The VIP Art Fair, which fizzled in its inaugural online outing last January, because its online platform was dysfunctional, is trying again: “VIP 2.0” will come to a computer near you on Feb. 3-8, with “major systems upgrades, adding substantial server and bandwidth resources,” according to the announcement that just landed in my inbox. “Significant load testing makes us confident [emphasis added] we’ll meet peak demand, delivering a flawless, content-rich experience for our exhibitors and visitors.”
I’m feeling less “confident,” though, after clicking the e-mail’s three links to the fair’s website, which yielded this message:
If you go to its list of galleries, you’ll discover that there’s a missing link: Gagosian, one of the fair’s founding galleries last year, is absent (so far) from the roster-in-formation.
Whatever the technological challenges, my previous objections still stand regarding the “Vetting in Pajamas” Fair. (“VIP” is actually intended as an acronym for “Viewing in Private.”) Collecting-by-clicking is a dicey gambit, because works that look alluring in backlit digital images can fall flat in person. The converse is also true: Images on the screen rarely do full justice to great works that demand close viewing.
I have seen the future of collecting and (for me, at least) it doesn’t work. Viewing works online may be a good start in scouting out possible acquisitions. But there’s no substitute for eyeballing the real thing.