A couple of Parisian art fairs resist: Galeristes and ASIA NOW!

Although all the major Parisian art events have been hastily cancelled (the Fiac, Paris photo and even Art & Museum) other fairs such as Galeristes and Asia Now have confirmed they will be taking place, highlighting the rarity of such events in this very difficult period.

Galeristes 2020

The 5th edition of the Galeristes art fair will be held from 23 to 25 October in the hall of the Carreau du Temple (near République in Paris). Among its 40 exhibiting galleries, there will be 12 new galleries and 16 solo shows. The selection committee, consisting of collectors, aims to reveal talents in the trade with a particular focus on one of the key themes in today’s art business: support. The fair’s ambition, in the words of its founder Stéphane Corréard, is to foster and expand the community of Contemporary art enthusiasts. “Galeristes (the fair) pursues a threefold ambition: to promote genuine encounters between gallery owners and collectors, to allow these relationships to be consolidated over time, and to ‘initiate’ new collectors.” this is the dynamic within which Léopold Legros and Tancrède Hertzog will be setting up their stand. The young Galerie T&L was founded in 2015 in Paris on the original and dynamic model of a nomadic gallery. It shows everything from Modern art to Post-War art to ‘emerging creation’ in atypical places.

Interview with gallery owner: Léopold Legros, from Galerie T&L (http://www.tl-galerie.com)

Tancrède Hertzog & Léopold Legros. Courtesy Galerie T&L

Is there anything particularly meaningful for you about your first participation in Galeristes?

At a time when most of the major international art fairs have been canceled or reinvented online, this fair is resisting. The globalized circulation of goods and people and the “all digital” approach is beginning to show its limits. The Galeristes model of an art fair – allowing a veritable meeting of minds by bringing together a community of enthusiasts – seems to be more than ever relevant in the current age. Galeristes responds to the challenges of tomorrow’s world by focusing on an intensification of local exchanges which are essential for strengthening local ties, which, in turn, make it possible to overcome the current difficulties. We fully subscribe to this idea with our traveling gallery, which allows us to meet the public and put the physical link back into the core of our profession. At this fair, we all speak the same language, that of our love of art, and we all encounter the same difficulties, and Stéphane Corréard understands this as he is himself a gallery owner.

What is the ‘temperature’ of demand today given the current context?

It seems obvious that in a situation where international travel is very difficult, professionals in the art market are forced to rethink their offer… and this is probably not a bad thing! It wouldn’t make any sense to present top-level art works that remained unsold. On the other hand, we are seeing buoyant local and regional demand. Speculative purchases are rarer at the moment, but motivated collectors are still there. The 2020 edition of this fair is therefore more than ever a “Made in France” exercise focusing on French artistic creation, which is not only excellent in the eyes of Stéphane Corréard but is also crucial to support in our current economic context.

Does your solo show highlight a figure of 20th century art?

Indeed, we are probably the youngest gallery owners in the show but we present the oldest artist: Stanley William HAYTER (1901-1988) is a British painter and printmaker who was one of the main representatives of the Surrealist movement. He was above all one of the best masters of engraving techniques in the 20th century. His work was decisive in the revival of this medium, especially his research into colour engraving. Over the years, his studio at 17 rue Campagne-Première was assiduously frequented by Pablo PICASSO, Salvador DALI, Raoul UBAC and even Maria Elena VIEIRA DA SILVA. In 1933, he became a member of the Surrealist group, to which he was already very close. At the start of WWII, he left Paris for London and then New York, where he recreated Atelier 17, which attracted young American avant-garde artists. He then became close with Mark ROTHKO, Roberto MATTA and Jean-Paul RIOPELLE. His art had a definite influence on the birth of American Abstract Expressionism. Jackson POLLOCK (1912-1956) cited Hayter as his only master alongside Benton and he printed his only engravings at Atelier 17 with Hayter. Returning to France in 1950, S.W. Hayter evolved towards a Kinetic Abstraction style, his paintings becoming networks of parallel waves flowing over the canvases in bi-chrome harmonies of lively colors. In 1958, he represented the United Kingdom at the Venice Biennale. When he died in Paris in 1988, the British Museum acquired all of his engraved work. For us gallery owners, presenting an artist who is so important in art historical terms but relatively unknown in France is an exciting project and it satisfies our ambition to bring artists into contact with new audiences.

ASIA NOW

The 6th edition of Asia Now is maintained and will benefit this year from the additional attention resulting from the cancellation of lots of major events in Paris. Having become a benchmark in the field, this fair dedicated to Contemporary Asian art is resisting thanks to its moderate size. The latest edition offers two formats: the physical fair which will run until 24 October and the online version which will continue until 7 November. Among the 33 galleries (vs. 43 last year) who responded, several started off in Asia such as the Almine Reich and Magda Danysz galleries in Shanghai. Others are the French galleries established in Asia such as HdM Gallery based in Beijing and Hangzhou. Perrotin, Templon and Jeanne Bucher Jaeger (among others) are participating for the first time. The fair’s aim is to be as close as possible to Contemporary Asian creation and to connect European collectors to leading artists from China, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Korea and Japan.

Nathalie Obadia. Crédit photo ©Luc Castel, Courtesy de la Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris- Bruxelles, 2019

Present at the FIAC for 15 years, the Nathalie Obadia gallery is one of the new international galleries to join Asia Now.

For its first participation in Asia Now, Nathalie Obadia will be presenting the work of six artists from the Asian region in the broad sense – from China to Iran – as well as artists born in Asia and living elsewhere, like Rina BANERJEE (1963) who spent her early childhood in Calcutta before emigrating to the United States. Her rich and protean work with metaphorical titles explores the role of cultures, mythologies and popular tales in the context of globalization. All the works selected are among the largest recently created by the artists represented. The prices on Obadia’s stand will range from €5,000 to €100,000 and there will be works by NI Youyu, Cheo LU, Shahpour POUYAN and Hoda Kashiha.

Rina Banerjee “In noiseless soils underground, a distanced poor from below touch fine air rooted in piles upon piles weeded and watered to then have no light shared” Courtesy de l’artiste et de la Galerie Nathalie Obadia Paris/ Bruxelles

In general, the offer provided by Asia Now is robust with established galleries rubbing shoulders with other younger ones, as well as numerous solo shows. And among the highlights of this edition, there will be off-site programmes at the Guimet Museum and the Cernuschi Museum.