Paris bursts into bloom this week with the opening of no less than four art fairs. Paris Art Week, as the seasonal event is known, could be seen as a turning point for the French capital, which has recently seen the plug pulled on several fairs as well as disrupted events in November due to the terror attacks.
Now in its 16th year, Art Paris Art Fair (31 March-3 April) is the main event, featuring 143 galleries from 22 countries selling Modern and contemporary art in the Grand Palais. Several dealers are dedicating their booths to shows by female artists, including Geneviève Classe at Galerie Fleury; Janet Biggs and Dana Hoey at Analix Forever; and Shadi Ghadirian, Newsha Tavakolian and Tahmineh Monzavi at Silk Road Gallery. “There’s a lot of debate about female artists at the moment—in France and abroad,” says Guillaume Piens, the director of the fair.
Korean art from the 1960s to the present day is also in the spotlight, with 80 artists from the East Asian country exhibiting at the fair. Three works by Korean artists are among six digital projects being projected onto the façade of the Grand Palais.
The Paris iteration of the Pavilion of Art and Design fair (PAD; 31 March-3 April) celebrates its 20th anniversary at the Jardin des Tuileries. This year’s fair is distinguished by an emphasis on tribal art; some of the other highlights among the 55 participating galleries include a bronze rhinoceros that doubles as a table by François-Xavier Lalanne at Galerie Botella; rugs designed by street artists at Galerie Boccara; and a Jean Prouvé table from around 1939 at Galerie Downtown François Laffanour.
Drawing is also high on the agenda. Salon du Dessin (30 March-4 April) marks its silver jubilee year at the Palais de la Bourse with an exhibition of 26 drawings from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Russia. It is the first time a foreign museum has been invited to show at the fair, which this year includes 39 galleries exhibiting 1,000 works on paper by Old Masters to contemporary artists.
Also celebrating an anniversary is Drawing Now Paris (30 March-3 April). For its tenth edition, 74 galleries are taking over the upper and lower levels of the Carreau du Temple, with an emphasis on German traditions in the graphic arts.
The openings and anniversary celebrations this week are in stark contrast to recent news of a number of fairs closing. In February, it was announced that Fiac’s satellite fair, Officielle, will not take place this October. Director Jennifer Flay cited the “perceived remoteness of the Cité de la Mode et du design”, where Officielle was held, and the high cost of the stands. Other fairs to have felt the pinch include Paris Tableau, which was folded into the Biennale des Antiquaires last autumn, and Paris Beaux-Arts, which closed after just one edition.
Meanwhile, several fairs were directly affected by the terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November, including Paris Photo and Paris Tableau, which both closed two days early. The effects are still being felt; Guillaume Piens says people are “feeling quite tense”, but that organisers have stepped up security around the Grand Palais for Art Paris Art Fair.
Victoria Mann, the director of Also Known As Africa, a new fair that was due to launch in December but was cancelled after the attacks, says it is important to stay positive. “It’s a balance between being aware of the current situation and fighting for what we believe in, which is freedom of expression and bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs.” The debut edition of Also Known As Africa is due to run 9-13 November.