Primavera Art Fair

Last Saturday I went to the Primavera Antiques and Art Fair in Rotterdam. I hadn't been there before so I was wondering what kind of fair this was.

The entrance fee was 10 euro's, but I had a discount and paid half . The parking ticket for my car was 10 euro's. So a parking place near the center of Rotterdam is twice as exclusive as a ticket to Primavera.

When I entered the first piece of art I saw was Balance of Destiny by Robert Heindel. It had a price tag of 120,000 euro's.

That was a mixed signal. It had a price tag. It costs 120.000 euro's, I could buy my half house for that amount. So on the one side the precence of a price tag which means middle or low end, but 120,00 euro's is a huge amount.

If you go to the Dutch high end Art Fairs like ArtRotterdam or ArtAmsterdam price tags are considered tacky. I don't know why: Everyone who has a booth on those fairs wants to make money. But it should be hidden as long as possible. I very soon found out that the painting was with some other paintings from Robert Heindel the only objects this expensive.

So I found out the fair had mainly middle class Dutch art. Most of it was figurative some abstract works. 99% under 10,000 euro's.
I'm only interested in contemporary art. There were about 40 booths with that kind of work. Next to this, jewellery, old instruments, icons and other art from previous centuries.

I like fairs because these are the only places you can compare so many various works of art in a very short time. And all the art is for sale.

This Fair was very Dutch. The art displayed ready tame. No place for Tinkerbel here. Strangely there wasn't much photography either.
An amazing kind of craftmanship I saw in the works from David Begbie. It is a sculpure from steelwire. When behind it a spotlight is placed, the shadow from the scuplture makes a briljant "drawing" from a nude.

At the end of the fair I was wondering if I would buy a work. Before the fair I had intended not to buy anything. My budget for this year has already been depleted. (more about the works I've bought this year later) And there is one fair I allways buy is at Whitsun in Eindhoven so all the money I've got left I will spend there. However the flesh is weak.
I was choosing between a work from Marianne Venderbosch "Mood"
and a work from Oskar (Spierenburg) "haarlem"

Finally I was wise and just bought a bottle like this It was painted by Douke van der Ploeg.

What did I learn: price tags are really handy. I can control myself by not buying art and I still like figurative art but I'm not swept of my feet by it.