Exquisite craftmanship, eastern and western, shows the "high art" boundary to be an imaginary one
By P.W.
A VISIT to TEFAF Maastricht—the biggest, most prestigious combined art and antiques fair, where 270 dealers exhibit the best available antiques and works of art—is always full of surprises. This year, paintings from Old Masters sat alongside the cutting edge; the same was true of sculptures. In antiquities, jewels ranged from ancient to new, and fabulous antique objects including furniture and wall coverings were on display. There was even a newcomer, Renard, a dealer in extraordinary musical instruments including piccolos, lutes and a custom-made piano, on which Chopin oversaw the piano lessons of a Rothschild mademoiselle. (Prices: €500 to €500,000.) One wall is mounted with a striking display of no-longer playable Napoleonic-army brass instruments. It is art, decoration and craft all in one.
Indeed, the fair is welcome evidence that the barriers built by 19th-century art historians—between fine and decorative art, high art and craft—have fallen down. The most compelling example of this, and the most covetable object at the fair, is a Japanese porcelain; a life-sized, resting deer offered by Jorge Welsh, a specialist in Chinese export wares. Made in the late 17th or early 18th century it is a rare survival, demonstrating the exceptional expertise of Japanese ceramicists. (Their skill at making such large, glazed porcelain pieces without cracking during firing was not yet known in Europe.) Milky pale green, the deer’s fur indicated by barely perceptible incised lines, it is an arrestingly beautiful creature from its elegantly raised head (topped by genuine antlers) to its daintily folded cloven hoofs. For those on the market, the asking price was €2.1 million.
It is no coincidence that a Japanese object should be the most splendid example of the shift away from old, Western art-history conventions. In Japan, creative work was grouped according to what was made: painting, calligraphy, flower arranging, fans, gardens and paper. As Wahei Aoyama, owner of the Yufuku Gallery in Tokyo, observes, Western texts of the 19th-century contained words such as “fine art” and “craft” that Japanese translators had to invent words for. The objects he displays at TEFAF demonstrate the ways in which Japan’s contemporary artists are shaking off those foreign distinctions again, and pushing the boundaries of what their traditional media and techniques can do. The elegant “Reverie” by Naoki Takeyama, for example, is a 39.5cm-high vase fashioned from what looks like accordion-pleated copper, enamelled in waves of dark blue, pristine white and silver gilt. As if to head off any denigration of this work because it is utilitarian, the “vase” has no bottom.
For Western artists, ignoring the old, artificial categories releases bountiful energy. Otto Jakob exhibits in the High Jewellery section of the fair, alongside such global brands as Van Cleef & Arpels and its blazing diamonds. Yet Mr Jakob, an art student turned goldsmith, is a solo designer: pieces are made by him in a small workshop in Karlsruhe, Germany. His unique jewels are often inspired by historic designs but given fresh expression and, with the aid of high-tech tools like lasers, executed in ways previously impossible. A particularly eye-catching piece (see below) is the “Hand with Panther Chameleon,” pendant made of 18-carat gold. The iridescent black, red, green and blue enamelled reptile, set with emerald eyes, curls around a ringed, white enamel hand—a Renaissance motif. Yet here the hand features a modern twist: a gold tattoo. The hand is completely enamelled yet also firmly clasped by the chameleon; this could not have been realised in the Renaissance as the high temperature required to solder metal work would melt the enamel, as well as the points of connection.
With creative and generic barriers down, viewers’ perceptions are altered, too. Exhibitor Alberto Castro features several displays of agate and marble specimens which were popular with 18th-century connoisseurs. Thirty years ago they might have looked stuffy to passers-by. But now, exposed to Damian Hirst’s pill bottles, people are more open to looking at unadorned objects as works worthy of attention. Even better, the agates and marbles are a great deal more varied and attractive.
The refreshing expansion of aesthetic possibilities underway has far-reaching results at this edition of TEFAF. Munich-based jewellers Hemmerle commissioned a new stand design. Walls are replaced by deeply three-dimensional, lattice-work trellises. The thin poles of American walnut and invisible metal rods look like more like escapees from a Kyoto bamboo grove. East joins West, and craft becomes art yet again.
