Ex-Sotheby’s auctioneer explains why he decided to become a dealer – video

Having set up as an independent dealer under the banner Adrian Biddell Fine Art earlier this year, he tells ATG that “auctions and dealing are two sides of the same coin”. But, as he points out, being a dealer allows for a “feeling of independence that you can push the envelope in different ways”.

He is now advising and sourcing pictures for clients, and has recently helped fellow dealer and art advisor Anna Grundberg organise an exhibition of Scandinavian art in London titled Independent Finland: Gallen-Kallela and his Nordic Contemporaries.

A mixed selling and loan exhibition of around 50 works, the show opened at Gallery 8 in Duke Street to coincide with the exhibition at the National Gallery devoted to Gallen-Kallela titled Lake Keitele: A Vision of Finland that opened in November.

It featured examples by Gallen-Kallela as well as the likes of Helene Schjerfbeck and Bruno Liljefors.

In the video below Biddell discusses the opportunities he feels exist in the market for European artists whose markets are largely contained in country of origin, and takes a close look at Richard Bergh’s large-scale oil on canvas Gjendesheim.