New Art Fair Forms
John Wilson’s annual New Art Forms Exposition, focusing on 20th-century decorative and applied arts, is one of the most popular events the local art magnate has produced. But despite the fair’s success Wilson is calling it quits–at least temporarily. This fall his Lakeside Group will present in its place the Chicago Latin American-Iberian Exposition of the Arts, scheduled for October 6 through 9 at Navy Pier. According to Wilson the new expo grew out of discussions with Spanish and Latin American art dealers who participated last spring in Wilson’s 15th Chicago International Art Exposition.
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As for New Art Forms, Wilson says he’s rescheduling for next spring. He says it will be held in conjunction with another major event he would not name, and he refuses to elaborate further, indicating that details are still being finalized. Nine years ago Wilson founded New Art Forms alongside the crown jewel in his collection of expos–the Chicago International Art Exposition. According to former New Art Forms director Mark Lyman, as Art Expo waned in stature in recent years, with the mass emigration of angry art dealers to competing local fairs–including the New Pier Show, founded by Lakeside Group defector Tom Blackman–New Art Forms had remained a viable fair for Wilson. But the fallout from Wilson’s Art Expo now may have caught up with New Art Forms as well.
News of New Art Forms’ uncertain future did not inspire much sympathy in certain local observers who have watched Wilson’s once impressive and lucrative art fair empire shrink in recent years. They say that Wilson showed little concern for the needs of the dealers who supported his ventures through the years and helped turn Art Expo and New Art Forms into two of the world’s premiere art fairs. They say Wilson ignored their complaints about the way Art Expo was managed and continued to charge high fees to participate despite the setbacks many dealers suffered as the art market declined in the early 1990s.
Many of the dances in the RNDC repertoire are short, running well under ten minutes, their brevity the result of conscious choice on the part of Dow and her choreographers, who are hoping to enhance the company’s appeal to members of the MTV generation. Adds Dow: “I find myself that after watching for five or six minutes many of the dances I see I would have liked more if they were shorter.” Dow, also has discovered the power of television to expand the company’s audience. A documentary about RNDC, produced on a shoestring by Evanston-based HMS Media, showed on WTTW last fall and has been picked up by the Public Broadcasting System for a national airing. After the Channel 11 broadcast, Dow says, she had to turn away hundreds of customers at sold-out RNDC performances at the Harold Washington Library Auditorium.
