“We have always marvelled at the amount and the quality of art produced by a relatively small country, matched by the vast cultural knowledge of its art collectors. BRAFA is the oldest and one of the best international art fairs in the world and our exhibits/artists have always received an enthusiastic response from its public,” says the gallery.
For this latest staging Whitford is bringing its usual mix of Belgian artists, focusing on three names known for their abstract works: Bram Bogart, Joseph Lacasse and Paul Van Hoeydonck. But the gallery will also be reintroducing the Belgian art-loving public to the work of Frank Avray Wilson, a midcentury British action painter who retired from the art market in 1968 due to the death of his first son from leukaemia.
After a high profile in the ‘50s and ‘60s in galleries around the world (including Brussels), Wilson’s work was gradually overshadowed by his contemporaries. It is now, feels the gallery, ripe for revival.
As well as showing a selection of his paintings, Whitford is using BRAFA to present the first monograph on the artist, researched by An Jo Fermon, at its stand on January 21.
