10/01/2002
by Martha Schwendener

Art Palm Beach isn’t as large as some of the other American art fairs like Art Chicago or Artexpo New York or as specialized as local competitor Art Miami, which ran from January 4 through January 8, 2002, and which focuses on Latin American art. But given that the site is Palm Beach, home to a historic enclave of wealthy winter residents -- from the Rockefellers to the Trumps (and a long line of East Coast socialites) and January is the start of the Palm Beach "season," which also includes the Palm Beach International Art & Antique Fair at the end of January -- Art Palm Beach is smartly and strategically placed.

The fair, which will run January 11 through January 15, 2002 at the International Pavilion of the Palm Beaches, includes 52 exhibitors -- down from last year’s total of 67. But, given the political and economic climate in the United States, and the fact that Art Miami was the first major American art fair since September 11 not to be cancelled, many participants are glad just to see the show go on.

Art Palm Beach kicks off with a Collectors Preview on Thursday, January 10 (6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.), where proceeds from selected artworks will be donated to a fund (the Robin Hood Relief Fund) for families of the World Trade Center disaster. After that, the fair will open to the public, displaying its eclectic mix of modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, glass works, photography, and works on paper.

Exhibitors include American galleries like James Goodman, a gallery located on 57^th Street in New York. Goodman will be showing a range of modern works by Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Henry Moore, and Fernando Botero. Goodman will also have on offer a red Calder mobile from 1965 for $ 285,000 (€ 319,200) and a Picasso oil on canvas, Communicant (1919), for $ 1 million (€ 1.1 million). Goodman’s gallery has always considered Palm Beach "a good fair, since many of our clients are down there this time of year."

Another New Yorker, Nancy Hoffman, will be offering a brand new painting by Baltimore based watercolorist Carolyn Brady, Green Dot Jug with Sunflowers ($ 20,000, € 22,400); a watercolor by New York born artist Joseph Raffael, Of his garden in France, for $ 42,000 (€ 47,000); and glass-vessel pieces by Australian contemporary artist Brian Hirst, Teal flat form I & II ($ 4,000-4,500, € 4,500-5,000).

Heller Gallery in New York, which specializes in glass works, will be showing five artists. Karla Trinkley’s latest body of mixed media work (glass, metal, bronze, wood) will sell for $ 22,000-30,000 (€ 24,600-33,600). A piece by Trinkley from 1986 will also be available for $ 6,000 (€ 6,700); minimalist glass artist Tom Patti’s glass works, which are included in the collections of both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and MoMA, will sell for $ 17,500 to $ 70,000 (€ 19,600-78,500); and a young American working in the Czech Republic, Karen LaMonte, will be represented by glass casts of garments (infants and adult dresses cast out of colorless crystal) which sell for $ 10,000-60,000 (€ 11,200-67,250).

Douglas Heller, already at the exhibition site, reiterates how eclectic the show is, saying that it’s "exciting to be exhibiting in a show as diverse as this. From a collector’s perspective it’s like an art history lesson," and that the overall caliber of work he’s seen so far is "extremely impressive." The show may be eclectic, but the common thread is "top quality work."

Other exhibitors showing up in Palm Beach include dealers from Latin America, Europe, and Asia. Fundacion Alberto Elia and Praxis International Art will be up from Buenos Aires while Europeans include Jacques de Vos and Galerie Mark Hachem from Paris, Galerie Adriana Schmidt (Stuttgart), Gallerie Aspekt (Brno, Czech Republic), and a strong London contingent: Whitford Fine Art, Theo Waddington Fine Art, Waddington Galleries, Jill George Gallery, Goedhuis Contemporary, Angela Flowers Gallery, and Blue Gallery. Also exhibiting are Canadian gallerists: ArtCore/Contemporary Art Bank (Toronto) and Buschlen Mowatt (Vancouver), and local dealers like Irving Galleries and Russeck of Palm Beach, Evelyn Aimis (Highland Beach), Artemundi (Miami Beach), Habatat and Waddington/Tribby Fine Art of Boca Raton.

In addition to the exhibition there will be a round table discussion on a timely subject, "Art in the Climate of Terrorism," on Friday, January 11. Speakers including Didier Schulman, Senior Curator at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and Jill Snyder, Director of the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art.