Sunday 4 MayIt’s raining cats and dogs
On the same day that Peter Stuyvesant arrives at Manhattan in 1626, I land in New York for the most important art week of the year. It is raining cats and dogs and that is what the expectation is for the rest of the week.
Monday 5 May Subsidies stopped
With colleagues I visit Jacob’s Pillow, “The Dance Center for the Nation“, according to The New York Times. Architect Francine Houben is to show us the theater designed by her. Jacob’s Pillow is one of the reference projects that I, as director of Stichting Droom en Daad, visit for inspiration for the future dance house in Rotterdam.
At Jacob’s Pillow, director Pamela Tatge gives the tour and she immediately talks to us about the letter just received that it is stated that the National Endowment for the Arts will be canceled and all subsidies will be stopped from July. Fortunately, many institutions in the US succeed in generating private resources, but government support and therefore recognition, let alone appreciation, is more than alone.
Back to Manhattan we make a stopover in Dia Beaconon An impressive installation from Steve McQueen.
Tuesday 6 May The with gala
On ‘The Morning After’ The Gala of the Year I am on the doorstep of the Metropolitan Museum for the Members Preview at 10 am Black Dandy. Nowhere are fashion exhibitions celebrated as exuberantly as in the met. Historically, and spectacularly at the same time as the most outdoor loans from home and abroad. With a grandiose gala as a global moment for self -promotion of stars and wannabees. Tables and individual tickets cost 350,000 and $ 75,000 respectively. This year the gala raised a record amount of 31 million dollars.
This is the week in which all major auctions take place and I visit the viewing days at Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips, not to buy this time. Galleries and museums now also put their best foot forward and of course there are a handful of smaller art fairs besides the Tefaf and Frieze. I have to choose in the knowledge that it is all too much. First to Christie’s where I speak David Kleiweg, the Senior Vice President of Impressionist & Modern Art, one of the Dutch who has been active in the New York art world for years. A striking outlier is a large painting by Marlène Dumas that has a guaranteed bid before the auction takes place, a world record for the ‘Living Female Artist’ category.
Photos Chantal Heijnen
At auction house Phillips I walk directly into the arms of director Jean Paul Engelen and John Silberman, the chairman of the Willem de Kooning Foundation and exchange the latest art news with them. A nice work by Danh VO is offered at Sotheby’s. I close the afternoon on a Citibike to the northernmost tip of Central Park on the outskirts of Harlem and visit it soon to open Davis Center.
This ‘community-first’ part of Central Park “For Harlem and All of New York“Has been refurbished to be able to swim there in the summer and to be able to skate in the winter. Years ago I contacted the Central Park Conservancy, because their operations serve as an inspiring example for the transformation of the park in Rotterdam, involving dream and deed. The day is concluded with Hidde van Seggal, a New Y Sturkic, in De Oystic.
Wednesday 7 May The Frick Collection
All time blocks are fully booked, but formerly Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rüger, recently director of the renovated Frick Collection has been ready. The collection shines like never before and the new underground concert hall is a gem. On to The Armory, where the Tefaf is under construction and where I am active as chairman of the inspection, the main objective of my journey. Global Chairman or Vetting is called here, a whole mouth full.
Due to the rigid American trade union rules, it is more efficient to bring all build -up employees from the Netherlands, including oyster men and flower decorators. I welcome the fifty inspectors who assess every object on authenticity, origin and quality. Even though the New York stock exchange is considerably smaller than the mother fair in Maastricht, the quality is even higher on average, as well as the prices. While the inspectors walk around, I break out to go to one of the most discussed sales exhibitions of the moment in New York: Picasso tête-à-tête At Gagosian, the largest art dealer in the world. A phenomenal selection of top works, some of which have never been shown before. The day ends with a dinner with the inspectors. When I walk to my hotel I notice that the weather is happily changing.
Photos Chantal Heijnen
Thursday 8 May The with gala
Today the TEFAF opens and it is a race against the clock for the last inspections and the so -called ‘Appeals’, the possible objections that traders can make against the judgment of the inspection committee. Everything about the inspection falls under strict confidentiality and is therefore not intended for the newspaper. Outside is a row of people who are not used to standing in a row. That is the attraction of Tefaf, also in New York. The first visitors walk in for an hour. This afternoon there will be seven thousand guests, collectors, museum professionals with their board members and trustees.
With Chantal Heijnen, the photographer for this diary, I walk over the fair and shake hands and do a chat here and there. “Let’s go into the city because there is more to see,” I suggest and so we are moving to Chelsea where the great galleries sit together around the High Line. I want to go to William Kentridge at Hauser & Wirth and Willem de Kooning in another Gagosian location. Work is in the Fenix collection of both artists. I want to see how our works relate to what hangs here. In 2026 it will be a hundred years ago that Willem de Kooning left as a migrant Rotterdam. Sarah Godfrey from Gagosian leads me around. I conclude the Kunstweek with a visit to 1:54, the stock exchange for contemporary African art, named after the number of countries on the continent. The dynamic director Touria El Glaoui is a true ambassador for emerging contemporary artists from Africa and at various galleries on the 1:54 purchases have been made for Fenix in the past.
Home with the last night flight. This weekend the previews and press visits for Fenix will start, on 15 May the official opening will follow by Queen Màxima.
