By Shivani Vora
The period rooms in the Park Avenue Armory offer benefits, and challenges, to the exhibitors setting up their booths for the art fair.
When speaking of art, be it museums or fairs, the environments in which works are displayed tend to reflect the style of the pieces themselves.
Look to the Pompidou Center in Paris as an example, a modern glass complex with high ceilings and an abundance of natural light that is a nod to the institution’s vast contemporary collection.
With respect to fairs, Jenny Gibbs, executive director of the International Fine Print Dealers Association, the world’s largest art fair for prints and editions, noted that many often transpired in characterless, white-walled venues such as convention halls. These get transformed into “temporary bespoke cities of art that mimic the style of the art,” she said.
“Our fair showcases a broad range of eras from a 21st-century Gerhardt Richter to a 16th-century Titian,” Gibbs said of the event held this year at the Park Avenue Armory. “Each had a purpose-built exhibition area — the Richter was shown in a classic white cube in our recent fair, while the Titian was hung on dark velvety walls that might have been at home in Renaissance Venice where Titian created this work.”
