The International Fine Art Fair: Five-, Six- and Yes, Seven-Figure Sales

NEW YORK CITY

: While one bastion of New York City was falling down (the retaining wall on the Henry Hudson Parkway) another bastion, this one cultural, was getting ample fortification. The Frick Collection was the beneficiary of a lovely gala opening of the International Fine Art Fair on Thursday, May 12, at the Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue.

Supporters who arrived at the gala at 5:30 pm paid $1,500 each for the opportunity to stroll through the spacious aisles to be the first to see the sumptuous array of art, sip the plentiful wine and nibble on an hors d'oeuvre selection worthy of the blue chip crowd. Snapped up in the first 15 minutes was a $45,000 Nabi/post Impressionistic painting by Swiss artist Rodolphe Fornerod, the first of seven opening night sales for dealers David and Constance Yates, New York City. At 6 pm, the ticket price dropped to just $500, and at 7 pm one could enter for $250. All told there were about 800 gala guests that night. The fair ran through May 18, providing showgoers with a full week of splendor.

The chapel-like atmosphere of the booth of Moretti, Florence, Italy, was heightened with the exquisite centerpiece, "Cotignola," by Bernardino Azganelli, circa 1470-1513. Featuring a Madonna and Child enthroned with two angels in attendance, the piece acted like a magnet to draw people into the display. It had provenance of Alberigo XII d'Este, Prince of Barbiano di Belgioioso. One could almost hear the harmony of vespers.

Weiss Gallery, London, brought an astounding collection of portraits, its forte. Nobles gazed out with benign reserve. Some of the portraits were of an intimate size, such as the highly detailed "Jean d'Albon, Sieur de Saint-Andre" painted circa 1530-35 by Corneille de Lyon. It measured 61/8 by 511/16 inches. A full portrait of James VI of Scotland and I of England painted circa 1618-20 by an unknown artist measured 761/2 by 47 inches and had provenance of the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg, Schloss Greinburg, Austria. Hung up high on the wall, the king had a good view of passersby.

At Berry-Hill Galleries, New York City, the mood was decidedly light-hearted. Gorgeous American paintings were full of light and vitality. Displayed art included work by Childe Hassam, Frederick Carl Frieseke, Edmund Tarbell, John Singer Sargent, Edward Simmons, Mary Cassatt and William Glackens and others.

Galerie Fabien Boulakia beckoned people into its booth with four Renoirs across the back wall, one of which was entitled "Femme nue se coiffant," circa 1895. The pastel of a young girl brushing her hair with a come-hither look had all the best qualities of an outstanding Renoir, and plenty of provenance to back it up. Offered were at least three works by Georges Braques, eight by Chagall and paintings by Matisse, Picasso, Miro and Dubuffet.

For the utterly fantastic, one had only to step into the large booth of French and Co., New York City. On a platform in its stand was a massive hand carved figurative table by Francois-Rupert Carabin (French 1862-1932) entitled "Les Quatres Elements." The same stand displayed an enormous Russian landscape painting by Ivan Ivanovich Shiskin of 1876, Giuseppe Arcimboldo's (Italian 1527-1593) anthropomorphic portrait of a man's face composed of fruit and other off the beaten track works of art.

Galerie D'Art St-Honore, Paris, brought with them several masterpieces of Dutch painting including two magnificent florals by Jan Brueghel Le Jeune (Anvers 1601-1678).

Reflecting the recent market enthusiasm for sculpture as demonstrated by a new world auction record of $27,450,000 paid at Christie's for Constantin Brancusi's "Bird in Space," the armory was positively studded with sculpture. Beautiful maidens carved of Carrara marble provided bright points, and soft earthen tones of figurative terracotta sculptures radiated warmth. Entire booths of sculpture from The Sladmore Gallery, London, and Galerie Pierre M. Dumonteil, Paris, had a decided emphasis on animalier bronzes. The Greenwich Gallery, Greenwich, Conn., covered its bases with two booths, one devoted to sculpture and another for paintings a little farther down the same aisle. They sold well from both.

A brilliant Alexander Calder mobile was suspended overhead at Galerie Hopkins-Custot, Paris, playing nicely off the large colorful Jean Dubuffet biomorphic wall pieces. A show-stopping 3-D abstract swirl conceived by Georgia O'Keeffe played well off a Marsden Hartley floral and other modernist paintings at Gerald Peters, New York City.

