Masterpiece London has established itself as the world's leading cross-collecting fair, offering the finest works of art, design, furniture and jewellery, from antiquity to the present day. This unmissable event at the height of the capital's summer season provides an unparalleled opportunity for new and established collectors to discover exceptional works for sale from 160 international exhibitors.
This
year’s edition showcases rare and important Impressionist and Modernist
paintings; compelling presentations celebrating British art and design;
exquisite jewellery; art and objects from antiquity as well as contemporary
work by artists including Marina Abramović, Ibrahim El Salahi, Chiharu Shiota
and Rob & Nick Carter. The Royal Bank of Canada returns as the Fair’s
principal sponsor for the fifth successive year.
Masterpiece Presents
MASTERPIECE
PRESENTS, in collaboration with FactumArte and Lisson Gallery, will showcase
new works by Marina Abramović, Five Stages of Maya Dance,
in an immersive, specially conceived area. This unseen body of work comprises
five alabaster portraits of Marina Abramović which merge performance, light and
sculpture. Their hauntingly physical presence decomposes into intricately
carved landscapes of alabaster as you move around the pieces.
New Additions
Longstanding
Masterpiece exhibitors including Richard Green, Adrian Sassoon, Wartski,
Robilant + Voena, Verdura/Herz-Belperron and Dickinson are joined by carefully
selected new additions for 2018 including: ArtAncient, Ben Brown Fine Arts,
Cahn, CINDY CHAO The Art Jewel, Day and Faber, DIE GALERIE, Galerie Yann
Ferrandin, Flowers Gallery, James Graham-Stewart, Hammer Galleries, Hauser
& Wirth, Galerie Henze & Ketterer, Hill-Stone, Hunter / Harrison,
Kallos Gallery, Landau Fine Art, Lullo • Pampoulides, Maruani Mercier,
Moussaieff Jewellers, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, Jill Newhouse Gallery, Partners
& Mucciaccia, R & Company, Fabio Salini and Vigo.
Cross-Collecting
Masterpiece’s
cross-collecting ethos can be seen throughout the Fair, where exhibitors
specialising in a wide variety of disciplines and eras are brought together,
offering the broadest spectrum of works of any art fair, with classical and
contemporary shown side-by-side.
Visitors will encounter presentations which
carefully combine furniture, sculpture and works of art from all periods,
unified by quality. Examples of this ethos can be seen at Benjamin Proust,
Perrin Fine Art, Robilant + Voena, and Safani Gallery & Geoffrey Diner.
Reflecting this
breadth, new exhibitor ArtAncient’s presentation will feature a rare ‘shooting
star’ meteorite, formed 4.6 billion years ago, whilst specially commissioned
contemporary artwork will be presented at Blain|Southern with an installation
by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota.
Les Enluminures
and Daniel Crouch will stage a carefully curated presentation entitled ‘A Brief
History of Time: From Matins to Mars’. The booth will display celestial maps,
instruments, illuminated manuscripts and medieval and Renaissance jewellery,
inviting viewers to contemplate the perception of time across history.
Hauser
& Wirth’s ‘Wunderkammer’, or cabinet of curiosities, will also combine
disciplines with contemporary and modern works by Louise Bourgeois, Phyllida
Barlow, Subodh Gupta and Philip Guston, presented alongside 18th and 19thcentury
furniture.
Impressionist and Modernist Presence at the Fair
This year, highly
important Impressionist and Modern works will be exhibited at the Fair by a
number of exhibitors. Landau Fine Art’s presentation will include a Picasso oil
painting which hung for decades behind the desk of his only dealer, Paul
Rosenberg. Gladwell & Patterson will be bringing a preeminent example of a
late waterlilies painting by Monet and, celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, Hammer Galleries
will be bringing an early work by Joan Miró along with Marc Chagall’s Peintre
au coq rouge.
DIE GALERIE are
collaborating with M. F. Toninelli Art Moderne to present a focussed booth with
work by three key Surrealists: Max Ernst, André Masson and Roberto Matta,
including a monumental bronze statue by Max Ernst, whose work will also be
shown at Ludorff’s stand. German Expressionist works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and August Macke, will be displayed by Galerie Henze
& Ketterer.
