Ms Akshita Nanda's article, Smaller Fair, Decent Sales (Life, Feb 1), does not give readers a true impression of this year's Art Stage Singapore.

What was most significant about the fair this year to anyone who was there was the extent to which it had diminished.

Not only was the number of galleries participating drastically reduced, there were far fewer top-tier galleries taking part. The standard of the art on show was also less than stellar.

The press conference at Art Stage this year conveyed a sense of pessimism about the local art market which was not picked up in the report.

Apart from Chan Hori Contemporary Art mentioned in the article, a number of prominent local galleries, including many at Gillman Barracks, declined to participate in the fair this year for the first time despite the fact that it was in their own backyard.

Within a few days of Art Stage's opening on Jan 25, several major international newspapers, namely the South China Morning Post and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, carried penetrating interviews with Mr Lorenzo Rudolf, the director of Art Stage, in which he did not conceal his feelings about the local art market and government involvement in it.

These incisive reports revealed what insiders have long known about Singapore: too few collectors in an art market which is too small, the government's continual heavy hand in censorship and overwhelming competition from Art Basel in Hong Kong.

Add the rise of the art scenes and economies of South-east Asian cities such as Jakarta and Bangkok to the fray and Singapore's ambition to be the regional commercial visual arts hub is threatened.

Art Stage Singapore is on the decline, Mr Rudolf has said as much. Which is why it is confusing, to say the least, that he dismisses rumours of the fair's impending end as grossly exaggerated.

Lin Fangjie

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