It is taking place with a bigger roster of exhibitors offering works from a broader range of art and antiques.
Around 60 galleries are taking part in the fifth edition this year running from November 6-11. This is getting on for double the number at the fair’s first staging in 2017 at the Palais Brongniart.
It has also expanded from a fair for dealers in painting, drawing and sculpture to welcome dealers in fields such as non-western, Asian and ethnographic art, antiquarian books and jewellery.
New names
This brings new names to the roll-call such as Patrick & Ondine Mesdagh from Brussels bringing ethnographic artefacts, jewellery dealers Véronique Bamps from Monaco and Walid Akkad from Paris, and Librarie Clavreuil from Paris with rare books.
Other newcomers this year include Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz (Paris/New York) bringing her trademark antique wallpapers, Galleria Dei Coronari from Rome, Enrico Frascione from Florence and Robilant + Voena (London/Paris/ Milan/New York) offering sculpture.
As this selection implies, the exhibitors are not exclusively drawn from France – galleries from Spain Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, the UK and US all feature.
The interior designer-decorator Jacques Garcia will transform the fair’s entrance under the Carrousel du Louvre’s glass pyramid. For the scenography he has taken inspiration from the 14th century stone defences discovered when the Carrousel du Louvre centre was being built.
Extra touches
For those not able to attend in person, Fine Arts Paris, like so many fairs these days, will also be facilitating a higher level of online interactivity between dealers and clients.
Beyond the fair itself Fine Arts Paris will be organising extra events.
Its Semaine des Beaux-Arts offers private visits to around 20 partner museums including the Maison Victor Hugo, the Condé Museum, the Musée de l’Armée, the Artists Foundation, the Château de Fontainebleau, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Paris and the Emile Hermès Collection.
Fine Arts Paris also hosts two symposia at the Petit Palais. One is devoted to Watteau and his entourage, to mark the 300th anniversary of the artist’s death.
Another will discuss the research conducted by Geneviève Bresc-Bautier into 16th and 17th century sculpture, in collaboration with Sophie Jugie, director of the Louvre’s sculpture department.
Sculptor celebrated at Fine Arts Paris
For Fine Arts Paris the specialist sculpture dealership Galerie Malaquais is presenting a group of 15 sculptures by Aristide Maillol (1861-1944).
They were created in the earlier part of the sculptor’s career notably for an exhibition at Ambroise Vollard’s gallery in 1902.
The presentation is the result of 15 years of research by the gallery into the work of an exceptional trio: the sculptor Maillol, the dealer Vollard and the bronze founder Florentin Godard and will coincide with the publication of Maillol (re)découvert with the assistance of art historians Ursel Berger and Elisabeth Lebon.
Among the pieces on show will be this work known as Two Sisters, pictured above, which is a design for a clock dating from before 1902. It measures 19 x 16½ x 8¼in (49 x 42 x 21cm) and was formerly in a US private collection.
The gallery is asking €380,000 for this piece.
