Auction Daily Explores New York’s Winter Show, 2020

This Thursday, the Auction Daily team got a sneak preview of The Winter Show. The art and antique fair opened to the public on Friday, January 24th, in New York City’s Park Avenue Armory. It will close on Sunday, February 2nd.

Helen Allen, executive director of The Winter Show, and others began the day with opening remarks to members of the press. In the background, we could already spot paintings by Diego Velázquez and Francisco de Zurbarán, an early sign of the event’s high-end offerings.

 The Winter Show, formerly the Winter Antiques Show, has been a staple event for dealers and collectors for 66 years. In 2020, the event features pieces from 72 world-renowned dealers in fine and decorative arts. Most importantly, though, all proceeds from admission and the Opening Night Party go to the East Side House. The non-profit offers workforce training and other opportunities to underprivileged people in New York City.

Leah Rosenzweig of The Art Newspaper called this year’s Winter Show the most diverse in event history. “It looks like the Metropolitan Museum [with] price tags,” gallery owner Ben Macklowe told Rosenzweig. It is easy to see why this year’s event is earning a reputation for diversity. While we were greeted by paintings by art world icons like Velázquez and Zurbarán, we soon ran into a full display of lamps from Tiffany Studios, on offer from Lillian Nassau.

Frank Levy of Bernard & S. Dean Levy agrees that The Winter Show is excellent for both fine and decorative art. “There is really no better show, not only in New York but in the world, for American decorative arts,” Levy told us at the event.

Bernard & S. Dean Levy is a family-owned antique and art company that began operations in 1901. Among the pieces Frank Levy brings to The Winter Show this year is a clawfoot sofa once owned by Henry Ford. Levy is enthusiastic about being part of The Winter Show again this year. “You see more clients, potential clients…more museum people in ten days,” he said, “than you do for the rest of the year.”

The Winter Show is appealing to those in the art world for many reasons. But Barbara Israel of Barbara Israel Fine Arts thinks the dealers’ pitch for The Winter Show is simple: the world’s most enthusiastic collectors all come to one place, and they stay there for ten days straight. “This show is the best place to offer pieces of this quality,” she told our team.

Israel has brought pieces to The Winter Show since 1994. This year, she’s offering several notable items, including three 15th-century Venetian pieces. Israel assured our team that even for her, these items were a spectacular find. “That just doesn’t happen every year. It won’t happen next year, [and] it didn’t happen last year.”  Just another reason to stop by Park Avenue Armory before The Winter Show concludes on February 2nd.

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