The European Fine Art Foundation is returning to the Park Avenue Armory for the 10th edition of its New York fair this week, featuring modern and contemporary art as well as high-end jewelry and antiquities.
Most of the fair’s 90 exhibitors will be spread across the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall as well as the 16 historical rooms, making TEFAF the only fair that uses these spaces, says Hidde van Seggelen, the president of TEFAF’s executive committee.
“We use it as a backdrop for quite a few furniture dealers, those that we would like to show and experiment in these rooms,” van Seggelen says.
As for the more traditional dealer booths, he says they’re smaller in New York than at the main Maastricht, Netherlands, fair, which allows attendees both the opportunity to see each piece of art up close and in detail and a chance to connect with the dealers.
“It’s a very open fair. There’s incredible access to dealers, so if you want to learn about something, talk to the dealers,” van Seggelen says. “We are about exchange of knowledge.”
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Each piece that the exhibitors bring to the fair is thoroughly vetted, ensuring the dealers only bring “the best of the best,” van Seggelen says.
One “rare and special” highlight for van Seggelen is L’Orpailleuse (The Sifter of Gold), 1945, by Yves Tanguy, which will be presented by New York-based Di Donna Galleries.
“This work has both a personal and art historical connection for me. I learned of this work from literature,” he says. “Similarly, TEFAF dealers work through a narrative, they tell stories and they bring artworks to life. Yves Tanguy was the least figurative Surrealist painter.”
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Some other modern and contemporary highlights of the fair include a Visiteur FV II armchair, 1947, by Jean Prouvé and presented by Galerie Patrick Seguin from Paris; Composition, 1947, by Alexander Calder, presented by New York gallery Robilant+Voena; Figure with Banner, 1978, by Roy Lichtenstein, presented by Van de Weghe in New York; and a 25.56-carat blue tourmaline, white diamond, crystal and 18-karat fair-mined gold bracelet by New York-based jewelry designer Ana Khouri. Prices for these pieces are not yet available.
As for antique highlights, Charles Ede from London will present a Roman statuette of Minerva with her owl from the first century and Paris-based Galerie Chenel will present an Ancient Egyptian inscribed block statue circa 1550-1292 BC.
The fair, of course, isn’t just for private collectors—with its premier offerings, some of the top museums are also eager to get their foot in the door. But their status doesn’t mean they get in first.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
“We tell people you have to wait until the preview starts. Everyone has to queue to come into the fair,” van Seggelen says.”In that sense, everyone is equal.”
In addition to the exhibitor booths, the fair also offers TEFAF Talks, a program with conversations that focus on topics from collecting and cultural heritage to restoration—a key issue for the foundation, whose TEFAF Museum Restoration Fund helps support the restoration of important museum works.
“It’s not only about selling art but also preserving it for the future,” van Seggelen says. “We represent 7,000 years of art history, but there’s also a duty to preserve all the art objects for future generations.”
The fair will run from Friday to Tuesday, with an invite-only collector’s preview on Thursday.
