TEFAF brings an air of status to a few gala’s it operates—one within the Dutch metropolis of Maastricht, two in New York—and so it has accrued a particular following with established collectors and high-ranking curators. The ritzy European vibe of TEFAF New York is in some methods what differentiates this truthful from the others opening this week.
However Will Korner, TEFAF’s Netherlands-based head of operations, stated he additionally needed to vary that status. “In Maastricht, we felt like there have been so many individuals in lower-value classes which have had their finest years,“ he defined. “We’re not fixating on solely the mega-dealing, solely blue-chip bastions of artwork historical past. We see different components of the market that don’t have anything to do with that high degree.”
Accordingly, a number of the truthful’s 91 exhibitors are this week bringing a younger taste to the truthful. Sprüth Magers, for instance, is betting on Anne Imhof, a German artist whose performances—together with one three hours long recently staged at the Park Avenue Armory, the very venue the place TEFAF is now happening—have typically been in comparison with Balenciaga advert campaigns. Imhof has lately turned towards sculpture, and the gallery was in a position to place a €250,000 aid by her with a US assortment that the gallery didn’t identify. Sprüth Magers additionally offered drawings by her to US and European collectors at decrease costs.
Some galleries ensured that TEFAF’s historically cosmopolitan crowd might nonetheless discover what it needed whereas additionally making an attempt to lure in new consumers. Lisson Gallery, for instance, offered a Sean Scully portray, Wall Tappan Deep Crimson (2025), for $500,000. Scully is well-known inside the blue-chip market, however others whose works have been on the sales space should not. Dalton Paula, a Brazilian painter who final 12 months figured within the Venice Biennale, made his debut with Lisson at this sales space.
Gagosian, in the meantime, introduced works by the youngest artist in its steady: the painter Anna Weyant. A few of her small work offered on the truthful, however the gallery didn’t report costs for them.
Nonetheless, a few of Gagosian’s rivals went within the different path. David Zwirner reported promoting out a sales space of works by Ruth Asawa, a well known artist of the postwar period who’s at the moment the topic of a retrospective on the San Francisco Museum of Trendy Artwork. 4 of her sculptures have been offered at values between $320,000 and $2.8 million. In the meantime, six works on paper offered at values between $50,000 and $160,000.
This 12 months, gallerists at TEFAF, are navigating a downturn in artwork gross sales. One business report lately discovered international gross sales have fallen by round 12 p.c since final 12 months, with the largest galleries seeing a number of the most dramatic drop-offs. David Zwirner, Lisson, and Thaddaeus Ropac, all of whom are members at TEFAF New York this 12 months, have seen revenue losses and rising working prices in worldwide areas between fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
Korner cautioned, nevertheless, that the downturn wasn’t being felt at each degree of the artwork market. “We wouldn’t acknowledge that contraction as one thing that goes to the entire classes,” Korner added.
He conceded that issues have been completely different this time. There have been fewer objects on the truthful priced increased than $10 million, he stated, and gross sales have been occurring as rapidly. “Some individuals aren’t touring as a lot as they have been two months in the past,” he stated.
Supplier Thaddeus Ropac offered a number of works by Berlin-based painter Daniel Richter for a collective €840,000 ($945,000). That surpassed the $730,000 value of labor by artists together with Liza Lou, Joan Snyder, David Salle, Martha Jungwirth, Robert Longo, and Megan Rooney that the supplier offered at Frieze this week.
Ropac stated that at Tefaf, gross sales occurred extra swiftly than the gallery initially anticipated, reporting that the truthful has the benefit of collectors being already skilled. Throughout different moments of the truthful week, closing gross sales was taking place extra slowly, however he was remaining affected person, in step with the tempo of the second. “Individuals are taking their time.”
