Frieze Masters

Oh boy, do I ever love art fairs! A few years ago I went to Art Basel in Miami Beach, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. SO MUCH ART. Well, last week I met with my class again at one of London's main art fairs: Frieze Masters. Like Art Basel, Frieze is a giant international art fair that brings galleries from around the world to sell their collections to the public. You can see anything and everything at Frieze, so it doesn't take long to find something that interests you. You might even be tempted to ask what the price is for some of the artworks. Word of advice: don't. It will only upset you that you do not have the bank account to buy a Picasso.

So, why did my class go to Frieze Masters? Was there a cathedral on sale? No. We came to see this:

This extremely large drawing is a plan for a tower at Rouen Cathedral. A PhD student is writing her dissertation on this drawing, and she was able to find out that it was a design presented by the master mason (and possibly the master carpenter) to the clergymen of the cathedral in 1516 for the new tower. Apparently, the proposal didn't go well, because the design was never picked. 

As you can see, the drawing is massive and it comprises of four sheets of vellum that were attached together. Unfortunately, the image at the bottom doesn't show the amount of details that went in to this composition. But you can make out the windows, arches, and pointed spires. 

 

Just so you can see the context of what this cathedral looks like, I've added a picture of Rouen above. It's close, but not the same design. Actually, the majority of that central tower are much later additions. But they did eventually achieve a ridiculously tall tower, which stands at 495 feet. 

After our discussion, I had the chance to look around at the other exhibitors and pretend that I have the funds to be "in the market" for something to go in the foyer. 

I had a slight freak out when I saw this. Sally Mann is my favorite photographer, and I had not seen her photographs in person before. If I was to walk away with any of the items that were on sale at Frieze, this would have been it.