere 4.1% in 1998 (Ramsdale 2000, 41).

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 331
art market faltered, and many galleries went bankrupt while several were on the
brink of closure. This turbulence in the market was felt both in central art loca-
tions and throughout the periphery. Thus, art dealers developed two strategies
to cope with the social turbulence. Established art dealers moved their pieces
into established art fairs, such as Art Basel and Art Cologne, turning them into
hot-spots, while art dealers in the periphery used art fairs as tools to cope with
the crisis. A large number of peripheral and niche art fairs were founded fol-
lowing the economic turbulence, including photo l.a. XX | artLA projects,
Winter Fine Art & Antiques Fair, Olympia, ArteBA, FLECHA (Feria de Liber-
ación de Espacios Comerciales Hacia el Arte), Artesantander, and Internatio-
nale Triennale für Originaldruckgrafik.
Even the Armoury Show in New York City falls into this category, which
was founded as a hotel fair in 1994. By the end of the 1990s, the world of art
fairs had developed a stable tripartite structure. There were now primary, (Art
Basel) secondary, (ArteBA) and niche art fairs (photo l.a. XX | artLA projects).
By the end of the 1990s, the crisis of the art market was over, and the general
view of art fairs merely as tools that came in handy during an economic crisis
began to fade. By then, the art fair as an institution had been thoroughly tested
and proven. In particular, its inclusion in different social settings confirmed the
concept of the art fair as being applicable to many different contexts. As a
result of its adaptability, the art fair became a global institution.
Figure 2: Art Fairs by Region, Founded between 1999-2010
Source: ArtFacts17
17 Please note that the rounding caused by the statistical software causes the percentages in
the chart to add up to a number greater than 100.
Australia and New
Zealand
1%
Caribbean
1%
Central America
1%
Eastern Asia
11%
Eastern Europe
2%
Northern Africa
1%
North America
27%
Northern Europe
10%
South America
5%
South-Eastern Asia
2%
Southern
Africa
1%
Southern Asia
1%
Southern
Europe
10%
Western Asia
3%
Western Europe
28%

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 332
The art fair began to evolve not simply in reaction to societal circumstances,
but in regards to other fairs as well. Local profiles began to emerge in contrast
to those from abroad. Consequently, the art fair evolved beyond a simple gath-
ering of art dealers and their represented artists to rely on homophile-based
networks of similar art dealers (cf. Yogev and Grund 2012) to shape an image.
Such profiling not only worked to achieve distinction from other fairs of a
similar status, but framed locations in which other sub-fairs or satellite fairs can
emerge. Thus, the fairs developed their reputations in a network-like relation to
each other. As a consequence of this, branding strategies evolved to establish a
particular image, such as being established, conservative, creative, intellectual,
or exotic, to build anticipation of what will be seen. This development is almost
looping back in time, as another type of art fair emerged that could be called
the mission art fair, which pays reference to the origin of the word fair itself.
5. Summary
This paper reviewed the evolution of one of the key facets of the global art
market, the art fair. Although the art fair appears as a rather recent develop-
ment, this paper demonstrates the historical nature of its business practices and
organisational structure and the reliance of the fair on the concept of the net-
work and its rereading an implementation according to different needs in the art
market. The origin of the art fair actually derives from the religious festival in
Antiquity. Religious festivals were unique occurrences that were different from
daily routines and other spectacles. They were events where not only works
were put on display, but a specific message or mission was to be broadcast.
They linked-up vast parts of a kingdom or empire. For a short time the reli-
gious fairs provided a small-world network model, in which the most important
parts of the populations, but also cultural and political norms where facilitated.
The early artisanal fairs could rely on their religious association with the ex-
traordinary to bring together buyers and sellers. These were, however, not art
fairs in the modern sense, because these fairs displayed rare and valuable items
in an artisanal sense, such as, requiring particular skills to craft them. Through
this set-up, the artisanal fair evolved into a central institution within pre-
modern economies. Crucial to the exchange of rare goods, it brought together
merchants from disparate regions, its spatial structure enabled a comparative
structure for the formation of prices, and its annual recurrence made it reliable
for the production and sale of goods. The pricing model of the artisanal fair
relied on a concept of direct interaction or strong ties, through which mutual
observation and network-like control (Harrison C. White) became possible.
The comparative quality of the fair in terms of its goods spurred the internal
differentiation of sellers into booths with distinct aesthetic displays, a custom
that is common within art fairs to this day.

HSR 39 (2014) 3 │ 333
Although the artisanal fair almost vanished with the age of industrial pro-
duction, it experienced a revival in the second half of the 20th century. At this
time the fair combined historical characteristics such as the grandiose quality of
the fair and its ability to facilitate international networking to create a new
market platform in more peripheral areas of the art market. Early art fairs of the
20th century began as business structures that could facilitate business activi-
ties in the peripheral areas of the art market. Galleries that were spread out
and/or dealing with less attractive works of art could unite and thereby increase
their presence in the market. They meant to activate the weak ties of the art
market. This structure proved to be successful, and a second type art fair, the
niche fair, developed based on its success.
The collapse of the art market bubble in the late 1980s was a watershed
moment for the art fair. Art dealers and galleries of secondary reputation
founded new art fairs to stay afloat in a sinking market. Their assembly and
linkage made them more visible to the few collectors at the centre of the art
market. On the other hand, the established galleries, which were equally hit
hard by the economic changes, moved into existing fairs to form new networks
and thereby change the status of these art fairs. When the crisis of the art mar-
ket was over by the end of the 1990s, the art fair continued to evolve. Art fairs
began to emerge in reaction to other art fairs, and the world of art fairs was
progressively transformed with new profiles and hierarchical structures begin-
ning to be developed. Art fairs began to emphasize their locality as a mode of
distinction so as to differentiate themselves from other fairs. Thus, the last sixty
years witnessed not just the rise of the art fair, but the proliferation of many
different types of fairs, each with their own unique histories.
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