|
|
   |
   |
Maastricht’s
Marvelous Art Fair
Unrivaled in variety and quality, TEFAF dazzles with everything
from vintage Cartier to priceless Rembrandts. |
By
BECCA HENSLEY |
| The
Antiques and Works of Art section of TEFAF 2004. |
The Coronation of the Virgin, late 17th century; coral,
enamel and gilt copper. |
T riptych with Pietà, late 15th century. |
Georges Seurat, En Marche, circa 1882, Conté
crayon on paper. |
Auguste Rodin, Polyphemus, bronze. |
Nicolas de Largillierre, Presumed Portrait of the Comtesse
de Noirmont as Diana, oil on canvas. |
Mummy mask, Egypte, Roman period, 1st to 3rd century
AD. |
Pablo Picasso, Sueño y Mentira de Franco, 1937.
|
N ecklace with matching earrings. |
Inlaid tabletop with marble and lapis lazuli, 1684.
|
Jacob Jordaens, A Portrait of the Artist’s Daughter
Elizabeth, oil on canvas. |
Gaspar Van Wittel (known as Vanvitelli), View of Ronciglione,
oil on canvas. |
The Hume sofas, Robert Adam, 1780. |
André Masson, Portrait de Rose Masson, circa
1944, oil on canvas. |
Rembrandt, Man Wearing a Gorget and a Plumed Hat, oil
on cradled panel. |
Rachel Ruysch, Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1704, oil on
canvas. |
 |
| Becca
Hensley is an award-winning travel writer, poet and
columnist. Her work appears regularly in Austin
Monthly, Healing Lifestyles, Brilliant,
The Good Life and The Austin American Statesman. |
Art
aficionados the world over feel their pulses quicken each
March when The European Fine Arts Fair (TEFAF) — the
most important and prestigious gathering of the world’s
most notable galleries — takes place in the charming,
historical town of Maastricht in southern Holland.
TEFAF attracts 75,000 collectors, curators and art lovers
from more than 50 countries. Less a fair than a spectacle,
TEFAF dazzles with everything from vintage Cartier to priceless
Rembrandts. Like some great debutante party for more than
25,000 museum-quality master works and the people who admire
them, TEFAF celebrates the sublime state of the beaux arts.
“Imagine the sheer opulence, the best to be offered
in the world, from old master paintings to illuminated manuscripts
to Egyptian relics, all in one setting,” says Peter
Sutton, executive director of the Bruce Museum, Greenwich
CT, and TEFAF board member.
“It’s almost unbelievable what one finds,”
says Erin Fitzpatrick of Salander-O’Reilly Galleries
in New York — “fragments of the Dead Sea scrolls,
a maharajah’s necklace, a lost Bernini terra-cotta.”
“It’s the unrivaled depth of variety and quality
that sets TEFAF apart,” says David Tunick of David Tunick,
Inc., in New York. “There’s an aura about it,
a prestige, a viable pulse that beats from beginning to end.”
Rob Noortman, a well-known dealer of old master paintings
from Maastricht, agrees: “If you come for a Picasso,
you’ll find twenty. If you’re looking for a Dufy,
you may have to choose among 50.” The advantage is in
the opportunity to compare quality and price. Roaming the
stalls are curators, art historians and experts. “There’s
always someone nearby to offer an opinion,” Noortman
notes.
Once a fair that had focused primarily on Dutch and Flemish
masterworks, TEFAF today defines diversity. Daphne Alazraki
of Daphne Alazraki, New York, notes how the fair has evolved
over the years. “It’s much more varied these days,
especially in terms of paintings,” she says. Indeed,
TEFAF offers supreme examples of everything from Bruegel to
Bacon, from rugs to Asiatic art.
Presentations by the galleries themselves reinforce TEFAF’s
magical mood. Besides displaying their exquisite collections,
they manage to transport their shops’ essential personalities
to the fair. Each gallery booth brims with distinction —
a gold-leafed column here, an antique desk there. Dividers
become faux walls bearing stucco, fabric, stenciling —
whatever it takes to bring a bit of Paris, Rome or New York
to the fair. Some offer sherry or chocolate, but what keeps
75,000 fairgoers coming back year after year is the absolute
divinity of the artwork. “Truly, this fair is the ultimate
in sophistication — it’s gorgeous,” says
Michel Witmer, TEFAF board member and prominent art historian.
Most of all, Witmer admires how the fair is set up like a
museum. “It’s educational,” he says, “both
for those who know nothing and those who know it all.”
Characterized by a rigorous and thorough vetting process that
exceeds the standards set by other fairs, TEFAF’s policies
ensure that purchases here can be made with absolute confidence.
