For the French art world, the first weeks of September are a key period in the capital city. This is when it hold its main antiques fair – the Paris Biennale.
Running for more than 60 years and staged in the imposing space of the Grand Palais, this has long acted as a magnet to pull in visitors. But other trade initiatives have grown up over the years at this time. The annual Left Bank tribal art and ceramic events are firmly established in the September calendar as well as individual gallery exhibitions and group openings, not to mention the autumn season’s first auctions.
The Syndicat National des Antiquaires, the French antique dealers’ association that organises the Biennale, has high hopes for its rebranded event which has now gone annual. “I want the Biennale to be the artistic and cultural rentrée not only in Paris but around Europe,” declares its president Mathias Ary Jan in an interview with ATG.
Connoisseurial scholarship is very much to the fore in this year’s Paris rentrée with publications launched to tie in with anniversaries or new intiatives.
As part of putting the collector and collections at the centre of things, the Biennale’s loan exhibition on the Barbier-Muller collections is marked by a special art book, a tradition that the organiser intends to continue every year alongside each loan collection.
The dealers’ association that organises the Parcours de la Céramique, which celebrates 20 years of existence, is marking the occasion with a book on the ceramics in the Château-Museum at Saumur.
In his interview with ATG, Pierre Moos, director of the team that organises the Parcours des Mondes tribal trail, also points to the increased importance of knowledge and scholarship in this field. This year it celebrates a new publication on Tapa cloths.
Art lovers don’t need a special reason to visit Paris, of course. But there is always a buzz in the air for the September visitor as the city gets back into action and it is undoubtedly a very good time for the amateur d’art to make the trip.
Over the course of this special feature ATG takes you through some of the key events in the busy Paris calendar this month. Whether your interest is in the intricacies of a specific field or ranges widely across the entire artistic spectrum, there will surely be something to take your fancy.
“ For the French art world the first weeks of September are a key period in the capital city
