I would like to share my impressions of Blazar
Praise first.
- For the most part, where a stand has something genuinely good, everything else on it is good too. Among the stands that stood head and shoulders above the rest were Futuro, Smena, Shilo and the Commute association of galleries. The hits of the year turned out to be metal reliefs and chased work; they simply flew off the walls.
- The design section looks and feels far better than the art section, both in how it is laid out and in what it contains, especially in contrast with the upstairs floor, crowded as it is with images of a single type, and the prices somehow correspond more closely to the realities of this world. Most of the objects and ideas come across as more thoughtful and more useful, and I advise everyone not to walk past the second floor.
- The involvement of new forces is growing, and one can spend a long while studying the fair with curiosity.
Neutral observations.
- There is more humorous ceramics, more objects and works generally based on internet lore.
- The list of artists' names looks very interesting: ever fewer of the proverbial Ivan Petrovs, and ever more of some Krakus Makrakuses, as though it were the line-up of a stand-up show. I understand that this is mere coincidence, but perhaps it is one more effect of the trend towards infantilisation.
- One has the feeling that most of the statements on offer concern some sort of jolly trifles, buttercups and flowers, raptures, romance and so on. One might think there had been a general instruction to be positive and to look at life through rose-tinted glasses.
On the weak points.
- A large mass of the art seems to have been stamped out by a single Chinese factory.
- My impression is that the level this year is lower than last year's, and last year's was already weaker than that of the year before.
- Prices have shamelessly crept up into the hundreds of thousands. I was surprised by the oddities, where an insignificant blanket costs as much as a good painting. In places I had the feeling that whoever dreamed up the price tags was saying: so what, they will all buy it anyway
