COLLECTORS MAKE CAREFUL CHOICES AT ART BRUSSELS

Collectors make careful choices at Art Brussels

The “best fair of the second division”, as one local dealer describes it, is a typically relaxed and steady-paced event

By Anny Shaw. Web only

Published online: 23 April 2012

The 30th edition of Art Brussels (19-22 April), described by the local art dealer Rodolphe Janssen as the “best fair of the second division”, was a typically relaxed and steady-paced event, where buyers took their time over purchases. During the preview on 18 April, Belgian and French collectors were out in force: Alain Servais, Bruno van Lierde, Cédric Liénart de Jeude, Gilles Fuchs and Nicolas Libert were seen greeting each other in the aisles, while the Miami collector Jorge Pérez and PhiliLondon-based collector Anita Zabludowicz brought a more international flavour. “One of the main strengths of this fair is our collectors,” said Karen Renders, the director of Art Brussels. “They are not impulsive buyers, they really study the market.”

The section of the fair dedicated to young and emerging galleries, Hall 3, attracted bigger crowds than the section for established galleries during the opening evening, although sales here were mixed. By the time the fair had opened to the public on 19 April, the Los Angeles gallery Honor Fraser had sold a Glenn Kaino tapestry to a European collector for around $45,000, as well as one of three Annie Lapin paintings priced at around $20,000 to a collector from Barcelona, while the Amsterdam gallery Ron Mandos sold a large-scale Rik Smits drawing for €15,000. Meanwhile, at the Los Angeles gallery Cherry and Martin, Matt Connors's presentation of six abstract paintings (each priced at $12,500) sold out during the first two hours of the preview and earned the artist the Belgacom prize for the best solo show at the fair.

Also in Hall 3, the London gallery Other Criteria was showing prints and paintings by Damien Hirst, modestly priced between £235 for an etching of 75 editions and £46,500 for a small butterfly and spin canvas. A handful of prints had sold by day two, but despite drawing admiring glances, the two small spin canvases strategically placed at the entrance to the booth had not.

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