Frieze Masters 2018: A visual feast

Visiting Frieze Masters is a visual feast. With work from ancient times through to the end of the 20^th century, it’s a treasure trove of insanely valuable paintings, historical photographs and everything else in between. With 130 Galleries from around the world exhibiting here, the event is now in it’s seventh year and a staple accompaniment to its sister fair Frieze London.

The first attention-grabbing piece is the replica of the sculpture garden in St Ives that belonged to the late Barbara Hepworth (Booth C4). It’s pretty near the entrance and takes up quite some space. There’s a white-washed beach hut with a scattering of beach stones that offsets her plinth-poised pieces. Her relationship with Henry Moore is largely a noticeable influence in the sculptures to be seen here too.

In the depths of the marquee, there’s a fine array of Klimt pencil drawings that come from the largest collection in Europe (Booth G24) and, close by, a beautiful, single, Manet painting. It is such a rare treat to get so close and even more so to be able to take photos. It seems so strange to switch one way and see a collection of erotic photographs from Helmut Newton (Booth B4) and to turn the other and stand before a Carstian Luyckx painting c.1677 – but supposedly that’s all part of this exhibition’s dizzying charm.

If visitors head to the spotlight section they’ll find solo exhibitors from the 20^th century and will probably encounter the uneasy large-scale photo-collages from German artist Annegret Soltau. Dismembered photographs pieced back together with thick black stitch markings, the works are macabre but clever and, for this, she is held in great regard as a revolutionary feminist artist from the 70s and 80s.

Aside from all the art that needs to be seen, you can also attend the daily Frieze Masters talks. This year, to mark the centenary of women’s suffrage, there is a collective group of female-only speakers at the helm. There are also bespoke tours for those interested in buying or learning more, and, to be fair, it saves time when reading all those little placards!

Ezelle Alblas
Photos: Ewa Ferdynus

Frieze Masters 2018 is at from 4^th until 7^th October 2018. For further information visit the exhibition’s website here.