Grand Schemes

PARIS—Last year, the French fair impresario Patrick Perrin and the Paris art dealer Stéphane Custot decided to give their decade-old Pavillon des Antiquaires a new moniker: the Pavillon des Arts et du Design. “We had moved away from the galleries offering an eclectic mélange of antiques to a majority of young dealers showing 20th- and 21st-century design and decorative arts,” explains Perrin.

The fair, which runs from April 2 through 6 in the Tuileries Gardens, still offers historical art and design dating from 1860, but the spotlight is on modern and contemporary works. Items in these categories are being brought by about 80 percent of the 75 exhibitors, who hail from France, Belgium, Italy, England and the U.S., with French galleries making up more than 70 percent of the roster.

Both seasoned Pavillon dealers and new participants welcome this year’s shift in curatorial focus. Veteran Parisian gallerist Yves Gastou is showing the starchitect Zaha Hadid’s polyester resin Swash cabinet, 2006, from a limited edition of eight. François Laffanour, whose Left Bank Galerie Downtown is a prime source for work by such renowned postwar French designers as Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé, praises the fair for courting “younger and less well-known dealers who take more risks.” He is bringing a 1956 Perriand special-order black and white bookcase made of ash and steel with a price tag of €50,000 ($74,000).

London’s cutting-edge Carpenters Workshop Gallery debuts here with the work of Dutch avant-gardist Maarten Baas—including his Sculpt cupboard, 2006, from a limited edition of eight, in steel with walnut veneer (£43,000; $86,000)—and that of Dutch Droog designer Marcel Wanders, whose 2007 Pizzo Cararra bench in marble and painted steel, from a limited edition of 20, is priced at £20,000 ($40,000). The gallery’s own limited-edition Archiduchaise pedestal chair, created with German designer Xavier Lust, is available for £15,000 ($30,000).

Parisian dealer Aline Chastel, another Pavillon newcomer, spent a year “reflecting and touring fairs in Palm Beach and New York” before signing up her Galerie Chastel-Maréchal for the event’s 2008 edition. “The Pavillon has become an important rendezvous for 20th-century decorative-arts dealers,” she says. Along with a sunburst mirror by cult designer Line Vautrin, she is showing a pair of “rare and extravagant” 1942 Boulle armchairs covered in fur by celebrated postwar decorator Jean Royère.

The lone American exhibitor, Chicago’s Casati Gallery, which specializes in mid-20th-century Italian design, is back for the second year, this time with Italian designer Andrea Branzi’s metal, glass and wicker Pierced bookcase, 2006, from a limited edition of 12, priced at $30,000, and bronze and glass limited-edition furniture by emerging talent Jonathan Nesci.

Although about 60 percent of the galleries this year are showing design or decorative-arts pieces, around 40 percent can be counted on for fine art. Some mix the two, as does the St.-Germain-des-Prés Galerie JGM, whose display juxtaposes the elegant new steel designs of Maria Pergay—including her Pouf Ruban, a stool in the form of a stylized ribbon bow, priced at €34,000 ($50,000)—with the 1950s sculpture of the Cuban-born artist Augustin Cardenas.

Other don’t-miss offerings outside the design sphere include Chiquita Banana, a polychrome resin statuette, 2007, by American Pop artist Mel Ramos at Parisian Patrice Trigano’s gallery and a series of abstract “Lotus” paintings (from €12,000; $18,000) by the Chinese artist Chen Jiang-Hong at Galerie Taménaga. Taménaga’s Michel Petit-Jean sums up the fair’s allure as “festive and relaxing; and its short duration makes clients decide faster.”

"Grand Schemes" originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's April 2008 Table of Contents.