Contemporary Asian Art at TEFAF 2014
By Paul Laster
Mixing more periods of art and design under one roof than any other art fair in the world, The European Fine Art Fair—best known as TEFAF Maastricht—launched its 27th edition on March 13 to an enthusiastic crowd of museum directors, curators, connoisseurs and collectors. This year’s fair, which runs through March 23, features antiques, rare books, maps, jewelry, Old Master works, Modern and Contemporary art, photography, ceramics and design, all offered by 275 dealers from 20 countries. “TEFAF has the best quality of everything. It’s specialized, and the most important collectors from around the world do come,” Antwerp’s eclectic gallerist Axel Vervoordt shared with ArtAsiaPacific on opening day.
Vervoordt transformed his booth into a cabinet of curiosities, where archeological finds were displayed next to works by Gutai artists, including Kazuo Shiraga, Norio Imai and Tsuyoshi Maekawa, the last of whom was signing books at the fair. Similarly, Rossi & Rossi combined a large, contemporary collage of a bodhisattva figure by Tibetan artist Tenzing Rigdol with early classical art from the Himalayas, while Michael Goedhuis mixed Asian antiquities with Chinese contemporary ink paintings, including recent canvases by Qiu Deshu and Yang Yanping.
