From the September 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

There’s no need to gild the lily – that’s the message I get from Fabrizio Moretti, secretary general of Biennale Internazionale dell’Antiquariato (BIAF), when I ask what has changed since the previous edition of the fair. It’s an unusual position to take in a world more usually preoccupied with the thrill of the new. Instead, what the visitor experiences will be much the same as at its 32nd edition two years ago.

‘We don’t need drastic changes. We’ve got the best dealers of Italian art in the world exhibiting. We’ve got the best vetting in the world. We have, with no doubt, the most beautiful venue – Palazzo Corsini – which no other art fair in the world has,’ Moretti says. The late baroque palace on the Arno in Florence is certainly a far cry from some anonymous conference centre or marquee. The place is still owned by the Corsini family and features all manner of frescoes, mouldings, sculptures and mosaic floors – ‘I think that makes it much more fun than Art Basel or TEFAF.’ 

Moretti is similarly proud of the Italian art, which makes up some 90 per cent of the work shown at BIAF. ‘I think that Italian art is art per eccellenza. We are in Italy and we want to promote what Italy’s produced.’ He also claims northern Renaissance art as sort of Italian: ‘I’m sure that some people will bring Flemish art, but Flemish art comes from Italian art.’ As if to support that proposition, Night Landscape with Stories of Ceres by Jan Brueghel the Elder (background) and Frans Francken the Younger (figures) will be on show with Caretto & Occhinegro Gallery; Brueghel, of course, spent seven formative years in Italy.

This year, the majority of BIAF’s exhibitors are Italian – of its 80 galleries, just 13 are travelling from overseas. The 14 newcomers include Colnaghi, which is showing the 17th-century miniaturist Giovanna Garzoni, and Richard Saltoun Gallery from London, with 20th-century Italian artists Bice Lazzari, Franca Maranò and Antonietta Raphaël. 

Highlights include two paintings of the Madonna and child: one by Bronzino from 1525–26, offered by Galerie Canesso, the other a Madonna with Child and Saint Mary Magdalene (c. 1555–60) by Titian, at Carlo Orsi. Its composition is very similar to that of works by Titian held by the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples and the Uffizi Gallery, just a few minutes’ walk from the fair. 

What does Moretti himself most look forward to seeing? Will there be any artworks one might be surprised to see at BIAF? He is careful to avoid any mention of favourites or, indeed, of the unexpected. ‘The surprise is to go ahead with something that was born in 1953 and is the oldest [continuously running] art fair in the world. A fair that is alive and of this quality is a challenge.’

BIAF takes place at the Palazzo Corsini, Florence, from 28 September–6 October.

Madonna with Child (1526–26), Bronzino. Courtesy Galerie Canesso

Gallery highlights

Concert of Sighs: Rebecca Horn
11 September–2 November
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin

In 1991, Galerie Thomas Schulte opened its doors with an exhibition of works by Rebecca Horn. Now the gallery is revisiting a monumental installation the German artist made a few years later, for the 1997 edition of the Venice Biennale. Concert of Sighs is a mass of building rubble – broken bricks, wooden palettes and planks – with gleaming copper funnels that sprout like flowers from the wreckage while hidden voices murmur away.

Ad Reinhardt: Print–Painting–Maquette
12 September–19 October
David Zwirner, New York

It wasn’t until 1964, three years before his death, that Ad Reinhardt made his first screenprint: an untitled black-on-black cross. Its success led him to create the portfolio 10 Screenprints by Ad Reinhardt (1966), which appears in this show at David Zwirner’s West 20th Street location – billed as the first exhibition to focus on the artist’s screenprints and their relationship to his late paintings.

And now what?… (2024), Rinus van de Velde. Courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler

Rinus Van de Velde
7 September–5 October
Galerie Max Hetzler, Paris

From early childhood in rural Belgium, watching stars on television, Rinus Van de Velde has been fascinated by imagining all the other lives he could have lived. For his first solo exhibition in France, the artist has created a new series of works in oil pastel, charcoal, video and sculpture that illustrate his imaginary autobiographies. As Van de Velde has put it: ‘The lie is much more interesting […] than telling the truth.’

Bernice Bing
12 September–12 October
Berry Campbell, New York

This spring, Berry Campbell announced its representation of the estate of Bernice Bing – a Chinese-American painter who described her work as ‘calligraphy-inspired abstraction’. Despite her prominence in the Beat scene of 1960s San Francisco, it’s only in recent years that Bing’s contribution has been widely recognised. Highlights of this exhibition include Burney Falls (1980), which, at 2.4m high, is the largest work Bing ever painted.

Fairs in focus

The Armory Show
6–8 September
Javits Center, New York

To mark its 30th anniversary, and the second edition since its acquisition by Frieze, the Armory Show features a redesigned floorplan for its 235 exhibitors – 55 of which are newcomers to the fair. Highlights include the Focus section, curated by Robyn Farrell of arts non-profit The Kitchen: an homage to the avant-garde spirit of the famous exhibition of modern art at which Duchamp unveiled his urinal in 1913.

British Art Fair
26–29 September
Saatchi Gallery, London

The fair best known for modern British art – though these days, it offers work from the early 20th century to the present – returns to the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea. This year it features a special exhibition on the St Ives School painter and printmaker Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, organised by the artist’s trust, and the launch of ‘PIVOTAL: Digitalism’, a section for digital sculpture and painting, and AR-, VR- and AI-based art.

Seaweed Tossed in Wave 1 (2003), Maggi Hambling. Courtesy Christopher Kingzett Fine Art

From the September 2024 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.