Art Fairs

Fab Fair for Art Royalty

Filed under: Art

Louvre, hyperphoto by Jean-Francois Rauzier, Waterhouse & Dodd

Is it all about money or art? The answer is probably both but if you're in the Art 101 category, you can catapult up to PhD level at The European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, the Netherlands.

TEFAF is the most sophisticated, highly vetted, and elegant art fair anywhere. All true, but it is also a place where the minute the doors swing open to VIP guests, there's a stampede to the jewelry booths where for the most part glitz not glamour dominates.

Collectors, museum curators often accompanied by their trustees, and general connoisseurs attend to browse, to see and be seen, and to bring home treasures. This year, some 73,000 visitors attended. Most are Dutch, followed by Germans and Belgians, English, French, Italians, Americans and an impressively growing numbers of Russians and Chinese. Among a handful of Arab sheiks, most prominent this year was Sheikh Saud al-Thani, the art-hungry collector who is a cousin of the ruling Emir of Qatar. He surely arrived on one of the 154 private jets that landed on the tarmac of the tiny Maastricht-Aachen airport.

Van Gelder Antique Indian Jewelry

At the blue chip opening one of the first pieces to be snapped up was by a Russian collector: a billowing tapestry made of beaten red and gold bottle tops by the Ganaian artist El Anatsui. The price was $965,532. You can see his aesthetically beautiful "Earth and Heaven" sculpture installed in the African art galleries at the Met. In another gallery in the modern section, a well-heeled collector bought Spanish artist Joan Miro's sculpture, "Oiseau Lunaire," or moon bird, a wooden surreal, bird-like figure for $5 million. A bronze version of a moon bird by Miro is in the Nasher Sculptural Center in Dallas. That same day, March 18, Russian TV didn't waste a minute filming at the booth of Van Gelder Indian Jewelry which showcased some fabulous South Sea pearls and antique jewelry.

Tickets to the private first day are distributed to dealers who then invite their most important clients. The next day, all are welcome at a tab of €50 or about $75.

Now if you don't fit into the curator or collector category, what would draw you to TEFAF? Without a doubt, it is a remarkable learning experience for anyone who loves art. As Michelin says, it's worth the voyage, merely to see some 5,000 years of impeccable art, exquisitely presented. It could be that some TEFAF director handed down guidelines to the presenting dealers insisting that they treat every inquiry with respect. You won't find any condescending brush offs here.

Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo, Rembrandt

One item that drew large crowds was a fragment of an Egyptian water clock depicting Alexander the Great from about 332 BC at Belgium's Harmakhis Galerie. Old Dutch masters, especially a portrait by Rembrandt, "Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo" from 1658 and Renoir's "Woman Picking Flowers," depicting Camille Monet in a field of flowers also gained a lot of attention. A major attraction was a Helmut Newton solo exhibition of 40 photos from London's Hamiltons Gallery. Other standouts were Joana Vasconselos sensual feminine crocheted canvases at Haunch of Venison, Secessionist furniture at Kolomon Moser, beautiful Chinese textiles from Jacqueline Simcox in London. Only a BMW art car designed by Jeff Koons looked as if it had driven in by mistake.

TEFAF, first organized in 1975, invites 260 dealers from 16 countries all of whom undergo tremendous scrutiny to assure the quality, condition, and authenticity of their objects. About 100 dealers apparently are on a waiting list hoping to make it another year. Think of it as an art melting pot presented in an aura of gentility. It's the most promising, sophisticated, and enjoyable fair for specialists and the general public.

Tags: art, Art Fairs, Maastricht, Netherlands, Rembrandt, Renoir, TEFAF, The European Fine Art Fair

Ahron Weiner on the Verge: Bringing "The Flood" to Brooklyn

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

There were breaks in the rain, but the day ended with small rivers flowing through the gutters in Brooklyn's DUMBO neighborhood. It was the last day of Armory week in New York City, an event consisting of art fairs all over the city, ranging from colossal reputations and incredible valuations to emerging artists eager for their first tastes of success and notoriety. I was on my way to the Verge show, itself spread out over several locations.

If you want to find something unique or unusual, Verge is the place to go. You'll have to sift through a lot of good efforts (as opposed to successful results), but the one piece that blows your mind is worth it. I found it at 20 Jay Street: "The Flood," by Ahron Weiner.

There is nothing conventional about Weiner's photography, except, perhaps, for the fact that he uses a camera. After that, he's truly exploring new territory. "The Flood" is part of a larger effort that tells the stories of the Old Testament through rehabilitated advertising images.
Okay, that's a lot to digest. So, let's step through the concept.

If you ever see a tall (by my standards, at least) man with long blond hair chipping through the advertising posters on Manhattan scaffolds, there's a good chance it's Weiner. These posters are slapped up all over the city, with the new simply covering up the old ... and so on. It's endless. Weiner goes in the opposite direction. He peels away at the layers, looking for a story to emerge. Starting with what strikes him as an interesting advertisement, he pulls to see what lies beneath.

Gallery: "Cycle of Violence" at the DUMBO Arts Festival

Tags: Art Exhibition, art fair, art fairs, Art Gallery, art show, artist, Artists, brooklyn, new york, new york city

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Big Deals and Big Win at the Armory

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

Think of the Armory Show on Piers 92 and 94 in New York as the momentary center of the art fair universe with satellite shows orbiting around it. The show was a lot of work - some 274 galleries from 31 countries competing for attention.

Tags: Alexander Gorlizki, armory, armory show, art fair, art fairs, new york art fair, New York Art Fair 2011, The Armory Show

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The Best of the PULSE Art Fair

by Bobbie Leigh (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

The PULSE New York fair has it all --- sculpture, photography, mixed-media, painting. The layout this year with 63 booths is much more manageable territory at the Metropolitan Pavilion than at the other fairs dominating Manhattan this week. In fact, PULSE is the one fair not to miss. It is friendly, not at all imposing, a nice mix of hedge-fund deep pockets and young people, some even changing babies on cardboard arty currogated stools. Most important though is that the works are fresh and new. There's lots to buy at a wide range of prices and people on opening day were not hesitating to add to their collections.

Tags: art fair, art fairs, emerging artists, mixed-media artists, NewPhotography, nyartfairs, young collectors

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Naples, Florida Gets New Art Fair

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events, Art

Each year we mention Naples, Florida for its annual luxury wine festival but the tony warm weather enclave will have a new annual event to draw the rich, the first Naples Premier Art and Antique Fair, which takes place from Feb. 24 to March 1 at the Naples International Pavilion. The event is being put on by David and Lee Ann Lester, founders of International Fine Art Expositions which also organizes the Miami International Art Fair, Art Palm Beach, American International Fine Art Fair, The London International Fine Art Fair and SeaFair – the floating art fair.

The new fair brings over 60 art, antique, and jewelry dealers to Southwest Florida in a newly renovated 55,000 square foot facility. The fair features old master paintings, impressionist paintings, modern and contemporary art and sculpture, furniture, decorative arts, silver, ancient arts, haute couture and period jewelry, and rare books. Luxury jeweler Graff will be showcasing some of its fine diamond and colored gemstone jewelry. A painting by Renoir will also be on display and a historically significant portrait of President Abraham Lincoln will be presented by the 19th Century Shop.

Tags: antique fair, antiques roadshow, art fair, art fairs, naples, naples art and antique fair, naples florida

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