SCOTLAND'S biggest arts fair could sell up to (pounds) 1m of paintings this year, its organisers forecast yesterday just hours before the event was due to open to the public.
The Glasgow Art Fair, which opens to the public today features 50 galleries and a new avant garde section and is the largest show of its type outside of London.
Last year the fair, now in its eighth year and based in the centre of Glasgow in tents in George Square, led to the sale of around (pounds) 750,000 of new paintings and sculptures and attracted around 16,000
visitors.
Pete Irvine, the director of the fair, said that this year's sales could reach (pounds) 1m as more people invest in art and customers from previous years return to the fair.
He said: ''I think it is a reasonable target, I would have thought so.
''We are aiming for a million, although we will see what the effects of the war (in Iraq) and the economy will have.
''We have a broad range of customers, including many first time buyers, people who who bought for the first time last year - it's a good mix, from little old ladies to people who buy art all the time.''
A new pavilion, Extension, is being introduced to the fair this year. This features conceptual art by artists such as Dalzeil and Scullion, Graham Fagan and Erica Eyre and work from experimental Scottish galleries such as the Collective Gallery, the CCA and the Fruitmarket Gallery.
Not all of the pieces in this new section are for sale - including a striking corpse of a dead horse by Eyre - but Mr Irvine said the area was an important development for the show and demonstrated it had tried to keep up with current art fashion.
Mr Irvine said: ''Although there's been a growth in this work in the last few years, particularly in Glasgow, we've been unable to programme it.''
Last year the most expensive painting sold at the fair was by the glasgow artist Avril Paton for (pounds) 18,000. The average price customers were prepared to pay was around (pounds) 515.
A gallery from Poland - Art-Decor - is exhibiting at the fair for the first time, along side other debutantes, including five from London, and the acclaimed new Doggerfisher gallery in Edinburgh.
Last year's visitors figures showed that 47% of visitors came from outside Glasgow.
The fair opened as another major exhibition, Sanctuary, also opened at the nearby Gallery of Modern Art, and examines the plight of refugees and asylum seekers.
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