Art car boot fair: market bullish

The Art Car Boot Fair (ACBF) came to Hastings this week and pulled in art lovers, investors and the just plain curious. Toby Sargent joined the throng on the front by the Stade to see if there were bargains to be had.

The ACBF has a distinctive and imaginative PR machine behind it. How about this: ‘Our art convoy will be making its way through the vibrant streets of cool cycle shops, designer beard trimmers and shops bursting with re-found classics to set up outside the oily lustre of Jerwood Gallery to bring an afternoon of unforgettable art and frivolity to The Stade?’

The Art Car Boot Fair rolls into Hastings

Something of an institution

Well, flattery will get you a long way and happily, on this occasion, the thing on offer did not disappoint. Over the years, the fair – essentially a way of promoting contemporary art and artists while helping people buy works for a fraction of their ‘normal’ price – has become something of an institution for the arts community, so its arrival here drew a big crowd.

The Tracey Emin gazebo

Stalls selling works by established and respected artists including Sir Peter Blake, Tracey Emin, Gavin Turk, Jess Albarn, Martin Creed, Quentin Blake and Rachel Howard created a buzz that the lesser known artists were able to benefit from. And it all seemed to work, with a lot of really interesting and high-quality work being showcased to a crowd that might otherwise not have had the chance to consider buying art from outside the mainstream.

Art comes in many forms at the Art Car Boot Fair

The longest queue was – inevitably, perhaps – for the Tracey Emin gazebo, where limited edition prints and signed posters (at £50 a time) were selling like hot cakes. So much so, in fact, that some buyers were to be seen walking away with as many as 10 poster tubes in their arms.

It’s well-known that the art market bears little resemblance to the real world, especially in the sphere of work by living artists, and the ACBF proved to be no exception. The fair was a strictly ‘cash-only’ operation, with no receipts or supporting paperwork; just like a real car boot fair, in fact. One consequence however was that the queues for the town’s ATMs were also a thing to behold.

Sir Peter Blake relaxes on the Stade, enjoying the local paper

While most of the bigger artists had sent their ‘people’ to do the selling, it was good to see some of them there in person.

Rachel Howard, John Cooper Clarke and the ever-avuncular Sir Peter Blake all put a shift in, chatting to the customers and spreading goodwill, as the sun beat down and the seagulls’ screams competed with the live music for people’s attention and delight.

Later in the afternoon I checked eBay and, lo, the £50 Tracey Emin posters were being offered for as much as £230 – not a bad mark-up over a couple of hours. ‘Art for art’s sake, money for God’s sake’ as the song goes.

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