BRAFA 2024 opens its doors

The 69th edition of the Brussels art fair has just opened its doors to the public in a joyous atmosphere of surrealist celebration, with a highly successful décor inspired by the paintings of Paul Delvaux, which dotted the stands of this year’s 132 galleries even more than usual. Most of the twenty new exhibitors at the Heysel Exhibition Centre specialise in ancient and modern art, which will reassure art lovers - and therefore readers of La Tribune de l’Art - who might legitimately have been concerned about the very, or even too, contemporary turn taken by a fair renowned for its eclecticism and warm atmosphere. A number of antique dealers have in fact opted to withdraw from the market, but others have given up on BRAFA, for a variety of reasons even if we shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand: TEFAF in Maastricht ruthlessly recruited the headliners of its Belgian colleague, which was moving upmarket year on year, and very few dealers have the stock - and strong enough backs - to string together these two fairs held within a few weeks of each other in two neighbouring countries.

1. Southern Netherlands, probably Brussels
Court Scene, early 16th century
Wool and silk - 259 x 228 cm
Mechelen, Royal Manufacturers De Wit
Photo: Royal Manufacturers De Wit

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De Wit Fine Tapestries is one of them, and that’s fortunate because it’s hard to imagine BRAFA without the textile treasures unveiled on their stand: this year’s highlight is the enigmatic Court Scene probably woven in Brussels itself around 1500. Although the exact meaning of this tapestry (ill. 1) still eludes us, Guy Delmarcel’s note provides keys to its significance: the famous specialist, who for many years looked after the masterpieces of the Belgian capital’s Musées d’Art et d’Histoire, sees in it an allusion to a noble wedding or perhaps a scene from a medieval allegorical poem. Whatever the case, we admire the central scene in which various characters crowd around the lady seated on her throne as much as the delicate borders populated by fluttering birds separated by eight fine branches of flowers framed in their eight rectangular compartments.

2. Jan van Mekeren (1658-1733)
t Blommenkabinet, late 17th-century
Oak frame and marquetry of various woods - 206 x 171 x 61 cm
Amsterdam, Zebregs & Röell
Photo: Zebregs & Röell

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For their part, Guus Röell and his partner Dickie Zebregs are taking part in BRAFA for the very first time but plan to follow up with TEFAF in Maastricht, where we discovered them last year in the Showcase section. These two dealers cultivate a spirit of curiosity cabinet of the most beautiful effect, shared by the gallery Finch & Co. which exhibits not far from there, but have placed at the entrance to their stand the most impressive piece of antique furniture of the fair: a t Blommenkabinet from around 1700, attributed to Jan van Mekeren (ill. 2) and whose probable pendant is…