Knokke Art Fair 2022: a triumph of quality and variety
Knokke Art Fair 2022 will once again be a triumphant and impressive display of visual art in a unique setting, offering sublime quality and surprising diversity. Thanks to the unprecedented display of private Flemish art collections, the 2022 event manages to surpass even the striking exhibition held in 2021.
The extremely varied and sensational ensemble of visual techniques and disciplines – from both high-achieving artists and young talent on the threshold of recognition – is accompanied this year by a unique spectacle giving a stunning view of exquisite private Flemish collections, presented with discretion and discernment.
There is every indication that this edition will be of interest to both the general public and connoisseurs.
This exhibition takes place in a unique setting: the Grand Casino Knokke, a cultural temple that was built by the well-known architect Léon Steynen in the 1930s. Joseph Nellens and later Gustave Nellens, together with his sons Jacques and Roger, turned it into an internationally esteemed and much-visited place where an astonishing number of celebrities in the field of music and theatre gave memorable performances.
Besides, art exhibitions have attracted international attention every year, thanks to the talent and fame of the artists: Pablo Picasso, Raoul Dufy, Salvador Dali, Bernard Buffet, Félix Labisse, Marc Chagall, René Magritte, and Balthus. Joan Miro exhibited alongside the then younger Panamarenko, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Paul Delvaux …
The Knokke Art Fair 2022 is currently taking place in the Grand Casino Knokke’s famous Magritte Room, where sculptor Jan de Cock shone last year. This year, leading works from private Flemish art collections are on display under the appropriate title HIGHLIGHTS.be.
Let us briefly give you an overview of what is being shown in that legendary Casino in the context of KNAF 2022.
Sculpture Link – where Barry Flanagan leads the dance – lures the visitor into the Casino via the Zeedijk. Flanagan‘s spectacular and monumental hares are presented by London’s Waddington Custot Gallery, where smaller works by the artist are also on display in the Casino. The gallery presents work by important contemporary and, in particular, modern artists. In addition to Flanagan, we find Peter Blake, Jan Davenport, Bernar Venet, and Robert Indiana, as well as iconic modern European artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, and Joan Miro, Josef Albers, and Antoni Tapiès.
The famous Swiss Galerie Von Vertes from Zurich is also present. It displays an impressive number of modern as well as contemporary artists. These include Georg Baselitz, Paul Klee, George Condo, Tony Cragg, Lucio Fontana, Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Bernar Venet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Otto Piene, Serge Poliakoff and many others. Online, the gallery recently presented ‘Poetic Transformations’ by Borcow and ‘Americans in Paris.’ Of course, this gallery also takes part in major art fairs such as Tefaf, Art Cologne, Brafa, Masterpiece, La Biennale de Paris, and … Knokke Art Fair 2022.
In the contemporary art department, which looks just as impressive, we would like to highlight the Parisian Galerie Dix9, among others. Hélène Lacharmoise wants to promote and display works of art and artists of today from all over the world and compare French artists with others who are not yet well known in France or here. She has slender, eloquent flower arrangements by Niyaz Najafov. She will be joined at KNAF 2022 by many other internationally renowned galleries, making this department an extremely diverse ensemble, including as it does a colorful walk in a wonderful garden.
The Italian gallery Deodato Arte has a branch in Brussels, and its owner was originally a collector, as is often the case. In addition to modern work, the gallery presents outspoken contemporary artists who are making waves, such as Banksy, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Kaws, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Takashi Murakami. Names that ring clear and make you dream.
The Dutch gallery Art Chemistry is best known for its interest in South African art.
The Knokse Gate Gallery specializes in ‘Post War & Contemporary Art’ and refers to Gloria Gallery, which has participated in KNAF before. She shows work by Robert Combas and Aboudia.
Gallery Ysebaert, which supplied the much-admired Nicolas Lavarenne for Sculpture Link last year, will be present once again with Ronald Westerhuis with his landscapes and abstract sculptures, in addition to Nicolas Lavarenne.
