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The International Art + Design Fair 1900-2002

by Lita Solis-Cohen

Anna and Brian Haughton's International Art + Design Fair 1900-2002, held at the Seventh Regiment Armory in New York City, September 27-October 2, their first fair of the season, was looked on as a barometer indicating the way fairs would weather these difficult economic times. The International Art + Design Fair was canceled last year when the Seventh Regiment Armory was used by the military after the September 11 attacks in Manhattan. It generally takes new fairs a few consecutive years to catch on, and the fear was that this youngest of the Haughtons' four fairs had failed to gain momentum.

"The Haughtons have the best client list in New York, and if they cannot attract buyers, then we are in for a difficult year," said an exhibiting dealer asking for anonymity. The fair did attract buyers, and many, but not all, of the dealers were pleased with their sales.

The Haughtons created an elegant shopping place. They made an architectural design element out of rows of large black plastic tubing hung from the rafters for the air conditioning that cooled the vast space of the armory during a very hot week at the end of September and the first days of October. Above the black air-conditioning ducts, dramatic lights moved across the high, arched ceiling. Pale gray carpet and white woodwork showed off the stands.

The number of dealers exhibiting was down dramatically from the 57 exhibitors in 2000, when this fair was called the International 20th Century Arts Fair. This year 40 dealers brought the finest they could muster, most of it 20th-century European design. The quality of this vetted show is high. There was a lot of French Art Deco and Swedish furniture, ceramics, glass, and rugs from the 1930's to 1950's. One dealer had Viennese Secessionist works. Another offered Italian designs by Bugatti and Mollino. Another had English Arts and Crafts as well as studio furniture from the Cotswolds.

What was largely missing was American design. There were a few pieces of American furniture at two stands. The Modernist textiles offered by Titi Halle of Cora Ginsburg, New York City, sold briskly.

Tai Gallery/Textile Arts, Santa Fe, sold many African textiles and Japanese bamboo baskets. Robert Coffland of Tai Gallery/Textile Arts invited Japanese master weaver of bamboo Sugita Jozan to demonstrate his art. Jozan worked for seven days and did not finish one basket.

Joan Mirviss of New York City put together a stunning collection of contemporary Japanese ceramics, and it was well received. She sold more than 30 pieces. Donna Schneier of New York City and Adrian Sassoon of London each offered a fine array of contemporary arts and design in ceramics and glass.

(The American Craft Museum in New York City officially changed its name on October 1. It is now the Museum of Contemporary Arts and Design. That is the way dealers describe the ceramics, glass, wood, and fiber arts pieces once known by the imprecise and too inclusive term "crafts.")

There were five art dealers with paintings and sculpture, and some furniture dealers also offered a few pieces of sculpture and a painting or two. Sculpture sold very well. New York City dealer Jane Kahan showed tapestries, most of them designed by Léger, and pottery decorated by Picasso.

Jane Corkin of Toronto, a well-known dealer in photography, in addition to classic works in the history of photography, brought works by several contemporary photographers who print small editions in series, creating a grid of color images. Danny Lane of London, who makes glass sculpture, offered a rippling glass wall suggesting a wave, similar to a larger piece he installed in the new McGraw-Hill building at Canary Wharf, London. He said the leaning, rippling wall was on a ship in New York Harbor when this show was canceled a year ago.

One could furnish a room, add to a collection, or celebrate an occasion with a major purchase of jewelry at this fair. Many did just that. One French dealer in French Art Deco sold out his stand and had to borrow furniture from New York City dealers. Kim Hostler of Antik said she sold every piece of Swedish furniture except one and sold two of three Swedish rugs, along with half a dozen pieces of Swedish glass.

The extensive loan exhibition, Glass Repositories of Excellence: The Museums at Orrefors and Kosta, showed 28 Swedish masterpieces and focused on their designers. Tulip vases and apple vases like those in the loan exhibition were offered on several stands and sold early in the show. There was also interest in other, more costly works using sand blasting, acid baths, and innovative techniques.

Jewelry from the first half of the 20th century sold faster than contemporary pieces, although dealers reported several sales of important contemporary jewelry and said other sales are pending. (Baroque pearls are hot.)

Designers, private collectors, and museum curators came to the fair with their shopping lists. Several purchases were made for museums on opening night, even though the crowd lacked real energy. Dealers said that over the run of the show they met the right people. More than one dealer, however, said they were shocked at offers made well below the prices quoted, and they said they would not sell at that level. Times are tough, but enough business was done to make expenses and more and to provide hope that in the coming months the economy will improve. There was not a feeling of desperation.

Anna Haughton said this show will go on next fall and that several dealers who were showing at the Biennale de Paris the same week this year are expected to be back in New York next fall. Others inquired about space when they saw how beautiful the show looked. With just 40 dealers there were wide aisles but plenty to see.

"We were pleased with the gate," she said. "About fourteen thousand people came to take a look, and we were thrilled to see so many young people pushing strollers on the weekend."

Some wondered aloud if there was room in the crowded show schedule for this 20th- and 21st-century design fair in addition to the long-running, more commercial, and less grand Modernism show with 68 dealers in mid-November. Several dealers do both shows, and they said the two fairs are necessary.

"In years' past, we sold well at both fairs," said John Levitties of John Alexander, Philadelphia. "There is more than enough very good twentieth-century material to warrant two events." He said he brings earlier British Arts and Crafts to Modernism. "How many fairs are there that focus on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century design, and no one says, `What, another one!'" he commented. "At this fair people stop dead in their tracks, taken with something they have never seen before. That's what's wonderful!"

This fair presented much that was fresh and new to the marketplace. The names of Japanese master potters and bamboo artists must be learned. The Swedish designers of glass and furniture, the makers of English studio furniture, as well as British and American contemporary artists who work in ceramics and wood are not yet household names.

"Twentieth-century collecting and connoisseurship has moved to another level, and the fair has reached a turning point," said Brian Haughton toward the end of the show. "I am thrilled with the way the fair looks and with the response."

The opening night party, attended by 500 supporters, raised a quarter of a million dollars for the Museum of Modern Art. Patty and Gustavo Cisneros, Agnes Gund, and Jo Carole and Ronald Lauder were chairmen of the evening.

For further information, call (212) 642-8572 or in London at 44 (0)20 7734 5491; Web site (www.haughton.com).