TEFAF 2011 Maastricht

TEFAF2011 art and antiques fair catalog cover page

It is the fourth year we put an eye on this amazing art and antiques fair. The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF) takes place this year from today (18th March) till the 27th March 2011. Since it's first launch back in 1975 and after the art recession during 2009 we believe that this year TEFAF2011 is fresh like the kid in the picture above. This is reflected in the renovated website that supports services for i-phone and mobile phone users as well as a website for Chinese art collectors and lovers.

As a visitor to TEFAF Maastricht you will be present at an outstanding event, one that offers the best choice of the very best in fine art. You will have a unique chance to view and to buy paintings from Bruegel to Bacon as well as objects reflecting 6,000 years of excellence in the applied arts. No where else will you find such an elegantly displayed selection of genuine masterpieces from 260 of the world’s most prestigious art and antiques dealers from 16 countries.

Exhibitors at TEFAF put their finest works of art to one side to bring to the world’s most influential art and antiques fair. Sometimes tracking them down has involved specialist knowledge and skilled detective work while in other cases their recent history has been more straightforward. But the one unifying factor at TEFAF is quality. At the 24th edition the standard of the exhibits is breathtaking.

An extraordinary example of how one of the greatest names in 20th-century art and a superbly skilled jeweller combined to produce a work of exquisite beauty is displayed on the stand of Michele Beiny. Pandora’s Box, designed and created by Salvador Dali and executed by Carlos Alemany, is a gold box veneered with lapis lazuli and studded with diamonds. Dali’s signature is in diamond-encrusted platinum. This stunning piece was commissioned by Hanns Weinberg in 1971, making it one of the last jewels created by Dali, and until now it has always been in the Weinberg family’s collection.

A more recent piece of great jewellery is the Delaire Sunrise, the world’s largest Fancy Vivid Yellow Square Emerald Cut diamond, exhibited by Graff. The 118.08 carats diamond was acquired by Laurence Graff in rough form and cutting took almost a year to complete. It is named after the Delaire Graff estate, one of South Africa’s finest vineyards and priced at €18 million.

Chinese contemporary landscape painting, 2010. Yannan Wang of China Guardian Auctions, TEFAF supporter

Asian art has become one of TEFAF’s many strengths and amongst the masterpieces at this year’s Fair are two being shown by British exhibitors. Cohen & Cohen has a highly important pair of Chinese leopards dating from the reign of the Kangxi Emperor c1720. These magnificent 99cm long enameled porcelain figures, with an asking price of £3.5 million, are believed to have been made for the Emperor himself. The only place where leopards could have been closely observed by the artist was in the Imperial menagerie in Beijing.

Littleton & Hennessy Asian Art, from London, are showing a rare and highly lacquered bronze figure of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara dating from the early Yuan Dynasty in China c1300. Priced in the region of $8 million, this 147cm high bronze, probably made in the Yunnan area, is among the most powerful of the few surviving Buddhist images from this period.

Many of the finest works at TEFAF 2011 are from more recent times. Wienerroither & Kohlbacher is exhibiting Egon Schiele’s superb 1914 gouache and pencil work on vellum Sitting Nude, priced at €1.7 million, while Galerie Daniel Blau has one of three close-up portraits that Lucian Freud painted of his mother in 1972-73. The Painter’s Mother was always Freud’s favourite and is going on public view for the first time with a price of £2.8 million.

Two dealers have 21st century works by Louise Bourgeois, who died last year. Galerie Karsten Greve has an untitled piece made of cloth and steel dating from 2002 while the Kukje Gallery is exhibiting some of her most exquisite last works. Among these is Les Fleurs, a 2008 gouache and mixed media work on paper by an artist who bridged the great cultural span from the early 20th century to the opening years of the 21st. Hamiltons Gallery is holding TEFAF’s first exhibition of works by the German-born Helmut Newton.

TEFAF Design, established as a separate section two years ago, has greatly strengthened the Fair’s modern and contemporary design content and one of the highlights of this is the Presidence desk made from steel and oak in 1948 by Jean Prouvé. It has been owned by the same family since then and is being exhibited for the first time by Galerie Downtown François Laffanour. A startlingly contemporary work by Johnny Swing is on the stand of Sebastian + Barquet. All the King’s Men is a sculpted sofa made in 2010 from half dollar coins and stainless steel and was acquired directly from the artist.

A range of cultural events and special activities from concerts to lectures and exhibitions within the fair as well as in and around Maastricht, they provide the ideal way to entertain and be informed about the wider issues of the world of fine art. The ‘During TEFAF’ festival offers visitors to TEFAF an international program of dance, jazz, classical music and theater lasting the whole evening.