Art Dealers Association Fair: Great Work Mixed with Junk

I always enjoy the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual fair at the Armory in New York. The ADAA is the premier professional group for the top dealers in the country. It’s 60 this year and a force in promoting ethics, connoisseurship, and scholarship among American dealers specializing in art from the Renaissance to today. I’ve been going to its annual art fair for at least 30 years. There’s no one art market. Rather, there are dozens of art markets, but the ADAA is one measure of mainstream taste, with some allowance for adventure.

I go less to shop, poor church mouse that I am, than to see what’s cooking in established kitchens and to learn about new artists such as Joe Fig (b. 1968) and Lucy Williams (b. 1972). Fig’s Faith Ringgold: American People/New Museum from 2022 is part of a series of small, sparkling pictures of people looking at art in a museum. He conveys his figures — usually seen from the back — with dollhouse precision. They’re looking, and he’s looking and recording. I’d never heard of him, which is my failure. His work is at Cristin Tierney Gallery. This picture’s $22,000.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

I always enjoy the Art Dealers Association of America’s annual fair at the Armory in New York. The ADAA is the premier professional group for the top dealers in the country. It’s 60 this year and a force in promoting ethics, connoisseurship, and scholarship among American dealers specializing in art from the Renaissance to today. I’ve been going to its annual art fair for at least 30 years. There’s no one art market. Rather, there are dozens of art markets, but the ADAA is one measure of mainstream taste, with some allowance for adventure.

I go less to shop, poor church mouse that I am, than to see what’s cooking in established kitchens and to learn about new artists such as Joe Fig (b. 1968) and Lucy Williams (b. 1972). Fig’s Faith Ringgold: American People/New Museum from 2022 is part of a series of small, sparkling pictures of people looking at art in a museum. He conveys his figures — usually seen from the back — with dollhouse precision. They’re looking, and he’s looking and recording. I’d never heard of him, which is my failure. His work is at Cristin Tierney Gallery. This picture’s $22,000.