Contemporary art: London steals the show from New York and Paris

A late arrival on the international scene, the British capital is now one of the leading centres for the contemporary art market.

It has only been around for twelve years, and yet Frieze Art Fair, held every October around Regent's Park, attracts nearly 70,000 visitors and is already competing with FIAC. It may have taken London a while to find its place in the art market, but it has done so at lightning speed. Paul Hedge, owner of the Hales Gallery in East London, has seen the market metamorphose. "In the 90s, there were no more than 25 major gallery owners in London. I knew everyone's name and could name the artists they represented."he explains. It was the time when Damien Hirst and the Young British Artists (YBA) chose Shoreditch for its cheap rents and industrial spaces; the time when White Cube, the alternative gallery, was starting to shake up the artistic landscape. "Today, London has at least 300 major galleries, and the energy generated by the art trade has multiplied.continues Paul Hedge. We always have to stand out from the crowd with our bias, ours being to present artists from the middle classes, gays, blacks or activists, such as Frank Bowling, now exhibited at the Tate.."

Intelligent investments

The London art business began timidly in the 1960s. Thirty years later, with the City driving the economy, more and more buyers are keeping an eye on emerging artists. They buy a lot. Above all, they are investing. "Unlike the Parisian scene, which has been selling art since the 19th century, London is still immature. Some buyers simply want to buy what's hot, even though we are more often dealing with enthusiasts."concludes Paul Hedge.

The 2000s marked a turning point. Major international galleries arrived, like the American Gagosian. "We were already well established in Los Angeles and New York and moving into Europe was a logical next step. London was undergoing a major transformation, and we wanted to seize the moment, explains its director, Stefan Ratibor. Since then, the city has established itself as an art market hub, which is why we will be opening a third space in Mayfair at the end of 2015.". For this expert, seeing London transform itself into one of the capitals of contemporary art would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. "Change came with the opening of the Tate Modern in 2000, the arrival of major international galleries and the launch of new art fairs."he concludes.

The latest addition is the Marian Goodman Gallery, which opened this autumn just off Regent's Street, in a former textile factory. This immaculate space is home to exhibitions by some of today's leading names, including Christian Boltanski, Tony Cragg and Annette Messager, to name but a few. Marian Goodman moved to New York in 1977, then to Paris in 1995, and has long forged links with Europe. "Opening in London became necessary, because artists like Gerhard Richter or Giuseppe Penone were not represented there. But we had to take our time and find the ideal location."explains its spokesperson. In this white paradise in the heart of London, it is now a done deal.