“I don’t care about the so-called credit crunch; it’s all hype anyway,” said Tot Taylor, a director of London contemporary art dealers Riflemaker, at this year’s Zoo art fair at London’s Royal Academy of Arts. “It will have no effect on us at all.”
Mr. Taylor’s comment may have been fuelled by a rush of optimism after selling several pieces from his stand on the first day of the fair, which shows work by young and emerging contemporary artists. But he may have been talking too soon. Over at the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park – the main event in what is now the capital’s busiest art week – the buzz and energy of previous years was notably lacking on the opening day. “The Americans seem to have stayed away,” was the mantra echoing around the marquee.