{"id":430198,"date":"2026-05-16T06:41:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430198\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T06:41:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:41:14","slug":"inside-tefaf-new-yorks-annual-wealth-pageant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/430198\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside TEFAF New York\u2019s Annual Wealth Pageant"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do the wealthy choose their art these days?<\/p>\n

Do they adorn their walls with the masterworks of long-dead modernists and Pop Art icons that will only increase in value as the years unfurl? Or do they fill their townhouses with glossy hardwood tables, chic lighting fixtures, and dense statement sculptures that wow guests and can be used as a blunt instrument in an emergency?<\/p>\n

The answer is, perhaps, all of the above. There was plenty to dazzle the patrons of the Nouveau Gilded Age at The European Fine Art Foundation\u2019s (TEFAF) 12th annual fair, held at the historic Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan from May 15 to 19.<\/p>\n

Any concerns about inflation, hantavirus, or general political malaise were gently left at the armory\u2019s doorstep at Thursday night\u2019s VIP preview, where someone\u2019s Mercedes-Maybach sedan was parked out front with its trunk open awaiting its new haul.\u00a0Inside, prospective clients trailed by their art advisors nibbled seafood hors d’oeuvres and sipped glasses of ros\u00e9 while inspecting the presentations of 88 galleries from 14 different countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A view of the booths at TEFAF New York 2026<\/p>\n

TEFAF has long held a reputation<\/a> for attracting the upper tier of New York high society and jet-setting plutocrats seeking to acquire treasures for their newly taxable<\/a> pied-\u00e0-terres. At this year\u2019s fair, visitors could even buy their own pied-\u00e0-terres, designed by the late French architect Jean Prouv\u00e9, which are produced in Eastern France and can be shipped anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them are demountable, that is, they\u2019re pulled apart, put in the ground, and rebuilt. There\u2019s no foundation, they rest on the floor,\u201d Laurence Seguin, of Paris-based Galerie Patrick Seguin, told Hyperallergic. \u201cWe\u2019ve sold a few of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"TEFAF has long held a reputation for attracting the upper tier.<\/p>\n

Bejeweled sculptures and literal jewelry, a driver<\/a> of TEFAF\u2019s high-net-worth collector base, attracted the most attention. Near the entrance, visitors gawked at Kathleen Ryan\u2019s sparkly Bad Fruit (2018-present) sculptures inside Gagosian\u2019s booth, which were encrusted with thousands of pearls, opals, and crystals of more than a dozen semiprecious minerals to mimic decomposing fruit. Each crystal in \u201cBad Cherries (Princess)\u201d (2026) was set in place with a single steel pin, recalling the American craft tradition of \u201cpushpin-beaded fruit,\u201d according to the gallery.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cai Guo-Qiang, “Blue Bird and Flowers No. 2” (2021-26)<\/p>\n

Others trotted out prized members of their roster. White Cube celebrated its representation of Cai Guo-Qiang, announced<\/a> earlier in the week, with a series of paintings the Chinese artist made with gunpowder that evoke bluebirds flying over a meadow.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response has been tremendous,\u201d Mathieu Paris, global sales director at White Cube, said. \u201cWe sold 11 works of the 12 we had and the last one is in discussion. It will probably sell by the time you print.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Sheila Hicks\u2019s “Untitled” (1981) at Demisch Danant<\/p>\n

Some galleries arranged their booths to resemble luxurious living rooms, complete with modernist leather chairs and sleek end tables to show off their sculptures, all of it for sale. Sheila Hicks\u2019s large-scale textile works stood out at Demisch Danant<\/a>, known for its showrooms of 20th-century French design.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 91-year-old American fabric artist who has lived in Paris since the 1960s is so in demand she has pieces with half a dozen galleries in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, and the United States, and five museum shows every year, the gallery said.<\/p>\n

For deep-pocketed buyers, familiar European and American masters were plentiful.\u00a0<\/p>\n

David Hockney fans could admire his new painting, \u201cDancers with Audience and Orchestra, August 2025\u201d at the stand of Annely Juda Fine Art. David Tunick\u2019s gallery featured works on paper from Cy Twombly, Alexander Calder, Jasper Johns, and Arshile Gorky. An adorably tiny John Chamberlain chromium-plated sculpture, \u201cHoneybee Banquet\u201d (1996), that could easily fit in someone\u2019s purse, was priced at a quarter million dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"John Chamberlain, \u201cHoneybee Banquet\u201d (1996)<\/p>\n

There were vibrant offerings from Alex Katz and Chuck Close at Pace Galleries, while Yares Art showed off large Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler canvases. \u201cIt\u2019s the year of Frankenthaler, she\u2019s everywhere,\u201d Marielle Caparso, gallery assistant at Yares Art, said.<\/p>\n

Sales were brisk, at least according to the fair\u2019s reports. Three paintings by Eva Helene Pade at Thaddaeus Ropac sold to US institutions, with prices in the range of $186,000 to $233,000, TEFAF said. And David Aaron gallery sold a 3,300-year-old Egyptian \u201cStele of Thutmose IV,\u201d a pharaoh recognized for restoring the Great Sphinx of Giza, to a private collector for $608,000. The buyer\u2019s identity has not been disclosed.<\/p>\n

\"\"Fran\u00e7ois-Xavier Lalanne, “Canard” (2008)<\/p>\n

One of the few exhibition areas that veered in the opposite direction from the gaudy yellow and purple floral arrangements and candy-colored artworks was the booth of Hauser & Wirth, which hung several of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i\u2019s melancholic scenes, painted in Copenhagen at the turn of the 20th century.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i, “Interior of the Great Hall in Lindegaarden” (1909)<\/p>\n

Carlo Kn\u00f6ll, partner and senior director at Hauser & Wirth\u2019s Basel gallery, said Hammersh\u00f8i was deeply influenced by James McNeil Whistler, but also saw aspects of Edward Hopper, Georgia O\u2019Keeffe, and Andrew Wyeth in his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To honor the Danish artist, Kn\u00f6ll had the booth walls painted a somber blue-gray, reflecting the atmosphere of the works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important to keep it a bit tasteful with less light, let\u2019s be modest,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are the works and we\u2019re meant to sell them, but they\u2019re not trophies, they\u2019re not jewelry. It\u2019s a different thing. You have to handle them differently.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How do the wealthy choose their art these days? Do they adorn their walls with the masterworks of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,501,156,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-430198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}