David Tunick
A Manhattan dealer who gives prints and drawings the utmost
respect.
With millions of dollars’ worth of art and furnishings in tow, the
most respected art and antiques dealers from around the world arrive in the
Netherlands town of Maastricht each spring for the European Fine Art Fair
(TEFAF). And among the hundreds of booths in which wares are displayed, the one
that boasts the greatest number of legendary artists per square foot usually
belongs to David Tunick. At this year’s fair, prints and drawings by Rembrandt,
Whistler, Picasso, Vuillard, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cezanne, Kandinsky, and Brueghel
the Elder hung on the golden beige walls. It was impossible to miss the complete
1947 portfolio of Henri Matisse’s vibrantly colored Jazz series, which sat on a
table near the front of the booth. Stirring the most excitement, however, were
the seven Fragonard drawings hanging on the right wall.
The drawings, which
date to the 1780s, depict scenes from an epic poem, Orlando Furioso, and were
part of a collection belonging to the late John Nicholas Brown, a noted
collector of Old Master drawings. Fragonard’s genius radiates from the page, his
flowing line work evoking the foliage of a tree, the wafting strands of a
horse’s mane, and the outstretched hand of a dying man. Soon after the fair
opened, five of the seven drawings were sold, as were the Matisse Jazz and
several others. Tunick took a number of choice works abroad with him, but he did
not empty his Manhattan gallery of its treasures. He estimates that he has from
2,000 to 3,000 works in stock, among them Dürer’s 1498 masterpiece print The
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which did not go to Maastricht.
Tunick has
dealt in prints and drawings since 1966, shortly after he graduated from
Williams College in western Massachusetts. He had planned to pursue a career in
medicine until a trio of exceptional art history professors opened his mind to
the joys of art. “We were surrounded by the real thing,” he says. “We passed
objects around in class. The immediacy of touching something that Dürer or
Rembrandt touched was a wonder to me.”
At the age of 22, Tunick began
selling artworks. “I would persuade dealers to give me prints on consignment,
and I would set up one-day print exhibitions at colleges and universities,” he
says. He traveled between shows in a Volvo station wagon with Besnard, a Saint
Bernard that he named after a French printmaker from the 19th century. Today,
Tunick is ensconced in a handsome Upper East Side townhouse located near the
Seventh Regiment Armory, a few doors down from the restaurant Daniel.
Tunick
believes that these works on paper deserve to be displayed with the same care
and respect accorded to paintings. “Old Master prints should be shown in a
dignified and formal manner,” he says. “They are not the poor cousins anymore.
It’s one of the few areas where masterpieces can still be acquired.” Tunick’s
stock ranges from the 15th century to the 20th, but one theme prevails. “I’m
into artists who are considered classic, but were cutting edge and avant-garde
in their own time, who did things no one had done before,” he says. “I can feel
what’s new in it. It touches me deeply.”
David Tunick
212.570.0090
A Family Affair
Julian Agnew represents the sixth generation of his family
to helm Agnew’s, a London firm that was founded in 1817. “I try to take the
long-term view,” he says. “I’m fortunate to have a great business, and I’m keen
to keep it going and hand it on to the next generation.” The offerings he
displayed at the TEFAF Maastricht fair in March should maintain the firm’s
momentum. Visitors clustered around The Flight into Egypt, a large, impressive
work by the 17th-century painter Francisco de Zurbarán, and an early Poussin
painting, Holy Family with St. John, which had not been shown in public since
1824.
Paintings are hardly the firm’s only specialty. In early 2004, Agnew’s
mounted its 131st annual exhibition of watercolors and drawings, which included
works by Thomas Gainsborough, J.M.W. Turner, and Beatrix Potter. Agnew sees the
firm’s longevity as an invaluable asset. Pointing to three paintings that
Agnew’s previously sold to a loyal client in 1924, he says, “One of the great
benefits of continuity is that people bring things back to us.”
Agnew’s
+44.20.7290.9250
Italian Renaissance
The stock of G. Sarti has shifted over the years, says
Claire Sarti, who runs the Paris firm alongside husband and founder Giovanni.
“Italian was always the focus,” she says. “We started with Italian furniture,
then gradually added paintings. Now it’s the opposite.” While Sarti carries a
few select furnishings, such as a richly decorated 17th-century curiosity
cabinet, paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries are a specialty.
A highlight
of Sarti’s TEFAF Maastricht booth was an early painting by Caravaggio follower
Bartolomeo Manfredi that depicts the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Sarti
explains that Manfredi had a more nuanced and complex take on this scene than
most. He shows Sebastian just before the arrows pierce him, a fleeting moment
when he asks God why he must die while at the same time accepting his fate.
“It’s an intense subject,” Sarti says.
This year, G. Sarti appeared at the
Maastricht fair for the first time since the late 1980s. “I still think there’s
a preference for Flemish and Dutch,” she says of the fair, “but there’s room for
Italian.”
G. Sarti
+33.1.42.89.33.66
Plenty of Picassos
Robert and Alice Landau of Landau Fine Art did not plan
on bringing 16 Picassos to the Maastricht fair this year. It just worked out
that way. “We got a phone call three days before we left for Art Basel Miami in
November, saying, ‘If you’re interested in seeing some Picassos that have never
been on the market before, get on a plane to Paris,’ and we did,” says Robert
Landau, president of the Montreal gallery that he operates with his wife of 34
years.
They came home with five of the Spanish master’s later works, including
Fumeur, a striking 1969 painting of a smoker against a tobacco-colored
background. In the intervening months, the Landaus collected 11 more late
Picassos and brought them all to Maastricht, where they received an overwhelming
amount of attention from the media, attendees, and buyers, who took home Fumeur
and several others.
“We work hard,” Landau says when explaining the gallery’s
success. “We’re honest, and we sell what we believe has good value for today.”
Keeping several Picassos in stock does not hurt, either.
Landau Fine Art
514.849.3311
