MAASTRICHT — Picking the top 10 booths among the 266 exhibitors at TEFAF presenting the very best in their fields – Old Master and modern painting, antique, jewelry, and design – is no small challenge. So many of them could have made it to this list. With a bias for the visual arts, ARTINFO has chosen to focus here on the most arresting, stunning, and surprising. As always, dealers who have gone for a dramatic statement rather than a collection of bits and pieces tend to stand out. The more dramatic, the better — as long as it’s artistically justified. (To see this story in illustrated slideshow format, click here.)
1. Richard Green (London)
A stunning display of Picasso oils on canvas, featuring “Le Peintre,” “Verre et Pichet,” and “Nature morte à la pomme et au pichet bleu.” Right at the entrance, it sets the tone of this 2013 edition.
2. Yufuku Gallery (Tokyo)
Halfway between functional objects and stand-alone sculptures, the pieces exhibited on Yufuku Gallery’s booth are all made using traditional Japanese crafts — updated for the 21st century. Several of the artists represented by the gallery, including Fukami Sueharu, are collected by institutions such as the V&A and the British Museum.
3. Les Enluminures (Paris, New York, Chicago)
Zingy colours make the medieval rings and manuscripts pop at Les Enluminures. The star of the show: The Katherina Hours (use of Rome), from Tours, France (1485-90).
4. Marlborough Fine Art (London, Zurich)
Manolo Valdés’s “Ivy” (2012) stands at the entrance of Marlborough’s booth like a benevolent deity. Although made this year, the figure has a timeless quality — a signature of the Spain-born, New York-based artist’s production.
5. Flore de Brantes (Brussels)
There’s a refreshingly bucolic feel to this grouping: a “Transhumant” (sheep), by the maverick François-Xavier Lalanne, grazes next to a park bench by Pablo Reinoso, under “La ligne de partage du ciel” (Line slicing the sky) courtesy of the French duo Jugnet + Clairet.
6. Eguiguren Arte de Hispanoamérica (Buenos Aires)
In gaucho country, nothing is too good for a horse. The impressive gold and silver gear from Uruguay and Argentina dates back to the late 19th and early 20th century.
7. Bernard de Grunne (Brussels)
A bewitching display of ivory figures under bell jars. These statuettes from the Lega people (Eastern Congo), were used by the members of the bwami association (a privileged group of significant power and authority) in rites, and even as a medical ancillary when everything else had failed.
8. Axel Vervoordt (Wijnegem/Antwerp)
Although Pierre Jeanneret was responsible for most of the furniture in the new town of Chandigarh, India — planned and designed by Le Corbusier after WW2 — new research shows that this architectural desk, the star of Axel Vervoordt’s display, was conceived by the architect himself for the city’s High Court, where it remained until recently. The rest of the booth functions as a tribute to Gutai, with pieces by the likes of Kazuo Shiraga, Shozo Shimamoto, and Saburo Murakami.
9. Robert Hall (London)
“Snuff bottles are one of the markers of the skills and arts of the Qing dynasty,” explains dealer Lindsay Hall. These tiny vessels — used to store tobacco after it was introduced to China by the Portuguese — were very popular at the Imperial court. The exceptional selection presented here comes from “The White Orchid Collection” and the Ferrari Collection.
10. Crijns & Stender Breda-Oosterhout (The Netherlands)
Nothing jazzes up an ancient clocks display like the unexpected addition of a contemporary painting. But the gallery representative ARTINFO spoke to wasn’t too keen, declining to give the artist’s name (“It might be gone tomorrow,” he said, hopeful). He focused instead on the rare clocks on view, including these three Dutch and French pieces from the late 17th and very early 18th century.