Brighter mood as blue-chip art finds buyers at Miami Beach

6 THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009
Design
“We grow every time there is a recession”
Collector, dealer and designer Axel Vervoordt on carving out a niche, his Venice show and creating a home for his foundation
While other dealers constrict
their operations to a single
speciality, Axel Vervoordt
early on blazed a path in
expanding his dealership into
a range of cultures and time
periods, from Egyptian antiquities
to cutting-edge contemporary
artists, at the same time
taking on the design of clients’
entire homes. That eclectic
approach was in evidence this
year at the Venice Biennale,
where the Belgian collector
and dealer created the third in
his series of non-commercial
exhibitions held in Venice and
Paris. “In-finitum”, at
Venice’s Palazzo Fortuny (6
June-15 November 2009), was
filled with 300 works by
Picasso, Rothko and contemporary
artists along with antiquities
and other objects spread
over the 60,000 sq. ft space.
In addition to these monumental
exhibitions, Vervoordt
not only undertakes interior
decoration but tackles houses
from the ground up. In serving
up his particular brand of taste,
he quickly snared big-name
clients such as French fashion
designer Hubert de Givenchy.
The Art Newspaper caught
up with Vervoordt on the eve
of Art Basel Miami Beach,
where his son Boris is scouring
the fairs and catching up
with clients.
The Art Newspaper: Is this
your first Art Basel Miami
Beach fair?
BV: Not at all. I was at the first
one but I missed last year. I go
to see what is happening in the
art and design world.
WITH
PRIVATE PREVIEW
TAN: Tell us about your
Florida clients?
BV: They are very private but
our first design commission
there was in 1998 for an
American couple. Now we are
working on ten commissions.
We do use 17th-century
antiques there.
TAN: Why did you form the
Vervoordt Foundation?
AV: We created the foundation
last November to separate
more clearly our business and
those endeavours that are not
about selling. The exhibitions
such as those in Venice are
about the future generations
and growing our vision. “Infinitum”
was the first show
organised and produced by the
foundation along with the
Musei Civici di Venezia. Work
was borrowed from institutions
and the show included
examples from my private collection
and galleries as well.
The foundation will soon be
housed in its own museum
[due to open in 2012 in a
30,000 sq ft space at
Vervoordt’s Kanaal building in
Wijnegem, northern Belgium].
TAN: Tell us about the
process of putting “In-finitum”
together?
AV: We started with a thinktank,
bringing together art historians,
archaeologists and
curators at the castle [the
medieval Gravenwezel Castle
near Antwerp, where
Vervoordt resides] or in Venice
for the weekend. It takes four
to five sessions to get the concept.
Bernard Lietaer,
Berkeley research fellow and
author of Of Human Wealth
FIRST FOCUS APRIL 29
Benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
For Tickets and Information
MCACHICAGO.ORG/FIRSTFOCUS
THE INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION OF EMERGING ART
Axel Vervoordt (right) with “In-finitum” curators Francesco
Poli and Daniela Ferretti at the Palazzo Fortuny, Venice
[2007], Daniela Ferretti, architect
and curator at the Palazzo
Fortuny, and others attended.
TAN: How do the installations
spur commissions
and sales?
BV: We can’t measure it. But at
the Haughton International
Fine Art & Antique Dealers fair
in October, five sales were to
new clients. Almost all of them
had seen “In-finitum”. Is there
a direct link? We don’t know.
TAN: I understand that
Paris dealer Kamel Mennour
paid $500,000 to install his
current Huang Yong Ping
show [until 19 December] in
the chapel of the École
Nationale Supérieure des
Beaux-Arts in Paris. Did
yours cost as much?
BV: We don’t get into costs
because that has nothing to do
with the exhibition goal. They
are more transcendent.
TAN: How has your role as a
dealer changed?
AV: Now it’s far more about
teamwork. I depend on almost
100 others including art historians
and restorers. I do the
more philosophical efforts
such as the think-tank.
TAN: Tell us about your
residential commissions
and sales?
AV: We are working on 50 to
60 houses, some are large. I am
personally working on ten of
them. At the moment we’re
restoring the home of Picasso
in Mougins [France] for a
young Dutch family. Their
entire collection had to be
reviewed. We tried a Basquiat
in the house but it didn’t work.
Even a Kiefer didn’t go, but a
Kapoor is fantastic there.
Happily, the family has other
houses. Eighty percent of our
sales are to collectors and
museums, from the Getty to the
Metropolitan. The rest is furniture
we make for our clients
and other interior designers.
TAN: What is the nationality
of your client base?
AV: The dominant cities are
New York, Los Angeles and St
Petersburg. New Yorkers make
up the overwhelming portion.
Russians are brand new and I
never thought we would have
them. I saw their taste as flashy
but that has changed.
TAN: Has the recession
affected your firm?
AV: We grow every time
there is a recession as our style
fits in an even more pronounced
manner. We saw that
also in the recession at the
end of the 1980s. Then I
bought the castle. This time,
we have more important
clients and are working with
higher quality objects.
TAN: Where do you source
your material?
AV: Around 20% of the
antiques and art come from
the sales rooms; the rest we
buy privately. Many times we
buy back works from our
clients and often go directly to
artists such as the Zero Group.
In acquiring contemporary art,
you have to know that in five
years time the work will be
enormously important. I
bought my first Fontana in
1969 and I love it. In 1998, I
bought Anish Kapoor’s first
major sculpture, At the Edge
of the World. It’s eight metres
in diameter. In those days, it
cost a fortune, $2m. Now that
seems cheap and I will never
sell it.
TAN: Many collectors have
told me your exhibitions
only work in Europe as the
American buildings are too
sterile, not steeped in history.
Do you agree?
AV: Not at all. An installation
would work very well in New
York in an unrestored house.
Or it could be a garage, but a
large one.
Interview by Brook S. Mason
PABLO PICASSO, UNTITLED /photo:Audia
CHICAGO’S CELEBRATION OF ART, ANTIQUES & CULTURE