Scope Says Nope to This Year’s Fair

(06/23/2009)    The Scope Art Show will not come to East Hampton this summer after all, a representative of the show has confirmed,

Jane Wilson’s  “September Second: Water Mill” will be part of the offerings at ArtHamptons.

although he promised that it would return in a bigger and better form next year.

    “The economy has everything to do with our decision,” Flint Beamon said on Friday, “looking out for ourselves as a small business, as well as helping the galleries recoup from a tough year economically.”

    The art fair had been scheduled to return this year from July 23 to July 26. It also was also slated to be in London in October, but Mr. Beamon said the next Scope show would not be until the December one in Miami.

    Stephan Keszler, a Southampton gallery owner who has participated in Scope shows in East Hampton and Miami, said he had planned to do so again this summer, but that Scope had “sent out nothing” since the beginning of the year. “When they didn’t send out application forms a couple of months ago, it was clear they weren’t coming,” he said.

    Instead, Mr. Keszler said on Friday, he spoke to Art­Hamptons, a fair started last year by Rick Friedman on the grounds of the Bridgehampton Historical Society, and signed on to show there. It will open on July 10 and run through July 12 with a series of parties, talks, and other events to keep attendees busy and buying art.

    Mr. Friedman said last Thursday that applications for his fair had been slow in coming over the winter, with many of last year’s participants saying they could not justify the expense this year. However, he said, in the past few weeks, interest has picked up again — and the floor area needed for this year’s fair is 33 percent more than for last year.

    “We’ve had more than 10 galleries sign up in the past few weeks, and more applications are still coming in,” he said. So far, he said, 64 galleries are on the list, “and the phone’s still ringing.”

    “Some people think only one month ahead,” Mr. Friedman said. “We’re the only fair in America held during the summer,” he said, aside from Art Santa Fe. The last-minute interest has prompted him to think about expanding into another tent in addition to the extra space already provided.

    Mr. Friedman has a long and unusual resume both in media and in owning and operating expositions and trade shows around the country. In the 1980s he owned the United States Women’s Volleyball team and created the syndicated show “Dance Fever.” He started the Hamptons Home and Garden show several years ago, which was held earlier this month at the Southampton Elks Club.

Under the guidance of Mark Borghi and Ruth Vered, he started collecting art three years ago, primarily works by Abstract Expressionists and those whose studios were on the South Fork. The two dealers, he said, also inspired him to consider bringing a new fair to the region.

    He attended fairs around the country and found that participants thought it was a great idea, in part because “buyers in the summer are in a relaxed mood,” he said. “They’re in sneakers and shorts and when they are relaxed it is a great time to make a buying decision.” Nor does it hurt that many potential buyers own big houses here “with lots of walls to fill.” 

    Scope was founded by Alexis Hubsh­man and Peter Surace, two art dealers who saw an opportunity in providing a venue for galleries that were shut out of the larger and more established fairs taking place in large international cities such as Basel, Switzerland, New York, and Miami. It has expanded and contracted in the past, and fairs in Los Angeles and Venice have been dropped.

    The type of galleries Scope attracts and solicits are relatively new and young in outlook. Participants typically feature at least one emerging artist. The model appeared to work well in a boom economy, but now with the failure of a number of galleries — about 24 in New York over the past few months, The New York Times reported last week — there are far fewer dealers doing business. Many of those that remain do not have the money to spend on extras such as art fairs.

    Scope’s absence has created an opportunity for Mr. Friedman. He is broadening his fair to include art valued at anywhere from “$3,000 to $3,000,000,” he said. Right now, the total value of the art that will be at the fair is $200 million, according to Mr. Friedman. “There will be masterpiece original artwork by de Kooning, Warhol, Renoir, O’Keeffe shown in an old potato field,” he said.

    Among the pieces will be paintings, prints, photographs, and indoor and outdoor sculptures. Mr. Friedman will also include glass and other art objects this year. Although the fair makes more money the more exhibitors it has, he said he had turned down five or six galleries that show what he called “mall art.”

    Jane Wilson, Elliott Erwitt, and Lillian Bassman will be featured, with awards and dedicated wall displays of their works. The fair will have a number of fund-raising opportunities for cultural organizations such as the Bridgehampton Historical Society and Guild Hall.

    A number of South Fork galleries will participate. The Kezsler Gallery and the Bernard Goldberg, Spanierman, Peter Marcelle, Vered, and Mark Borghi galleries, and the McNeil Art Group and Ark Project are among them. Other galleries include DC Moore, Hirschl and Adler Modern, and June Kelly from New York. Galleries from London, Spain, Canada, and around the country will also be showing.