It’s been a hell of a year or so for the art market, but Rick Friedman, founder and executive director of ArtHamptons, now in its second year, is bullish: “There is no better time to invest in art,” he writes in his introduction to the catalogue of this year’s edition, which opens to the public today and runs through Sunday. “From buying the masters to discovering fresh and upcoming stars, you can acquire items that should not only accrue in value, but also bring everyday beauty into your home. And you may consider these art purchases as another element in your investment portfolio.” Friedman clearly understands the instincts of ArtHamptons patrons, and last night’s opening gala and collector’s preview provided a fascinating insight into what they find appealing. It also offered an opportunity to gauge the mood of the dealers who attempt to satisfy them.

Decoration, it seems, is much in demand. New York’s DC Moore has a group of paintings by 85-year-old Jane Wilson, who is one the fair’s 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award honorees (along with photographers Elliott Erwitt and Lillian Bassman). Wilson makes easy-on-the-eye landscapes that look to Rothkos abstraction and Turners brushiness, though her color palettes are less trying than those artists'. Her Blue Dawn (2009) is available for $45,000. Gallery president Bridget Moore was in a positive mood when she spoke to ARTINFO. “It’s been a very active summer,” she said, “and very good for classic works.” Elsewhere the Cooley Gallery has a little section of its booth turned over to palette-knifed skyscapes by Judy Friday, who is apparently something of a celebrity in Old Lyme, Connecticut, where both she and the gallery are based. Her remarkably consistent paintings are priced between $650 for a picture six inches square and $3,800 for Gray and Peach Sky, which measures two feet across. Gallery director Joseph Newman described himself as “certainly optimistic,” adding, somewhat surprisingly, that “the first quarter of 2009 was the best quarter we’ve ever had.”

Trompe l’oeil is also much in evidence at the fair. Connecticut gallery Eckert Fine Art has Eric Forstmanns oil-on-shaped-panel Made Off with the Bail Out Package (2008–09), a depiction of an unwrapped pigeonhole with a crumpled dollar and two pennies inside, which the artist explained is a Madoff-inspired joke, priced at $13,500. Discovery Galleries from Bethesda, Maryland, has walls full of J. Scott Nicol book-spine paintings and prints. Only one painting (at $7,200) remained unsold last night, but the prints were still available for anywhere from $600 to $1,600. Gallery Henoch has long specialized in this kind of work and at ArtHamptons offers a full range: landscapes by Max Ferguson, figures by Eric Zener and Daniel Greene, still lifes by Olga Antonova and Janet Rickus, and interiors by SungHee Jang. On the other hand, the Eisenhauer Gallery (an Art Hamptons debutant from Martha’s Vineyard) is more focused: Featured artist Michel Brosseau specializes, appropriately enough, in boat sails and other nautical paraphernalia. Prices range from $6,000 to $21,000, with Overlooking New Harbor, for example, priced at $7,000. Gallery director Elizabeth Eisenhauer has come to the fair with an open mind. Asked about her expectations for the weekend, she described herself as simply “curious.”

Soft pornography is clearly as reliable a seller as it has been since the invention of oil paint. The always-entertaining Cynthia Corbett from London not only has photographs of girls’ bikini-clad bottoms like Frilly in Yellow (2007) by Boyarde Messenger at $3,350 each, but has actually hung them right next to paintings of the same subject by Deborah Azzopardi. “We like bottoms!” was her effusive explanation. New York’s Forum Gallery, meanwhile, has a couple of suggestive paintings by Michael Leonard: If your taste runs to young women showing their breasts, you can have Cloud of Dark Hair (2007) for $30,000, or if you prefer young men with their jeans unfastened, Changing Rooms III (2008) is $35,000. Forum’s director Niccolò Brooker told ARTINFO, “The mood here is fantastic. I’m very impressed by the number of people, the level of interest, and the breadth of knowledge.” The staffers at Arcadia Gallery were delighted to have sold Intensity II (2003) — one of Malcolm T. Liepkes paintings of yearning young women staring brazenly at the viewer — for $49,000 at last night’s preview, and they have several others in the same vein. Seduction (2009) for example, is available at $28,000. A number of galleries have Tom Wesselmann's signature partial nudes at various sizes and prices.

A final clue to the ArtHamptons mood can be found in the excitement generated by East Hampton’s Vered Gallerys booth. They have a Picasso, a Chagall, a de Kooning, and a Rauschenberg, but their star lot (they are actually offering it for sale by closed-bid auction) is a 1984 Andy Warhol portrait of the then-beautiful Michael Jackson!