The Art Deco bathroom by Armand-Albert Rateau installed by Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval at FAB Paris. Rateau designed several of these bathrooms including one for the Parisian home of the couturier Jeanne Lanvin and another for the Duchess of Alba at the Liria palace. The bathroom here was acquired around 20 years ago by the gallery’s founder Anne-Sophie Duval and her daughter Julie Blum, who now runs the gallery. It was offered for a seven-figure price.
Image copyright: Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval/photo Maxime Riché
The bigger space at the new FAB Paris venue meant that as well as taking a stand the 20th century and Art Deco design specialist Galerie Anne-Sophie Duval was able to show an entire Art Deco period bathroom.
Located in the exhibition space at one end of the building, it generated a great deal of interest at the fair.
The octagonal bathroom with a cupola ceiling, stone bath and sink and a gold and black mosaic floor was by the interior designer and decorator Armand-Albert Rateau and inspired by antique Byzantine models. It was made as a specific commission for the home in Neuilly of the Dubonnet family known for the famous aperitif.
Another piece by Armand- Albert Rateau presented at the fair was this bed made by the designer for his wife. It was one of the successful FAB Paris sales for the 20th century art gallery Matthieu Richard, whose stand with the bed is shown here.
Image copyright: Tanguy de Montesson
Spatial awareness
FAB Paris, which emerged last year from an amalgam of the relatively young Fine Arts Paris and the much older Biennale des Antiquaires, moved to a more spacious location for its second edition.
It opened with a private view on November 21 for a six-day run at the Grand Palais Ephémère.
View of the entrance to FAB Paris at the Grand Palais Ephémère.
Image copyright: Tanguy de Montesson – Courtesy of FAB Paris
This large temporary structure on the Champ de Mars is the venue for all the events that normally take place at the Grand Palais itself, which is currently undergoing renovation. For FAB Paris it represented a move from the underground space of the Carrousel du Louvre off the rue de Rivoli which had been the Fine Arts Paris home since 2019.
The Grand Palais Ephémère is an impressively large open structure with views towards the Eiffel Tower at one end and it can take a number of exhibitors in comfort. This meant that FAB Paris’ 110 participating galleries (a 30% increase over last year) all had spacious stands and wide aisles with good sight lines.
The Old Master Sculpture specialist Galerie Sismann from Paris sold one of its highlight pieces at the fair to the Fondation Gandur in Geneva, Switzerland. It was this early 17th century polychromed and part gilt terracotta bust of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception attributed to Gervais II Delabarre. The sculpture had an asking price of over €200,000.
Image: Christophe Fouin
All the exhibitors that ATG spoke to at the event were pleased with the new simple but elegant layout, feeling it was an improvement on the more limited space in the Carrousel du Louvre and it was good to be able to look out at a view. The increased roll-call had brought in a bigger and broader range of disciplines and this too was welcomed as it gave a more varied feel to the overall display.
Among the Asian art exhibitors at FAB Paris was Jean-Christophe Charbonnier from Paris, who specialises in Japanese art and in arms and armour in particular. His stand at the fair is shown here. “The visitors were not only numerous but also curious, interested and educated,” he said. His sales included two warrior’s helmets, one from the 17th and the other from the 19th century.
Image copyright: Tanguy de Montesson
Many dealers had taken advantage of the space to set out interesting displays, such as Didier Luttenbacher with a chronological range of Sèvres ceramics from the 1880s to 1950s; Galerie Sismann’s prominently displaying a large Byzantine marble capital from Constantinople; Jean-Christophe Charbonnier’s stand of Japanese armour and arms.
Brame & Laurenceau from Paris, a gallery specialising in Modern and Post-war art, took three drawings by Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) to the FAB Paris fair and immediately sold one of them, this 17 x 10in (43 x 26cm) Nu accroupi or crouching nude from 1909 in blue pencil on paper priced around €500,000.
Image courtesy of Brame & Laurenceau
Around 5000 people attended the vernissage on November 21 which included a visit from President Macron, his wife Brigitte, the culture minister Rima Abdul-Malak and various other names in the official cultural world.
There was a strong ethnographic or Art Premiers presence at the FAB Paris fair and among those enjoying sales success was Galerie Yann Ferrandin from Paris. It sold several of the star pieces including this 19th century masculine wooden ancestor figure (Adu Sihara Salawa) from the island of Nias in Indonesia.
In all over 20,000 visited FAB Paris over the course of its six day run. Sales were made from the outset and continued afterwards with others under discussions as the fair ended.
Among those enjoying good results was the Paris animalier dealer Xavier Eeckhout, who sold 13 of the 20 pieces he had on display at prices ranging from €5000-230,000; the sculpture specialist Trebosc and Lelyveld, which sold five works at the beginning of the fair, and Galerie Alexis Pentcheff with nine paintings selling to several new customers.
