PAUL CHAVEZ on the largest art show on the West Coast.
SANTA MONICA, Calif.
Six degrees of art? Kevin Bacon at the Los Angeles Art Show. (AP/HO/Lee Salem/Courtesy of Lee Salem Photography)
Howard Rehs, president of the Fine Art Dealers Association, at the Los Angeles Art Show. (AP Photo/Paul Chavez)
The dark-haired girl clutches a basket of pink roses that match the blush of her cheeks.
She has a red ribbon in her hair and gazes intently over her left shoulder with large eyes that stare straight ahead from under short bangs.
The circa 1916 painting "Portrait of a Young Lady" by artist Victor Manuel Garcia was among the hundreds of art works presented over the weekend at the Los Angeles Art Show. The exhibition drew top-notch art from galleries around the country that displayed fine art spanning five centuries -- including 19th century French art, modern California landscapes and a ceramic sculpture by Pablo Picasso.
Cris Worley, director of the Dallas-based Pan American Art Project, offered the "Portrait of a Young Lady" for $38,000.
"We're all here to make sales and contacts," Worley said. "But education is an important part of what we do. Every year this show gets better and better. I like the fact that this show is eclectic in nature, because life is eclectic."
The Los Angeles Art Show is the largest exhibition by dealers on the West Coast and it's a lucrative one: more than $10 million worth of art was sold at the five-day show.
ART SHOW GROWS FAST
The show by the Fine Art Dealers Association started 12 years ago in Pasadena, Calif., with 14 dealers displaying art over one weekend to about 300 visitors.
The show has since moved to the Barker Hangar at Santa Monica Airport where an extra 32,000-square-feet of pavilion space was added this year in response to the show's popularity. The number of art dealers nearly doubled this year to 80 exhibitors and more than 20,000 visitors attended the five-day show that concluded Sunday.
The art show also had a gala opening night that drew about 5,000 people. The lure of art drew a slew of celebrities to the opening night gala and to the weekend show, including: Warren Beatty, Annette Benning, Barbra Streisand, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Jacqueline Bisset, Rebecca De Mornay, Linda Hamilton and Giovanni Ribisi.
MAKE OR BREAK YEAR
Howard Rehs, owner of Rehs Galleries in New York and president of the Fine Art Dealers Association, said it was a make or break year for the art show.
"This was our key year," he said. "We decided at the end of last year because the show was so successful that this was the year to make the big expansion. Initially we were worried if we could do it, but it filled up quickly."
Rehs, who specializes in 19th century European art, said the economy and the strength of the art market as an investment option have helped the show grow.
"I never tell people to buy a painting for its investment potential, buy it because you like it," Rehs said. "But if you do buy a great quality painting in great condition from the right period by a good artist, you're going to do well in the long run. They are not getting more plentiful. Less and less great paintings come on the market each year. It's all supply and demand."
Paul Chavez is an asap reporter based in Los Angeles.
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