Surprising Asian art is presented by the German Red Zone Arts Gallery, while the Dutch Atelier Art Society promotes artists that it accommodates in the new Art Style Future Art. As was the case last year, Goodwin Gallery presents attractive work by Volker Kühn that both amazes and amuses you. Finally, Galeria K. The name refers to Galerie Kaschenbach, which was founded in Trier in 1950. Grandson Daniel Marx shows work by Axel Grieger, Tony Cragg, Lorenzo Quinn, and Günter Uecker.
Our tradition also includes a surprising design department, with many dozens of special pieces on display. They include items designed by great names such as Gaetano Pesce, Eileen Gray, Gae Aulenti, and Pierre Paulin. The brand’s De Sede, B & B Italia, Cassina, Artemide, and Vitra are present thanks to the support of Pot & Berden. There is also work done by two Belgian designers, Olivier De Schrijver and Christl Dekimpe, and the overseas designer Hom Le Xuan.
Another important department of the Knokke Art Fair is the one that has been given the name On Stage and which will both surprise and provoke a number of aha! Experiences. Young artists are literally placed on Stage. This event will be an ensemble of discoveries, moments of recognition, and appreciation and form a breeding ground for the future.
On Stage has thirteen artists who, helped on their way with this pat on the back, are sufficiently talented to embark on the road to fame and recognition. The diversity on display is, once again, impressive, and the originality is a breath of fresh air. There are many daring attempts at innovation, and these are striking: hard paintings and the spatial work of Els Thienpondt, alias Tex; the eloquent use of color by Ursula Schregel; the cleverly structured paintings of Frank Proot; the poetic and sensitive abstraction and suggestive figuration of Ghislaine Bosteels; the graceful and formally daring sculptures of people and animals by Jos Dirix; the classical and aesthetic-looking sculptures that depict women and girls somewhat idyllically by Halil Faïk; the masks by Sarah Van Der Borght and the inspired ceramics created by Brigitte Rotsaert.
The Knokke Art Fair 2022 has a magnificent, unusual surprise: a breathtaking view of selected works from ten private West Flemish art collections. These are singularly iconic and carefully chosen pieces of art, some of which, by the way, consciously or unconsciously, refer to what is being shown in the current Venice Biennale. These admirable pieces have been brought together under the eloquent title: HIGHLIGHTS.be.
This is an edition of the Knokke Art Fair that honors the proud tradition of quality, originality, and diversity.
Highlights: flashes from a magic chamber
Putting together the HIGHLIGHTS.be exhibition is considered as something which is almost impossible to realize: offering a view of just one carefully selected artwork from a series of prominent Flemish art collections.
Collectors of what can be described as language-made visuals are justifiably proud of their collection, but they are also very concerned about the well-being of their pieces and the masterpieces in particular.
Nevertheless, Alexander Tuteleers has managed to honor his function as a curator in a rather spectacular way by selecting a single work each from ten collections that he describes as ‘iconic’. That is indeed a tour de force, but at the same time, a voyage of discovery in which the collectors’ passion and their associated masterpieces are on show, making for a journey that is undertaken together with the curator.
It is a sublime work of art in itself to bring together ten pieces of art, a considerable number of which are being featured at the same time in the current edition of the Venice Biennale. That may be regarded as something special, not to say unique.
The ten pieces of art typically incarnate a movement, a revolution, that has conceived and shaped a different view of what can be described as visual language. The artists’ names alone provoke emotion, interest, and curiosity in both the connoisseur and the viewer interested in contemporary art.
Those truly iconic artists include Anselm Kiefer, Barbara Kruger, Helmut Newton, Zhang Xiaogang, Marcel Duchamp, Elmgreen-Dragset, and Giuseppe Penone.
The initiative is part of the Knokke Art Fair 2022, which puts high-level modern and contemporary art and design on display, and turns the limelight onto young artists in a section that bears the appropriate title of ‘On Stage’.
HIGHLIGHTS.be can be seen during KNAF.be, at the Grand Casino Knokke, from 6 to 15 August 2022
All images- courtesy of Knokke Art Fair ©
