The new fair has been organised by the ASAA (Association des Specialistes des Arts Asiatiques) and is a vetted event featuring 23 exhibitors, half of them from Paris. As well as coinciding with the main Biennale, the aim of the Asian fair is to alternate on non-Biennale years with the Paris Automne Asiatique, which, like Asian Art In London, is an autumnal gallery-wide celebration of the rich tradition of scholarship and expertise in the fields of Asian art.
Alongside the Paris-based exhibitors, the new Asian fair features dealers from other European countries and further afield. In addition to two exhibitors from Brussels and four from London are representatives from Milan, Amsterdam, Lisbon and Bernsheim in Germany, New York and Tokyo.
Together their range spans Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Tibetan and Korean ceramics, sculpture, works of art, textiles and furniture from the Neolithic to the 20th century.
Amongst the four London exhibitors are snuff bottle specialist Robert Hall, and Jacqueline Simcox who deals in textiles. She is bringing a selection of Ming textiles that includes the Wanli period silk tapestry table frontal shown here, priced at €19,000, while her earliest piece is a small fragment of Chinese silk from the Warring States period 475-221 BC.
Sebastian Izzard of New York, dealing in Japanese art, has teamed up with Tokyo-based dealer Mitsuru Tajima, who specialises in Buddhist art, to bring a selection of Japanese and Korean wares, which will include paintings, ceramics, lacquerware and textiles. There will be plenty of Oriental ceramics at the fair, including pieces made for the home market and also for export, such as this Qianlong period tureen and stand, which Antoine Lebel of Paris will be bringing to the fair. It bears the arms of Antoine-Marie Desforges-Boucher (1715-1790), who was Governor of what is now Mauritius (then known as the Ile de France) and an influential figure in the French East India Company.
Mauritius and the Ile de la Réunion being important ports of call en route from France to China. The tureen is priced in the region of €20,000.
New fair breathes fresh air into Asian art world
PARIS: A new Paris fair dedicated to Asian Art gets under way later this month. Running from Saturday September 21 to Wednesday September 25, the inaugural Biennale des Arts Asiatiques is timed to coincide with the opening week of the French capital’s Biennale des Antiquaires and takes places at the Carré des Sangliers in the Jardin des Tuileries – just a stroll down the road from the Carrousel du Louvre, where Paris’s most celebrated and glamorous veteran fair is held.
