FRIEZE FRAME

The contemporary art fair celebrates 20 years of putting art lovers in the picture

- AMAH-ROSE ABRAMS

When Frieze magazine held its first art fair back in 2003, it solidified what had been happening on London’s contemporary art scene for the last decade. The city was buzzing, attracting people from around the world, but until Frieze, there had been no single location to bring them all together.

After the arrival of the YBAs in the late 1980s, galleries like White Cube, Sadie Coles HQ and Victoria Miro were on the ascendency, but a central meeting point was needed that could match the verve of what was happening in the galleries. ‘Right from the outset, it was about blurring boundaries and thinking about Frieze as not just a trade fair,’ says Frieze London’s director Eva Langret. ‘It’s also a commissioning outfit with the artists’ projects, it’s an educational platform with the talks programme, and it’s a meeting place for the wider arts community.’

Since its inception, the fair has been innovating the experience through citywide collaborations and free public initiatives like Frieze  Sculpture. And 20 years down the line, galleries still bring new ideas creativity and commerce closer together, blurring the lines between art and its buyers. This later evolved into also offering live music and talks, as well as events that spilled out into other parts of the city.