This Master's thesis focuses on the art fair as a presentation and sales platform while researching the main cornerstones of its evolution. Changes to its structural properties bring space for reflection on the specifics of an era, its systems of values, and its understanding of art in relation to classic goods through history. Contemporary fairs result from hundreds of years of evolution of religious festivals and the need of organizing large-scale social events.
This analysis begins in Ancient Rome in 200. BCE with the fair of Saturnalia. Its stall sales were followed by covered sales rooms like Our Lady's Pand in 15th century Antwerp. This was contrasted by the livelier Haag kermis, a celebration by the Dutch Republic from 1630 onwards. The international reach of the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London was unrivaled, but for the democratization of the art fair, the Salon des Refusés of 1863 was crucial. This was followed by The Armory Show in 1913, which redefined such impactful events with the intense media coverage it received. This was topped by the pair of art fairs Art Cologne and Art Basel, whose international reach was overshadowed only by global art fairs like ARCOmadrid and Art Basel Miami Beach among other contemporary giants of the field.
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