Rembrandt, van Gogh, Mondrian. These are a few names immediately associated with Dutch art. But thanks to Dutch Art Now,a new contemporary art fair offering a small but superb — and relatively affordable — selection of work by contemporary Dutch artists at the National Arts Club in Manhattan through March 14, art lovers may soon have some fresh young names to associate with the country.

Last Friday, at a party to mark the fair's successful launch, artists and dealers chatted with curious visitors (and potential customers) inside the galleries’ booths, which were decorated with heavy crimson drapes and antique furniture. Remarkably, art from various galleries hung side-by-side, with none ofthe sharply demarcated booths one normally expects at art fairs. Acartoony work on canvas by Marleen Vogels, represented by Galerie Rademakers, for example, hung comfortably adjacent to an drippy acid-colored painting by Barbara Wijnveld, which was brought to the fair by Galerie Bart. Everyone seemed to be showing an impressive level ofcamaraderie.

Groups of well-heeled attendees, most conversing in Dutch, looked over the selection of works that hung on the wood-paneled walls, like Melanie Bosbooms's 2007 untitled color photograph of the artist “mopping” paint on the floor of a cluttered studio by the gallery entrance, which was priced at $5,000. Bosboom joined Emilie Cummings and Arnout Killian as the fair's three invited independent artists, as well as 31 other artists, represented by nine Dutch contemporary art galleries: Galerie Bart, Galerie Brandt, Gallery Maria Chailloux, Collectie Harms Rolde, Galerie Mokum, Eduard Planting Fine Art Photographs, Galerie Rademakers, Witzenhausen Gallery, and Van Zijll Langhout Exposite.

"It's nice to be a part of a smaller show," said Eduard Planting of Eduard Planting Fine Art Photographs, which brought a large selection of photographs that stood out in the painting-heavy fair. Highlights from Planting's booth included photographs of gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals in Turkey by Diana Blok and images of Israeli women in the armed forces by Igor Kruter, which hung across from hyper-realistic nude paintings by Arnout Killian, the pale beauty of which recalled the style of Vermeer.

“Fairs, at times, can be overwhelming,” Planting said. “But if you want to find Dutch art, what is happening now in Dutch art, then you just come here.” Earlier on Friday, photographs by Hendrik Kerstens of his daughter, entitled Flange and Red Rabbit IV, both from 2009, sold at the booth of Witzenhausen Gallery to a collector who had recently purchased one of artist’s prints in the Netherlands.

According to Loes Wijnstekers of the Amsterdam-based Fair Foundation, which produced the show, new collectors with a budget are drawn to smaller, more manageable fairs like Dutch Art Now, which featured some recession-friendly prices. Works started at $1,750 for a print of Christopher Regis-Gludds black-and-white “Amsterdam” photo series and reached up to $105,000 for renowned painter Henrik Helmantels realistic still life Composition in Red, White and Blue, from 2009.

“The show is doing really well,” said Wijnstekers. “Many of these works sold quickly, and that’s really exciting for us.” This is the second time the Fair Foundation has produced a Dutch art event in the National Arts Club — in 2006 it organized New Dutch Realism, a fair devoted to contemporary Dutch figurative art, which morphed into Dutch Art Now this year.

At last week’s event, actress Famke Jannsen and her friends stood in front of Reinier Gerritsens 2009 “Wallstreet Subway” series, admiring the precise and painterly panoramic color photos that the artist took, which are priced between $2,600 and $9,250. Most of them had already sold. According to the gallery, Wallstreet Subway #22, 2009, a small slice of a scene inside a subway car — featuring a couple in embrace, one woman reading, and another listening to her MP3 player — had proved especially popular.

Gerritsen, who is in his fifties, wandered through the galleries with his camera slung around his neck, stopping occasionally to take photographs of the crowd. “All these I did in about seven weeks,” he said, sipping on a glass of wine. “They’re part of a book I’m working on.” German publishing company Hatje Cantz will release that book in June 2010, which collects his photographs inspired by Walker Evanss subway photos of the 1930s.

As the Dutch artists and exhibitors happily welcomed their fellow countrymen — including Netherlands consul general Hugo Gajus Scheltema and cultural affairs director Ferdinand Dorsman, who stopped by the opening last night — it seemed more like a family gathering than an art fair.

Gerritsen called over his daughter and introduced her to Eduard Planting. “Kerstens is here somewhere,” Gerritsen said, looking around. “I just met his daughter. You know, the one in the photographs. She's actually really small!” he continued. Planting explained, “It’s surprising — us Dutch people, we are very tall.”