Two days before the fair opens, experts such as Sutton and
Frank Robinson, director of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum
of Art at Cornell University in New York, scrutinize the works,
utilizing 19 vetting committees comprised of 130 international
art historians, curators and professors who examine and verify
each object to ensure its authenticity, quality and condition.
Moreover, TEFAF checks that no works have been confiscated
in accordance with ALR (The Art Loss Register), an organization
concerned with verifying the provenance of art, particularly
in terms of theft.
According to Johnny Van Haeften of London’s Johnny Van
Haeften Ltd., purveyors of fine 17th-century Dutch and Flemish
old master paintings, “There is such a feeling of excitement
and discovery on opening night, that there’s always
a mad scramble to get through the door.” Indeed, it
is the vernissage that reminds us why TEFAF is the art world’s
most divine (ten-day-long) soiree. Galleries from Amsterdam
to San Francisco invite their best clients to toast the first
hours of TEFAF at a festive premiere. Tunick calls those who
flock to tiny Maastricht by private plane, train, limousine
and car “the jet set of collectors.”
The scene resembles a gala affair. Designer-clad collectors,
art experts and museum folk nibble canapés and sip
cocktails as they explore beautifully conceived stalls of
precious artwork. Cigar smoke rings and snippets of multilingual
conversation fill the air. European royalty, political figures,
popular designers, avid collectors and artists (think Prince
Henrik of Denmark, Camilla Parker Bowles, Malcolm Forbes,
Jr., Lily Safra and the Dutch royal family) stroll the gathering,
seeking that perfect delftware platter or Pieter van Roestraten
trompe l’oeil.
Perhaps that’s why so many museums send their representatives
to the event. During the beginning days of the fair, directors
and curators examine the stalls for new acquisitions. Curators
often reserve pieces early in the show. The Los Angeles County
Museum of Art always comes home with something divine. Says
Curator J. Patrice Marandel, “We have bought many fine
works for our collection at TEFAF, including Severin Kröyer’s
View of Copenhagen Under the Snow from J.F. Heim in Paris.”
Within the first days of TEFAF 2004, the U.K.’s Compton
Verney museum bought a chalkstone Pietà, and the Museo
Nacional de Artes Decorativas of Madrid acquired a 16th-century
Spanish silver-gilt-and-enamel chalice. From the Prado to
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it’s understood that
something lost might be found, something undiscovered, uncovered.
A Bernini sculpture, bought at TEFAF for the Kimbell Museum
in Fort Worth, had been in a private collection for so long,
its origins had been lost. Unearthed and offered two years
ago by Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, it is considered
one of the most important Bernini terra-cottas in existence.
Professional art buyers and serious collectors relish the
exclusive inventory. Witmer’s favorite acquisitions
are a 17th-century Dutch painting from the Orleans Collection
and a bible made by the monks in Oxford in the 12th century.
Even artists are inspired by the wealth of art on display.
Five years ago, well-known British modern-art sculptor Barry
Flanagan became entranced by two medieval, wooden Venetian
sculptures and urged Leslie Waddington of Waddington Galleries,
London, to buy them. Flanagan recycled them into a sort of
ancient-meets-modern art piece. The new sculpture, exhibited
at TEFAF last year, serves as a metaphor for the range of
art presented at the fair.
But the allure of competing with museum and other professional
buyers isn’t the only thing attracting discriminating
collectors to TEFAF. Noortman’s clients and colleagues
attend cocktail events and dinner extravaganzas at his castle
just outside of Maastricht. Belgian interior designer and
antiques dealer Axel Vervoordt organizes parties and concerts
in both his castle and in De Fabriek, a splendidly restored
former factory not far from the fair, and Van Haeften celebrates
TEFAF’s opening week with an extravagant dinner at Château
Neercanne.
Besides the invitation-only events, which are hosted by the
galleries, a profusion of lectures, concerts and professional
group meetings take place. This year, a unique jubilee concert
honors Andrea Amati, the famed teacher of Stradivarius, on
his 500th birthday. The concert, planned for March 6th, will
use original Amati instruments. Throughout TEFAF, three extremely
rare Amati violins, on loan from the Museum of Cremona, will
be on display to delight music and antiques lovers.
Ultimately, of course, what makes TEFAF so splendid is the
unveiling of the art. Van Haeften, who will bring, among other
works, a portrait by Jacob Jordaens of his daughter Elizabeth
to TEFAF 2005, says that many galleries hold back their best
pieces for the fair. “There’s great fanfare in
the unveiling,” he explains. But while most take great
measures to keep their inventory a secret until March, others,
such as New York’s Royal-Athena Galleries, print catalogs
months in advance. Dr. Jerome Eisenberg, gallery director,
says only the stand-out pieces go to TEFAF. “Our gallery
brings nothing under $2,500,” he says, “though
most antiquities begin at around $10,000.” Some of the
items Royal-Athena Galleries plan to show at TEFAF include
a marble torso of Aphrodite, Greek and Roman helmets from
the 4th century BC (through the 4th century AD) and bronze
sculptures (6th century BC through the 3rd century AD) from
a famous American collection.
