Forbes’s Abigail Esman went to the Brussels Antiques and Fine Art Fair which is in is 56th edition:
True, BRAFA doesn’t have the “wow” factor of the main mega-fairs like Basel, Basel Miami or TEFAF Maastricht or Frieze; but it offers up a host of surprises and quite a number of treasures among them, from 18th-century French diamond-and-ruby brooches to Oceanic and Oriental art, Medieval icons, Old Master paintings, and 20th century masters from Picasso to Warhol, from Christo to Wang Guangyi. […]
[T]he (real) pigs by Wim Delvoye who sat quietly greeting visitors to Guy Pieters’ stand. The stuffed, tattooed swine are among the artist’s “signature” pieces, a play on the idea of art as investment (or, that is, art as “piggy” bank). Behind them, other tattooed pieces by Delvoye on pigskin, depicted – as do some of the tattooed pigs – Disney images from Cinderella and other fairy tales. These juxtapose tellingly with an exquisitely-rendered Jesus inked across one particularly fine pork back by the name, apparently, of “Rex.” . (Miraculously, not a single Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Christian, animal rights activist, or anyone else defaced the installation, or demanded it be removed.)
Other exhibitors, however, took a more serious tone, from the breathtaking French deco jewels by Cartier and others at Epoque Fine Jewels to the paintings by Belgian artist Paul van Hoeydonck (best known for having sent the first sculpture, Fallen Astronaut, to the moon in 1971) at Ronny van de Velde. (The Astronaut remains still at Hadley Rile, commemorating American and Russian space travelers who had lost their lives in the eternal quest to conquer the unknown.) Other offerings at Van de Velde included charcoal drawings by Degas and an early Ensor oil on canvas, while paintings by Antonio Saura, Pierre Soulages and Jean Dubuffet grabbed the drama nearby at Galerie Pascal Lansberg.
Some Thoughts on Egypt, the Art Market and Jesus on a Pig (Forbes)