The Best of British
Masterpiece is an
important destination for collectors of British art and design and many of this
year’s exhibitors are celebrating the work of British artists as well as those
who have lived and worked in the UK. This focus is encapsulated by Richard
Green whose presentation ‘Best of British from our Shores and Beyond’ includes
pieces by J.M.W.Turner, L.S. Lowry and John Constable.
Modern and
Post-War British artists, including Eileen Agar, Duncan Grant, Barbara
Hepworth, Bridget Riley and Graham Sutherland, will be presented by The Redfern
Gallery, Osborne Samuel, Philip Mould, Offer Waterman, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert
and Piano Nobile.
In celebration of
the 300 year anniversary of Thomas Chippendale’s birth, Ronald Phillips and Apter-Fredericks
will be presenting important pieces by the British cabinetmaker. British
furniture will also be championed by Oscar Graf, whose stand will explore the
theme of ‘Victorians & Edwardians’, displaying beautiful pieces in a
variety of styles from 1860-1910. Jewellery exhibitor Didier Ltd. will include
a focus on British designers on their booth with pieces by Wendy Ramshaw and
her husband David Watkins.
Design, Furniture and Decorative Arts
With a booth
inspired by the Surrealist poet and patron Edward James, David Gill Gallery
will be bringing together contemporary works from their roster of artists and
designers including Zaha Hadid, Michele Oka Doner and Mattia Bonetti. Modern
and contemporary design will also be presented by 18 Davies Street Gallery,
Rose Uniacke and Modernity Stockholm. New exhibitor Sarah Myerscough Gallery
will showcase unique handcrafted contemporary pieces of design by John
Makepeace amongst others, and Sinai & Sons Ltd. will focus on the work of
Italian painter, sculptor, interior decorator and engraver Piero Fornasetti.
Hitomi Hosono’s exquisite collaboration with Wedgwood will be revealed at
Adrian Sassoon, and Katie Jones will present a selection of contemporary Japanese
applied arts.
Jewellery
Extraordinary
contemporary jewellery will be shown by leading designers including Fabio
Salini whose new collection made with carbon fibre will be revealed for the
first time at the Fair. Taiwanese fine jewellery brand CINDY CHAO The Art Jewel
will be presenting designs from their Black Label and White Label collections
and coloured diamond specialist Moussaieff also join the fair this year. Rare
antique jewellery by masters such as Cartier, Boucheron and Fabergé will be offered
at SJ Phillips, Hancocks, Véronique Bamps and Epoque Fine Jewels. Van Cleef
& Arpels, Verdura/Herz-Belperron and Grima will present both their heritage
collections and unique contemporary pieces.
Sculpture at the Fair
Masterpiece’s
exhibitors include leading sculpture specialists Lullo • Pampoulides, Pangolin
London, Univers du Bronze, and Galerie Sismann who will display European Old
Master sculpture alongside contemporary sculpture by Johan Creten. Other
highlights in this field include Alexander Calder’s unique Red
Bull which will be at the centre of Collisart’s stand
alongside American Modernist works by Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper, and
Arshile Gorky.
Landau Fine Art
are bringing a rare black marble Reclining Figure: Curved by
Henry Moore, dating from 1977, which is one of the artist’s seminal and unique
carvings and will be displayed close to their stand. Other prominent pieces and
installations throughout the Fair’s main areas include a large sculptural light
installation created by Jeff Zimmerman being offered by R & Company and
Larry Bell’s monumental VFZ 2, a unique work
formed from True Sea Salt and Cerise laminated glass presented by Hauser &
Wirth. Blain|Southern will bring State of Beingby Chiharu
Shiota and two new works, the monumental Twice by Richard Hudson
and Solar
Disk by Emily Young will be offered by Bowman Sculpture.
Talks
Masterpiece
London will be holding talks, workshops and tours throughout the public days of
the fair as part of a Talks & Education Programme, in association with
Chopard. This includes a new initiative - a Curator and Art Trade Day on
Saturday 30 June co-chaired by Thomas Marks, Editor of Apollo, and Philip
Hewat-Jaboor, Chairman of the Fair, which will include a call for papers from
academics. This is in addition to a series of ‘How to Look at’ talks, providing
visitors with the tools needed to get the most out of viewing and buying a
range of disciplines of art. Throughout the Fair there will also be free to
attend on-stand talks with exhibitors, where specialists will give visitors an
insight into some of the highlights on display.
Link: Masterpiece London