CHICAGO -- John Wilson never wanted to start an art fair. But he staged his first in 1980 and now he has one of the hottest art happenings in the world -- a high quality expo known for its electrifying contemporary character and international perspective.
The 1984 Chicago International Art Exposition opens with a gala benefit for the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art May 10 and runs through May 15 at historic Navy Pier, a massive 1913 lakefront structure the city is keeping open only for Wilson's art and antique fairs.
About 160 dealers will be showing the works of 2,000 artists from around the world -- including, for the first time, the Soviet Union.
Interviewed recently in the apartment he rented overlooking Navy Pier, Wilson said he has no idea how the Exposition has grown from 75 dealers in 1980 to 162 in 1984.
It went from a fledgling art fair to the standard by which even the granddaddy of European art fairs at Basel, Switzerland, is judged.
It is the expo the world's major art dealers dare not miss.
'I didn't want to start a fair,' said Wilson, a printmaker and founder of the Lakeside Group, the Expo umbrella organization. 'I tried to get other people to do it.'
Wilson, who exhibited prints from his Lakeside Studios at a fair in a leaky armory in Washington, D.C., decided Chicago could stage a better fair. He assembled some loyal and sympathetic friends and formed the Lakeside Group in 1980.
Wilson staged the first expo in Chicago, a city he considers geographically and artistically desirable, with a European flavor all its own and civic support for the exposition.
It was difficult to attract big name dealers to an upstart American fair, but the Expo's reputation grew. Now, European dealers use Chicago standards to judge Basel and critics and dealers regard Wilson's fair as the world's top exposition for dealers and collectors.
'The art world is a small world and it's beautiful that we do have that reputation -- it's a must thing. People have to come. If not as exhibitors, as viewers,' Wilson said.
'It's a serious fair and serious things are done,' said Richard Gray, owner of Chicago's Richard Gray Gallery.
Wilson quoted Gray, saying, 'Richard Gray said in Basel last year, somebody came up and said, 'This is nice, but it's not Chicago,' That's tremendous. Now we're the ones used as the standard.'
This year, 162 dealers -- 55 of them foreign -- will bring to Chicago jazzy pieces that are setting the art world awhirl.
Dealers and collectors attending this year's Expo will see:
-A 13-ton sculpture by Spanish artist Vacanda Larrea, about which Expo director Thomas Blackman said: 'I don't know how I'm going to move it.'
-A 28-foot sculpture by the Parisian artist Arman constructed of 125 shopping carts.
-A performance piece sent by Galerie Alain Oudin, Paris. The artist and participants close their eyes and chant hymns as they walk through a chalk and paint reproduction of the famous maze in Chartes Cathedral. Four French artists perform during the 10-minute walk.
-Works of the Neo-Expressionists, artists who work on a monumental size and with brutal and fairly simplistic style. They are inspired by the post-war experiences of the artsts who grew up burdened by the roles their parents played in World War II, Gray said. They are 'taking the world by storm.'
-Works by Europe's Constructivists, artists who distill painting down to the starkest essentials, using pure color and line.
-A variety of pieces from some of Europe's most prestigious galleries -- including Galerie Farideh Cadot of Paris, London's Mayor Gallery, Naples' Gallery Lucio Amelio -- all being shown for the first time.
A huge piece by New Yorker Dennis Oppenheim for the outdoor sculpture mecca called 'Mile of Sculpture.' 'It's 10 by 15 by 100 feet,' Blackman said. 'It's called 'Rolling Explosion' and I don't even know what it does.'
For the first time, the Expo will feature works by contemporary Soviet artists that have drawn the attention of the art world -- and a suspicious U.S. government.
'It is (scary) to this extent -- the paranoia comes from the FBI. They saw someone applied for a visa to come see John Wilson and asked 'Why would someone come see you?''
'They thought he was going to steal electronic secrets or measure the Sears Tower, for God's sake,' Wilson said.
'They asked, 'Do you have any state of the art equipment they could steal?' And I thought, the only state of the art equipment is the art,' Blackman said.
The Soviet Union is being represented by its official fine arts wing, V.O. Mezhdunaradnaya Kniga, Moscow.
-Works exhibited by leading European galleries such as Karsten Greve Gallerie of Koln, W. Germany, Fernando Vijande of Madrid, Annely Juda Fine Art of London.
European participation has been enthusiastic, Blackman said, and the governments of France, Canada, Poland, Spain and Great Britian are sponsoring works in the Mile of Sculpture.
'The French government is just being great,' he said. 'The French artist Michel Girard is having his piece forged right here in Chicago. He thinks it's really a kick.'
Chicago artist Ed Paschke designed the poster, titled 'Viseon,' heralding the Expo, a figurative piece in the Chicago School style.
'It's reminiscent of the imagery of static lines that come from a TV set as they zip across the screen,' Blackman said. 'Very electronic looking. And it was done in a 16th century process, stone lithography. It's done by hand. The figure in the piece exemplifies the exposition in the fact that the image is kind of looking back at you in kind of an exchange, which is really what the art expo is about in a lot of ways.
'It's a rare opportunity for the art world and the commercial sector to take a look at each other and make an exchange like this.'
Chicago's central location has helped attract museums and collectors from around the country, Wilson said, and foreign museums send groups of board members.
'We can attract museums from New York, Houston, Atlanta. The museum from Miami is coming this year.'
'We just got notice today the Tate Musuem in London is bringing a group.'
'Last year, the Museum of Contemporary Art in New York brought a group. Today, the Sheldon (Memorial Art Gallery from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln) Museum in Lincoln, Neb., wrote in. It's tremendous to get this kind of following.'
The Association of Corporate Curators, a group flush with cash dispatched to collect art for big business' headquarters, is also attending this year's fair.
'They spend a lot of money,' Wilson said.
Wilson, who remembers his mother dragging him off to museums to draw when he was a boy, said he gets 10 requests for each booth in the show, but he has to keep the Expo small to ensure quality and to keep from swamping visitors with more art works than they could see in five days.
The formula seems to have worked and the young fair is now regarded as the hottest art happening in the world.
Dusseldorf's Hans Meyer, who started the first international art fair in Germany, once remarked, 'The future is here! Basel may still be the biggest, but Chicago is now more interesting for contemporary art.'
'The world is coming to Chicago now,' Wilson said.
