TEFAF Maastricht, the most important art fair is famous for its commitment to excellence, experience and elegance. This is reflected not only in the magnificent choice of works that are offered for sale at the Fair, which will be held at the MEEC in Maastricht from 13th to 22nd March 2015, but also in the number of both private and institutional art collectors who look to TEFAF as to an event not to be missed in the art market calendar.
It will make an appearance at TEFAF 2015 Night Fishing, an exhibition comprising works by postmodern and contemporary artists designed to complement the TEFAF Modern section. The artists will be chosen on the basis of a body of work that makes historical and artistic references to the objects on display at the fair which, collectively, represent over 7.000 years of art history. TEFAF invited Sydney Picasso, writer and collector to curate the first edition of this new area. For this first project, it was decided to focus on Sculpture. In fact, sculpture is today at the center of a re-definition and Sidney Picasso plans to use post-modern and contemporary canons to re-examine traditional sculpture. The exhibition will be entitled "Night fishing", referring to the ancient technique of fishermen who used a lamp to attract fish to the surface during the night and to Picasso's famous 1939 painting, Night fishing in Antibes which found in the collection of the MoMA in New York. The exhibition concept underlines the wealth of objects that can be found in the various sections of the Fair, from Archeology to Medieval Art and weapons, and aims to stimulate visitors' understanding and vision of contemporary production and vice versa.
Ten galleries will be invited to exhibit only one artist each in an area set up ad hoc. Sydney Picasso, in concert with the exhibitors, will oversee the way the works are presented.
New Entrance Hall: The Entrance Hall at TEFAF is the very first thing visitors see and experience at the Fair. The “Palazzo delle Arti” metaphor was the starting point for a complete re-design of the hall by Tom Postma's TPD studio. The new project will employ plays of light on different materials with transparent and translucent textures.
This transparent volume will act as a "canvas" for a special play of light. The light-design will therefore be fundamental and will be developed in collaboration with Pieter Huijgen, head of the lighting department of the Dutch National Opera.
Tom Postma of TPD observed: “It is in the Entrance Hall of TEFAF that people make the transition from normal life to the magic and mystery of art. To allow this process to happen, the entrance has to become something spectacular, something really out of the ordinary..”
This year TEFAF's loan show is titled Teyler's legacy. This very special exhibition will present a selection of 28 extraordinary drawings from the Renaissance to the 1475st century and will be displayed in the TEFAF Paper section. Among the masterpieces of the exhibition are works by Michelangelo (1564-1483), Raphael (1520-1600), Claude Lorrain (1682-1684) and Jean-Antoine Watteau (1721-158), Hendrick Golzius (1617..-1596); Jan van Goyen (1656-1585); Hendrick Avercamp (1635-1606) and Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1669-XNUMX). These works from the XNUMXth, XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries will be compared with drawings by contemporary European artists such as Giuseppe Penone, Carel Visser, Marlen Dumas and Pavel Pepperstein.
This selection of works comes from the Teyler Museum in Haarlem, the oldest museum in the Netherlands, opened to the public in 1784.
Pieter Teyler van del Hulst (1706-1778), a wealthy cloth merchant and financier, was a true son of the Enlightenment, convinced that knowledge could enrich humanity. He had a keen interest in the sciences and the arts and amassed immense collections in both fields. His considerable fortune was at his behest left to a foundation whose purpose is to stimulate interest in the arts and sciences.
The theme of private collecting is also explored at the TEFAF annual conference. Private goes public (from private to public), this is the title of the conference, which will look at the motivations that push private and institutional collectors to share their collections with the public and what, in the first place, motivates private individuals and large companies to start a collection.
