Untitled (fashion) (1982-84) by Richard Prince, as featured in Frieze's Feature Inc retrospective

Frieze New York goes back to the Eighties

2018 gallerists go back three decades, courtesy of work by Richard Prince, David Byrne and David Sedaris

When Frieze first launched its New York fair in 2012, the focus was very much on contemporary art, largely made after the year 2000. However, this week, the major attractions of the fair date back a little further.

Chief among these is a show dedicated to the late dancer and performance artist turned gallerist and dealer, Hudson, who died back in 2014 at the age of 63. Known only by his surname, Hudson first launched his Feature Inc gallery in Chicago in 1984 – his debut exhibition was a show of Richard Prince photographs which opened on April Fools’ Day.


David Sedaris’s short story ‘Candelabra’ in ‘Farm', 1987, Chicago.Image courtesy of Frieze's Instagram
David Sedaris’s short story ‘Candelabra’ in ‘Farm', 1987, Chicago.Image courtesy of Frieze's Instagram

Despite, or perhaps because of this wilful, un-commercial attitude, Hudson’s Feature Inc gallery introduced gallery-goers to a wide range of successful artists, including Raymond Pettibon, Takashi Murakami and Tom Friedman.

He even picked up on a few writers before larger publishers got to them, reproducing the work of David Sedaris in his gallery’s in-house journal, Farm, a good seven years the writer's debut collection of short stories came out.

 

David Byrne talking about his expanding suit in Stop Making Sense
David Byrne talking about his expanding suit in Stop Making Sense

Hauser & Wirth also draws from the late 20th century with a specially curated presentation named after the Talking Heads’ 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense. The title evokes both the period and the theme of the body in space – in the movie, singer David Byrne’s suit expands in size as the show progresses. Look out too for 80s works by 20 artists, including Louise Bourgeois, Larry Bell, Phyllida Barlow and Roni Horn.  

 

One of Daniel Blau's early Warhol drawings
One of Daniel Blau's early Warhol drawings

Munich gallery Daniel Blau is going back even further, with a booth dedicated to Andy Warhol’s early drawings from the 1950s, as well as the photographic sources that inspired him.

 

Brother Robeson, were you born in Russia? (2017) by Theaster Gates
Brother Robeson, were you born in Russia? (2017) by Theaster Gates

The Richard Gray Gallery brings things more up-to-date with a solo presentation of Theaster Gates’ works. These bronze and tar pieces bring to mind early modernism and contemporary race relations, as well as Gates’ parental heritage; Gates’ father was a roofer and the use of hot tar in his work partly acknowledges this.

Frieze New York
Frieze New York

For more on Raymond Pettibon get this book; for more on Richard Prince get this one; for more on Roni Horn get this book; for more on Andy Warhol take a look at these; for more on Theaster Gates get this monograph; and for advice on buying at fairs and elsewhere, get Collecting Art for Love, Money and More; and for more from the people behind the fair get the Frieze A-Z of Contemporary Art.