BRAFA: Brussels’ Oldest Art Fair Celebrates its 70th Edition

An anniversary is always an occasion to take stock, and it’s obvious when you look back at the history of BRAFA: the Belgian Antiques Fair has become a must-attend international fair whose strength lies in its eclecticism.

To celebrate its 70^th edition, the BRAFA has “given” itself a new president. The torch was passed in June from Harold t’Kint de Roodenbeke — who had served four consecutive terms — to Klaas Muller. But there’s no question Klaas Muller will shake things up. But the fair’s format works — it attracted 67,000 visitors in 2024 — and the two axes he is championing are maintaining the balance between the twenty or so specialties and internationalizing what is now Europe’s oldest fair. The BRAFA Board of Directors has selected sixteen new galleries from a total of one hundred and thirty, including Hoffmans Antiques (Stockholm), specializing in Gustavian furniture; J. Baptista (Lisbon), for jewelry and silver; Stone Gallery (Netherlands), for crystals, fossils and meteorites; Valerio Tirchi (Rome), for Greek and Roman archaeology; and DYS44 Lampronti (London), for Italian masters of the 17^th and 18^th centuries. There’s also Colnaghi (London): founded in 1760, the latter made news last year when Caravaggio’s Ecce Homo — which it sold for over €30 M to a private collector in Madrid — went on loan to the Prado Museum. The gallery’s stand will also feature a Crucifixion by Willem Adriaensz Key (1515 or 1520-1568), “one of the few religious works for private devotion that the artist painted in Antwerp before the iconoclastic fury, known as the ‘Beeldenstorm’, which struck Antwerp in 1566,” explains Philippe Henricot, head of the gallery’s Brussels office. Many of his paintings were destroyed at that time”.

The Generalist Advantage

Back in 1956, when the first fair was held, the idea was to bring together Brussels antique dealers specializing in furniture and objets d’art. Times have changed, and today’s positioning is that of eclecticism: a strength and an asset. Indeed, generalist fairs are becoming rare and are the ideal terrain for reaching new collectors, who are more inclined to open up to new horizons through random discoveries among the different stands. This includes the cabinets of curiosities so well organized by Finch & Co, which unfortunately won’t be returning this year. The double stand of the AB & BA gallery run by the Aittouarès sisters, Agnès and Odile, comes close, with post-war art represented by Marfaing, Degottex and Hans Hartung on one side and, on the other, as Odile Aittouarès explains, “a wall devoted to the Georges Goldfayn Collection. At the age of 17, he met André Breton, becoming his assistant and friend. He rubbed shoulders with the Surrealist artists of the group, forming close friendships with Toyen, Konrad Klapheck, Wolfgang Paalen and the poet Annie Le Brun. His collection, organized around Surrealist, Outsider and Traditional Non-western art, echoes that of André Breton. Interdisciplinarity, which has become something of a mantra, was avant-garde when Axel Vervoordt made it his artistic trademark from his very first participation in 1976. Combining contemporary art with archaeology (as he will do again this year) or non-European art with furniture from the 1950s has become fashionable. This is what attracted Parisian Nathalie Obadia to join this edition, even though she opened her Brussels branch in 2008. “I’ve been visiting the fair every year for the last seven or eight years, and I appreciate the warm atmosphere and the mix of modern art, furniture and fine art. I’ve also been taking part in TEFAF in Maastricht for the past four years, and I realize that I’ve succeeded in bringing collectors of Old Masters into contemporary art, whereas they might have had a rather elitist image of it. At BRAFA, I hope to meet some collectors I haven’t yet met in Brussels, even though I’ve been there for fifteen years”. The gateway to creating this bridge is the work of artists “who bring us back to the universal, who can evoke the ancient arts like the sculptures of Wang Keping, or refer to more traditional techniques like the tapestries of Laure Prouvost, the expressionist paintings of Joris Van De Moortel, the more classical ones of Carole Benzaken or the abstract ones of Shirley Jaffe and Fiona Rae”. Prices will range from €20,000 for Carole Benzaken to €300,000 for Shirley Jaffe or Wang Keping. Galerie Templon has also taken the plunge, as its general manager, Anne-Claudie Coric, explains: “We’ve wanted to take part in BRAFA for a long time, as we’ve been based in Brussels for over ten years. Today, we feel it’s an unmissable event: all our Belgian collectors go there”. They will discover a solo show by François Rouan, notably with braided painted works (around €125,000/135,000).

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Joana Vasconcelos (Born in 1951)

From Persian Embroidery to Hubert Le Gall

Openness is the hallmark of Belgian collectors so praised by gallery owners, as Michel Poletti, co-founder of Univers du Bronze, a gallery that has been present in Belgium for some thirty years, shares. “Over time, we’ve seen them open up to more modern works and, as everywhere, contemporary trends, sometimes with a daring avant-gardism. We sell everything from Barye, Carpeaux and Rodin to Bugatti, Pompon and Laurens, as well as contemporary works by Umberto, Hubert Le Gall and Jivko. This is reflected in his stand, which will surprise many with one of the eight editions of Hubert Le Gall’s L’Éternel Printemps cabinet. Baroque and refined. Dialogue will also be the watchword of Naïry Vrouyr, who represents the fourth generation of this Antwerp-based gallery that has been a regular exhibitor since 1957. “This year, we’re presenting a very fine embroidery from Resht, over 3 m (9.84+ ft) long, which testifies to the remarkable needlework produced by this ancient capital of Persia during the Qadjar era. In contrast, we’re offering a rug by Dutch artist Ysbrant, which we’re producing as a one-off from a design created for the gallery in 2005. Dei Bardi Art continues its exploration of early tapestry, particularly Flemish tapestry, with Le Martyre de sainte Barbara (The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara), still in vibrant colors. “Around 1500, Bruges was a major weaving center. However, very few tapestries have survived, making this work particularly rare,” explains the gallery owner. The depiction of the executioner brandishing a curved sword recalls the historical context of the period, reflecting the Ottoman incursions into Central Europe. This detail makes it possible to date the tapestry to the second quarter of the 16^th century”. Don’t leave the fair without stopping by the stand of Marc Maison (Saint-Ouen), which is playing the Egyptomania card with a bed by cabinetmaker Louis Malard, presented at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in Paris. Auctioned by Brissonneau at Hôtel Drouot on April 5, 2019, it has since been restored to its former glory. From this “princess” bed, it’s only a short step to dreaming with the tiara created in 1909 by Chaumet for the marriage of the daughter of the Count and Countess of Heeren at Epoque Fine Jewels (Courtrai) or to imagining oneself taking tea in the Art Deco service signed Puiforcat at Galerie Mathivet (Paris). A journey from the intimate to the masterly, from the historic to the eclectic, from art to the art of living.

Worth Seeing
BRAFA Art Fair
Brussels Expo
Place de Belgique, Brussels
From January 26 to February 2, 2025
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