Perhaps one of the best juxtapositions of sculpture and wall art could be found in the theme exhibition "New York as They Saw It" mounted by Bernard Goldberg Fine Arts LLC, New York City. Five bronzes of workers in different poses by Max Kalish (1891-1945) dated from 1927 to 1936. In back of them loomed a painting of the Brooklyn Bridge by Martin Lewis in 1915, in a work entitled "Dockworkers under the Brooklyn Bridge," 233/8 by 195/8 inches.

This booth also had vintage photographs of Coney Island by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Edward Hopper's portrait of Guy Pene DuBois, Pene DuBois's watercolor and ink of a man noticing a lady's unbuttoned dress in "The Tenderloin," works by George Luks, William Glackens, Jerome Myers and an early and a late Stuart Davis. The Stuart Davis paintings showed just how much art changed in the Big Apple within a few decades. The first was a representation of a couple strolling on a sidewalk in 1911, the second a thoroughly abstract painting entitled "Gravesend," of 1961.

Thomas Colville brought several examples of Hudson River painting as well as a host of modernists including Hans Richter, Joseph Stella, Charles Demuth, Ilya Bolotowsky and others. He reported numerous sales including a Childe Hassam figure-study in oils, and a large riverscape by Hudson River School artist Alfred Thompson Bricher.

Lou Salerno of Questroyal Fine Art, New York City, sold an important luminist painting by William Stanley Haseltine to a known client on opening night for $135,000. The Haselting once belonged to the American Express Company. "We also sold ten other paintings and virtually all of them went to new clients," said Mr Salerno. Key sales included Hugh Bolton Jones, Marsden Hartley, Severin Roesen and William Trost Richards.

"It was a very upbeat show," said Mr Salerno, "one of the most positive shows of any of the shows that I have done in the last five years. People liked the redesign and the mix of art." Salerno thought it was serendipitous that the fair overlapped with the American art auctions held in New York City the sale week. He added, "People just feel good about buying art. They are more confident in their investment prowess."

Another American art dealer, Hollis Taggart of New York City, also reflected on the American art auctions in New York. "The market is absorbing a tremendous amount of material at very high prices. We are reaching new heights for American art when you see $1.4 million for a Metcalf. Those numbers are rivaling what one might pay for a Sisley or a Pissarro." At the fair Taggart sold "Landscape in Moonlight" by Edward Steichen for six figures. Other sales include Albert Bloch, Arthur B. Carles, two Milton Averys, a Marsden Hartley and a John Graham. All buyers were private collectors, although "a museum was second in line on our Hartley," said Taggart.

It was not just the American dealers who were selling well, however. London dealer Richard Green has been doing the fair since the beginning. He brought a broad range of art to New York City from Old Master to Modern British paintings. Mr Green said, "We are very supportive of the fair. We take a big space and bring our very best pictures. We believe in the New York market." As well he should. Mr Green sold a variety of paintings that ranged in price from around $100,000 into seven figures. All of his sales were to Americans, two of whom were new clients. The artworks sold remain unidentified, according to Mr Green's wishes.

Ben Elwes, London, sold eight paintings from his stand of Old Master and British paintings -three of them on opening night. Sales included "A Neapolitan Coastal View from Pozzuoli" by Welsh artist Thomas Jones (1742-1803) to a new European collector for a six-figure sum. He also sold "Temple of Clitumnus" by the British artist Richard Wilson (1713-82), an oil on canvas of 1754. It went to an American collector for a six-figure sum. "Grand Canal in Venice," circa 1740, by the Lyon Master was sold to a new European collector. "A Study of an African's Head" by the French artist Paul-Jean Flandrin (1811-1902) was reserved by an American institution.

The International Fine Art Fair continues to dazzle. Art rarely looks better. The impression of the new floor plan with slightly fewer dealers was one of awesome abundance and roomy elegance. With spacious aisles, gargantuan floral displays, fabric wall coverings and dramatic lighting, fair directors Brian and Anna Haughton provided an elegant foil for the masterpieces so carefully chosen and displayed by the 54 dealers. The staggering number of museum-quality works ranging from the Renaissance to about the mid-Twentieth Century redefined "strictly vetted."