While Drawing Now, the contemporary drawing fair, is always full of wonderful discoveries at Carreau du Temple, the new Paris Print Fair was also of high quality at Réfectoire du Couvent des Cordeliers but Menart (Middle East and North Africa Fair) was disappointing at Maison Cornette de Saint Cyr. It gave galleries from abroad and from the French provinces an opportunity to get noticed by the very International crowd of visitors. There is not one hotel room to be found in Paris at the moment…
A few interesting galleries of Art Brut, a new British artist Rob Miles who shows his collages at Galerie Catherine Putman, Jeanne Susplugas is obsessed with pills and hallucinations at la Patinoire Royale, the Iranian artist David Koochaki and Dany Leriche at Galerie Polysémie from Marseille all enchanted me. Downstairs among the younger artists, the Danish Per Adolfsen was showing refined luminous landscapes at Sobering galerie. But my coup de coeur went for Marie Havel at galerie Jean Louis Ramand in Aix en Provence.
Prices at Drawing now can be very modest and there are great discoveries to be made among these young artists. At Bris Print Fair, a first edition dedicated to old and modern prints, I saw four wonderful colored prints with frames in straw marqueterie at the Barcelona galerie Palau antiguitats, discovered Irish artist John Doherty who creates Intaglios of old petrol pomps “The Totems of the Highway”at Stoneyroad press in Dublin.
There were a few extraordinary prints of Brittany, one by Carl Moser, “Breton Wedding” , 1922 at Galerie Bei der Oper which specializes in Japanese prints and their occidental followers. Across the alley, Stéphane Brugal who runs a gallery in Pont l’Abbé had more works by Moser and a fabulous “Départ en mer” (departure at sea) in black and white by Alfred Marzin. So many great artists have worked in Brittany that it is refreshing to see their prints presented as a group. A wrapped Barcelona fountain by Christo was presented at Libretis, and Documents 15 showed a beautiful tempera on lithograph by Charles Emile Delprat of Notre Dame being rebuilt, 2022. it was already sold 30 mns after the opening of the fair.
At Menart, there were many Lebanese galleries and Maya Mammarbachi who opened the online site Artscoop had come from Beyrouth to meet artists and colleagues. everyone suddenly spoke arabic and it was like having travelled very far with a taxi ride to avenue Hoche. I liked Nabil Nahas, “untitled” of a cedar tree in the snow.
The fairs are over by now but you can contact all teh galleries if you are interested in the art….
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