The old and the new(ish): Frieze Masters 2015 presents a plethora of classic works

Art / 16 Oct 2015 / By Ossian Ward

This year's Frieze Masters offered a plethora of eclectic and beguiling objects from across the centuries, with less of the hustle and bustle of the main Frieze tent. Pictured: *The Infant Christ and the Infant St. John the Baptist in wilderness*, by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo c.1655–1660. *Courtesy Galeria Caylus*

Masters is the more serene, stately and buttoned-up cousin of Frieze Art Fair. Pictured: *Green Garden*, by Carmen Herrera, 1950. *Courtesy Lisson Gallery*

To the untrained eye, there were lots of works that looked like more famous paintings. Pictured: *The Virgin Suckling the Child*, by Defendente Ferrari, c. 1530. *Courtesy* *Sarti Gallery*

Then there were the pieces that really were by who you thought they were by, such as a real Samuel Palmer. Pictured: *Going to Evening Church*, by Samuel Palmer, 1874. *Courtesy The Fine Art Society*

Another conceit for many of the fine booths at Masters was to mix the old with the new(ish). Pictured: *Yesterday's Sandwich (plate 46)*, by Boris Mikhailov, c.1966–1968. Courtesy Sprovieri

*Noli Mi Tangere*, by Fontana Workshop, c.1560. *Courtesy* *Bazaart Ltd*

*Late Classic Dayak Ancestral Post*, Borneo, 1474–1635. *Courtesy Bernard De Grunne*

*Selbstbildnis mit steifem Hut*, by Max Beckmann, 1921. *Courtesy Simon Theobald*

*Seated semi-nude with hat and purple stockings*, by Egon Schiele, 1910. *Courtesy W_K, Wienerroither_Kohlbacher*

*Head of E.O.W*, by Frank Auerbach, 1957. *Courtesy Marlborough Fine Art*

*Head of a stylized anthropomorphic statuette,* Cycladic art, c.2500 BC. *Courtesy David Ghezelbash Archéologie*

*Snakes, Spiders and Caterpillars contorted to spell the Artist's Name*, by Jan van Kessel, 1657. *Courtesy Johnny van Haeften*

*Schlitten,* by Joseph Beuys, 1969. *Courtesy Thomas Dane Gallery*

*Doll B*, by Keiichi Tanaami, 1969. *Courtesy Nanzuka*

*Les Trois Soeurs*, by Léon Frédéric, 1896. *Courtesy Jack Kilgore*

*St John on Patmos*, Master of Petrarch’s Triumphs, c.1490–1500. Courtesy Dr Jörn Günther Rare Books

*Untitled (Wall Hanging)*, by Melvin Edwards, 1982. *Courtesy Stephen Friedman Gallery*

*Adam and Eve in Paradise*, by Roelant Savery, 1617. *Courtesy Salomon Lilian*

*Surrealist Head*, by Roy Lichtenstein, 1986. *Courtesy* *Castelli Gallery*

*Crystal*, by Sam Gilliam, 1973. *Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery*

*Returning from the Shin Yoshiwara by Moonlight*, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, c.1834. *Courtesy Sebastian Izzard LLC*

Langobardic relief. *Photography: courtesy of Sam Fogg*

Langobardic relief detail. *Photography: courtesy of Sam Fogg*

As the more serene, stately and buttoned-up cousin of Frieze Art Fair, this year's Frieze Masters offered a plethora of eclectic and beguiling objects from across the centuries, with less of the hustle and bustle of the main tent. To the untrained eye, there were lots of works that looked like more famous paintings — a portrait of Napoleon's coronation copied from the original by Jacques-Louis David and an anonymous German crucifixion scene that looked like it might have been a Rogier van der Weyden. Then there were the pieces that really were by who you thought they were by: a real Samuel Palmer watercolour, an oil painting by Esteban Murillo, a drawing by Egon Schiele and so on.

Another conceit for many of the fine booths at Masters was to mix the old with the new(ish), perhaps pitting Renaissance and Roman busts against a backdrop of subtle abstract waveforms in gouache by Bridget Riley — the whole enterprise being a collaboration between antique dealers Tomasso Brothers and contemporary gallerist Karsten Schubert. A New York gallery bringing Agnes Martin drawings shared space with a cabinet of historical curios including spooky mannequins and spiky rackets for a brutal looking ball game from 17th-century Italy called 'pallone'.

As always, in the aisles of an art fair the singular or solo presentations shone brightest, with Cuban painter Carmen Herrera's elegant geometric compositions charting five of the ten decades she has been on the Earth appearing to have landed from some other, futuristic planet. An amazing mixed collection of cubism adorned the stand of Simon Dickinson, while another London-based gallery showed an astonishing range of Richard Hamilton prints, going back to the 1940s. Now an annual fixture, the ambitious Helly Nahmad installation imagined an asylum as inhabited by the brutish French painter Jean Dubuffet, while a two-person show at the quirkily inventive Museum of Everything also included a secret cocktail bar behind the curtains to provide weary time-travellers with a bracing horseradish vodka — itself a strange combination of flavours that somehow combined to work wonders.

RELATED TOPICS: FRIEZE ART FAIR

Information: Frieze Masters is on view until 18 October
Address: Frieze Masters
Regent’s Park
London

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The old and the new(ish): Frieze Masters 2015 presents a plethora of classic works

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The old and the new(ish): Frieze Masters 2015 presents a plethora of classic works

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