Like a teaser, some galleries have announced one or two pieces
that make up their TEFAF 2005 collection. Besides 17th-century
Dutch and Flemish paintings, Alazraki will bring paintings
from the French Barbizon School. Pelham Galleries in London
will show a unique pair of small gilt-wood sofas designed
by Robert Adam of London in 1780. Cesare Lampronti in Rome
will bring a Vanvitelli painting called View of Ronciglione.
The Angela Gräfin von Wallwitz Kunsthandel in Munich
will have a fine mahogany traveling case made in Saxony around
1775. Jablonka Galerie in Cologne will offer a large painted
chrome steel sculpture by American artist John Chamberlain,
while Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière in Paris will
carry an André Masson portrait of his wife, painted
in 1944.
Just the tip of the iceberg, these pieces represent the sort
of quality TEFAF promises and that which lures collectors
to the fair. “People are driven to acquire,” notes
Van Haeften. He adds that the strength of the art market is
that works by most of these artists are finite, “not
being made anymore,” which makes them very desirable.
Master works do seem to appear from nowhere sometimes. Perhaps
they have been in a family vault or on the wall of a monastery
for centuries. Mostly, though, they come by way of the “3
Ds — divorce, death and division,” says Witmer.
Once part of a private collection, they are recirculated,
landing once again in the hands of individuals.
Almost as much as the artwork, many fairgoers anticipate the
innovative and elegant annual transformation of the convention
center in Maastricht as it morphs into a backdrop for the
art. One year 25,000 live roses lined the walls leading to
the galleries; last year a fantasy of moving water sculptures
greeted visitors. And this year architect Tom Postma of Amsterdam
and British designer David Bentheim of London will find inspiration
in the paintings of Vermeer. Floors, influenced by the black-and-white
tiles ubiquitous in Vermeer’s work, will be strips of
various shades of gray. Leather seats, placed throughout the
halls, will lend a chic and timeless quality.
Masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts – some
acquired at a past TEFAF – will grace the walls. A highlight
of the Detroit collection, Flowers in a Glass Vase, was painted
by Dutch floral still life specialist Rachel Ruysch. Ruysch
is considered the most talented female flower painter in history.
“A major female artist, Ruysch became one of the official
court painters to one of the German princely houses –
the House of Palatinate,” says George Keyes, Detroit
Institute of Arts curator. TEFAF will display 35 masterpieces
from the institute’s collection of old master paintings,
for which it is renowned – works by Rubens, Hals, Tiepolo,
Jordaens, de Hooch and Poussin. There will also be 16th-,
17th- and 18th-century sculpture from the Italian Renaissance,
including pieces by Girolamo Campagna, Antonio Susini, Hubert
Gerhard and the Baroque sculptor Lorenzo Bernini, as well
as work by the 18th-century German modeler Johann Kändler,
best known for his Meissen figures.
TEFAF 2005 promises to mesmerize.
.TEFAF
Address Book |
Lodging
Château St. Gerlach, Joseph Corneli Allée
1; 43.608.88.88
Crowne Plaza Maastricht, Ruiterij 1; 43.350.91.91
Hotel Derlon, O.L. Vrouweplein 6; 43.321.67.70
Dining
Beluga, Plein 1992-12; 43.321.33.64
Château Neercanne, Cannerweg 800; 43.325.13.59
Toine Hermsen, Sint Bernardusstraat 2-4; 43.325.84.00
Tout-à-Fait, St. Bernardusstraat 16-18;
43.350.04.05
‘t Plenske, Plankstraat 6; 43.321.84.56 |
|
Photo
credits
Image 1: Pieter de Vries International Fine Art Photography,
image 2: Courtesy of Jaime Eguiguren, Arte Y Antigüedades,
image 3: Courtesy of Jan Morsink Ikonen, image 4: Courtesy
of Dickinson, image 5: Courtesy of Robert Bowman Ltd., image
6: Courtesy of Didier Aaron & Cie, image 7: Courtesy of
Kunsthandel Mieke Zilverberg, image 8: Courtesy of David Tunick,
Inc., image 9: Courtesy of Gianmaria Buccellati-Mabuti SRL,
image 10: Courtesy of Altomani & Sons, image 11: Courtesy
of Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., image 12: Courtesy of Cesare Lampronti,
image 13: Courtesy of Pelham Galleries Ltd., image 14: Courtesy
of Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière, image 15: Courtesy
of The Detroit Institute of Arts; image 16: Courtesy of The
Detroit Institute of Arts. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
