In the art world, it has proven challenging to have young people see very old paintings and sculptures. How can delicate Renaissance sculpture compete with the immediacy of artists posting on Instagram about the work they are doing now?
The art fair, set by the European Fine Art Foundation in Maastricht, the Netherlands, took several specific steps to attract young collectors. The latest edition of the fair will be held at the Maastricht Exhibition and Conference Center from March 15-20, with 273 dealers on hand.
This fair is always a chocca book with old masters and other artworks made before the 20th century, but over the years the presence of modern and contemporary works has increased.
“Because of our participation and several other contemporary art dealers, we see younger collectors at TEFAF every year,” said Natalie Obadia, a Paris dealer who shows off at the fourth fair.
She added that the younger cohort is particularly prominent over the weekend, as these collectors are likely to work full-time.
At Galerie Nathalie Obadia, which also has a branch in Brussels, the booth features Le Dernier Dimanche (Tast Sunday) (2024), an oil by French-born painter Johan Namilabel, and “Red, White and Blue” (1964), located in the American abstract artist Shirley Jaffe.
Obadia said that working for her, and working for her young clients, was truly eclectic centuries of art.
“Collectors want to learn more about contemporary art. In a way, Art Basel is too specialized,” she said. “Tefaf's mix is a great introduction.”
It is also a encouraging context for buyers of all ages to diverge, Obadia said. A few years ago, at Maastricht she said she was an old master collector who doesn't often visit the contemporary art fair, which ended up buying the sculptures of Wang Keping, a Chinese-born artist who is now working in Paris.
Other contemporary experts at this year's fair include the Marianne Boesky Gallery of New York and Galerie Lelong & Co, headquartered in Paris and branches in New York. Includes: Both are the first 37 exhibitors.
As part of the push to involvement of young patrons, the fair organizers highlight the joy of multi-generational gathering for families, which will be panel discussion on March 14th.
“We recently launched a web version of the museum on our website, allowing visitors without a VR headset to explore the collection,” Joël Kremer said in an email. “In addition, we have opened a new virtual gallery space that currently shows the 24 works that have been acquired since the museum's launch in 2017.”
Another digital innovation ran tests on last year's Maastricht Fair and last year's New York edition of TEFAF. This will be held in May. Hidde Van Seggelen, chairman of Tefaf's executive committee, was provided with “Secret Maps,” an insider's collection guide, where some of the collectors are special guides for the fair.
Getting access to digital maps, part of TEFAF's emerging collectors program, part of the efforts to develop young buyers, is an invitation only, and the gallery decides who can have.
“Dealers can invite young clients,” said Van Segellen, a contemporary art distributor in Hamburg, Germany. “They can explore the fair with something curated with them in mind.”
The highlights of the new map were curated by American decorator Remy Lensllo. Van Segellen added that the selected pieces “is slightly lower in price” than the blue chip pieces to get a grasp of accessibility points.
Asked what some of the highlights were, Van Segellen kept Mama. The first rule of secret maps is obvious: don't talk much about secret maps.
Patrick Williams of Adam Williams Fine Art in New York, said he has many interests from young collectors without a special map.
There are definitely young and interested people who attend the gallery's founder, Williams (particularly New Yorkers, especially New Yorkers).
“We've seen more behavior from people under the age of 45 since the pandemic,” he added. The gallery has shown most of the 30 years in Maastricht, and this year we will showcase around 20 works.
In his experience, the subject of the old master painting makes a difference to the younger buyers. He said religious scenes didn't sell either. “Part of the job is to find more secular images,” Williams said. “Blood, gender, mythology are functional themes.”
The measure of sex, or at least the flesh, is one of Williams' works that brings “Dianna and Action” (c. 1615), seen by the Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens.
In the story, the hunting goddess Diana and her nymph are caught bathing in the forest by the mortar hunter Atauon. She gets upset and pours water on him, and he becomes a stag. He is then preyed and killed by his own hound.
Williams also brought the “Portrait of Johann Cress Lou” (1650) by Franz Hals, and one of the most famous painters of the Dutch Golden Age, Elisabeth Vivivvy Le Blanc, one of the handfuls of female painters from her time.
Adam Williams Fine Art has been exhibited in Tefaf for decades, but the longer position gallery is Vanderven Oriental Art, an expert on Chinese works at S-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands. Vanderven was one of the founding galleries of the fair, which held its first edition in 1988.
Gallery director Floris van der Ben emphasized how far ahead he was in a fair presentation. He said there are already some material lined up for the 2026 edition of Tefaf Maastricht.
This time, his booth includes the figure of a bodysattva about four feet tall in limestone, created during the Northern Qi Dynasty about 1,500 years ago.
“It's particularly rare for this size,” van der Ben said on a phone call during a visit to New York. He was about to see some similar works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Van der Ven said last year that he also sold comparable works from the North Qi dynasty. “It went to a collector in China for about $800,000,” he said. “There aren't many Chinese buyers coming to Maastricht, but those coming are very serious.”
London Gallery Rorston, which specializes in English furniture and Asian art works, especially from China and Japan, may offer traditional art, but at least one of its works may hit chords with young newlyweds.
Norimono, sometimes known as Palunkin, is a box-like enclosed chair where the bride is brought to the groom's family home after a wedding. A few attendees are required to lift this 15-foot-long carrying beam. According to gallery director James Rollston, the interior features original wallpaper.
Rollston said the gallery found the work at an auction in London. “It wasn't caring,” he said. “This is where the skills as a dealer come into play. We cleaned it and saved it.”
Rolleston was founded in 1955, the first year he joined Tefaf Maastricht. Other offerings include an armchair (c. 1720), covered in George I needlework, known as the One Stead House chair.
Rolleston states that the chairs are from the original set of 12 and have a “unbroken origin.” That is, there was a full document of previous ownership. It's always a big plus and can be difficult to find in older works.
However, norimono may be attracting visitors' attention due to its size. “It literally doesn't fit in our gallery,” Rollston said.
It appears that he is not a candidate for a voluntary purchase for a private collector. “I can't imagine whose house it would fit in,” Rollston said. “That's my first flat size.”
That dimensions may limit possible buyers, but you will never know. “We're referring to this for the museum,” he said. “But we're not excluding collectors who buy it.”
