Frieze, Freud and the great range of London's artistic institutions

Frieze Art Fair returns to London this month under the direction of Eva Langret, with both contemporary and Masters shows exhibiting in Regent’s Park, NW1. Although the former has, in recent years, inspired more groans than gawps, it remains a welcome lift to the capital’s social scene at a time when many are already contemplating hibernation.

One thing Frieze also prompts is a reckoning about London itself, its status as a global art capital and the current state of its museums. If you want to fit in at Frieze Masters, a good start would be to claim, loudly, that the city hasn’t had a five-star show since Lucian Freud’s at the National Gallery in 2022.

A quick trip to Christie’s or Sotheby’s ahead of auction, however, dispels any impression of London as an art-market morgue. Works by Picasso and Jenny Saville fetched tens of millions when they went under the hammer this summer. Outside of traditional galleries, too, art in the city is a thriving, pulsating ecosystem.

Take luxury hotels, one of London’s fastest-growing sectors of the past four years, with collections that are the envy of gallerists from Paris to New York. Since Broadwick Soho opened in 2023, art adviser Jonathan Brook has decorated the eight-storey hotel with works by Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Victor Pasmore and Zanele Muholi. For the downstairs bar, he commissioned ceramicist Michaela Gall to adorn the walls with plates bearing the marks of historic Soho, alluding to its past as both a hunting ground and a haven for libertines.

At The Savoy, where Monet once painted the River Thames from his suite, Grant Watt’s sketches of the hotel’s famous guests line the corridors, their lingering gaze following today’s patrons as they return to their rooms from supper. In the Art Deco suites opening next year will hang two gold-embellished portraits of geishas by Scottish artist Stephanie Rew — a nod to the hotel’s origins, built from the proceeds of the Savoy Theatre’s production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado.

Even the public house, a favourite watering hole for many artists, can become akin to a gallery if designed correctly. The Audley, on Mayfair’s Mount Street, has been likened to a ‘world-class museum’: in it are framed caricatures from the 19th and 20th centuries, together with more modern work from artists such as the Turner Prize-winning Martin Creed — and, of course, Lucian Freud’s A Plate Of Prawns.

The phrase ‘a moveable feast’ comes to mind. Art in London is definitely still that.