This year marks a new era in the story of this prestigious event since, for the first time, it will be staged in the Academy’s new space in Burlington Gardens, just behind Burlington House in Mayfair.
The new location offers even more space for the 30 or so international dealers who participate in the fair.
The fair follows a tried-and-trusted formula but this year the diversity of work on display is greater than ever.
Original artists’ prints spanning five centuries will be on sale with works by Old Masters such as Rembrandt and Dürer offered alongside the 19th and 20th century greats, like Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch, Picasso, Matisse and Miró.
The German Expressionists Kirchner, Dix, Beckmann, Ernst and Kollwitz are well represented, as are the leading contemporary artists such as Lucian Freud, Bridget Riley, Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin and David Hockney.
Some high-profile events will be part of the fair, the most glittering being on the evening of April 22 when a charity gala is held in aid of the Elton John Aids Foundation.
Bridget Riley is creating a new original print to be sold that evening with all proceeds going to the charity.
The loan exhibition this year displays treasures from the Ashmolean Museum’s print collection, and admission to the fair is £7.
Prints with even wider appeal
AFTER 19 years, The London Original Print Fair is still the only event of its kind in Europe and it goes from strength to strength, as you will see when it runs this week from April 22 to 25 at London’s Royal Academy of Arts.
