This is the first time Westdeutsche Kunst Messe, KunstKoln and the Cologne Antiquarian Book Fair have all been staged together on the same floor, occupying Halls 1, 2 and 3 of the trade fair centre.
Now in its 36th staging, the Westdeutsche Kunst Messe features around 90 exhibitors from all over Germany who will bring a wide range of paintings plus all the usual categories of applied arts: furniture, ceramics, silver, jewellery, horology, art nouveau and deco and Asian art. This year the antiquarian book fair - now in its 19th staging - will be incorporated as a special section within the Westdeutsche fair.
The 80 exhibitors of KunstKoln will be setting out their stall alongside the antiques and books. Although this event was originally established to serve mainly as a platform for editors of graphics and limited editions, that aspect of the fair now only accounts for around a fifth of the exhibitors, while the sections devoted to photography, art brut (or outsider art) and Contemporary post-1980 art have increased proportionately.
This emphasis is reflected in the loan exhibitions: Outstanding! featuring Contemporary works by young photographers and a show devoted to outsider artist Gustav Mesmer (1903-94) from Ravensburg in upper Swabia, who developed a lifelong preoccupation with flying machines, earning him the nickname The Icarus of the Lautertal.
Anne Crane
