Mel Ramos was the surprise star of BRAFA, the Belgian art fair that has grown from a local affair of 55 galleries to an international congregation of 120 dealers in just seven years. ArtInfo covers the gallery action but only records a few of the sales:
“We did very well,” Van de Velde remarked, summarizing his first days at the fair. Seven Paul McCarthy photographs of filthy, ghoulish masks, hung wittily next to Ensor’s seven monstrosities, had also sold by Sunday evening, for a tidy €70,000 ($99,000). He had also parted with a 1941–54 edition of Marcel Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise — priced at €150,000 ($212,000) — to a fellow dealer. Containing 68 miniature reproductions of the artist’s (and his female alter-ego, Rrose Sélavy’s) works, it is a career’s worth of art for the price of one. […]
A private dealer from nearby Antwerp specializing in modern and contemporary work, he had brought one of the fair’s most expensive prizes, James Ensor’s shimmering The Seven Deadly Sins (circa 1922–25), pegged it at €750,000 ($1.1 million), and announced it was off the market from the first moments of business.
No Belgian Waffles (ArtInfo)
