Art Fair Painting a Hopeful Picture : Dealers and Organizers Enthuse Over Early Sales, Attendance Figures

Less than three hours into the 2nd International Contemporary Art Fair, Jan Baum was brimming with optimism--she had already sold two artworks. An elated Will Halm had moved four, and Roy Cook had sold 10; the five-day event had begun with a bang.

“I’ve already paid for the price of my booth,” reported Halm, revealing that he put up $15,000 for a small corner of the Los Angeles Convention Center. The fair, part trade show, part fine art exhibition, began Thursday and is scheduled to run noon to 8 p.m. through Monday.

“We just opened,” said Baum, 45 minutes after doors were unlocked at the cavernous downtown hall, “and we’ve already had two people interested in two of our major artists.”

Halm, co-owner of the local Simard & Halm Gallery, and Baum, who runs a local showroom that bears her name, represent two of 170 top galleries from about 60 cities around the world taking part in the fair, also known as ART/LA87. The wide variety of art ranges from Andy Warhol’s Pop art prints to stylized stone sculpture from Zimbabwe.

While it’s too soon to judge the entire event’s success, early attendance rates--as well as initial energetic sales on Thursday--gave art dealers and fair organizers reason to be optimistic, if guardedly so.

Last year’s fair suffered from competition and failed to draw the crowds--or cash--that had been hoped for. The County Museum of Art had just opened its new wing for modern art and the Museum of Contemporary Art had christened its Grand Avenue site. Weeks of parties at both museums, plus exhibit openings at about 20 galleries, left the local art community “partied out and arted out,” said fair organizer Brian Angel on Thursday.

Media coverage--lost in the museums’ fanfare--also proved disappointing in 1986, said Angel, who has been working to ensure a more successful sequel. The effort included scheduling the fair at a time free from potential competition, and building city support for the event, which now has a 70-member advisory board consisting of prominent community and cultural figures, Mayor Tom Bradley among them.

A major public relations campaign was also undertaken, and the two museums that out-partied last year’s fair hosted its preview benefit party Wednesday night.

The effort seems to have paid off.

In sharp contrast with last year’s anemic first-day turnout, long lines formed before Convention Center personnel started taking tickets at noon Thursday. A steady flow of art enthusiasts continued throughout the day.

“I think it’s off to a very, very encouraging start,” said Angel, who works for the London firm of Andry Montgomery, producers of cultural and trade events.

A Convention Center spokeswoman reported that the day’s total attendance of just under 3,000 visitors “was an astonishing figure for a Thursday afternoon for an event of this sort,” Angel said.

In addition, last Wednesday night’s preview benefit party drew about twice as many people as last year’s gala, Angel said, and raised about twice as much money too. Seven major California museums will receive about $10,000 each from the evening’s proceeds to acquire works by living artists, he said. Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, a community gallery, will receive the same amount to support its programs.

The quality of the art at the fair, as it was last year, is high, agreed dealers, museum officials, critics and collectors.

After spending $5,500 on a graceful table-top sculpture by Los Angeles-based artist Mineko Grimmer, collector Peter Norton raved, “In my opinion, it’s the best thing she’s ever done. It’s superb.” Norton and his wife Eileen, who have had a gallery at MOCA named after them, had bought four artworks by Thursday afternoon.

This year’s fair had indeed been better managed as well, concurred several fair participants.

“The organization is 500 times better. There’s more publicity,” said Jean Milant, director of the local Cirrus Gallery, who had sold 11 graphic works by such artists as John Baldesarri and Ed Ruscha by 3 p.m. Thursday. Brisk, early sales such as Milant’s (indicating that October’s stock market plunge doesn’t seem to have curtailed buying) were enjoyed mostly by Los Angeles galleries, however. Foreign showrooms didn’t seem to share the early success.

The inequality, which may even out, is to be expected, Angel said, “because there is a familiarity between art purchasers here and Los Angeles galleries.” He added that Thaddaeus Ropac, an Austrian dealer, “did not do well last year” but has returned to the fair because he believes familiarity, both with new art styles and dealers’ reputations, takes time to develop.

In fact, about 85% of all the dealers who attended last year’s fair, returned this year, Angel said. That percentage was spread evenly among foreign and American dealers, he said, adding that the success or failure of this year’s fair will determine the future life of the event, generally regarded by dealers, collectors and cultural leaders as an important asset to the growing vitality of the Los Angeles art community.

“The ultimate test is if the art moves,” Angel said. “We like to preach the gospel that greater fulfillment can be achieved by the purchase--not just the observation--of art.”