by Cristiana Lopomo with Gilbert Gay-Parme
ANTIBES. Just before the start of the summer season, France’s largest antiques fair takes place in Antibes in an area covering 6,000 sq meters in Pré aux Pecheurs from April 20th to May 2nd Antiques collectors, sellers, buyers and enthusiasts come from all over Europe for this annual fair.
Authenticity, Beauty, Rarity, Originality are the keywords of the Salon d’Antibes, which has become one of the most important French and European fairs. As every year, more than 25,000 visitors will discover in Antibes some of the most beautiful pieces currently on the international market: Antiquities, antique jewellery, design, modern art and contemporary art. The Salon d’Antibes is unique, by its attendance, by the works presented there and by its magical atmosphere in front of the port of Antibes, on the edge of the Mediterranean, next to the sunny terraces of the restaurants of the old city.
Taking a stroll through the elegant alleys of the large central marquee, visitors will discover stalls arranged like the interior of superb mansions, and rub shoulders with VIP, nobility and celebs. To ensure a diversified and high quality choice, the organizers selected nearly 120 exhibitors. Many of these merchants, antique dealers and gallery owners are from April 20th to May 2nd 2018 international references in their fields of activity. These professionals find and reserve the most exceptional pieces for Antibes because they know that here, and nowhere else, they will benefit from an international clientele. Cosmopolitan, casual and amateurs are falling in love with a historical work of art or with an unusual object that will complete the decoration of their houses, penthouses or yachts. The 46th edition of the Salon d’Antibes was a great show of exceptional pieces. In addition to the sublime pieces of furniture and the paintings signed by the great masters, works by some of the most important artists of the 20th century and the contemporary art scene were on display. And, of course, to come to the Salon of Antibes is also to reconnect with a unique way of life, “this side of paradise” as F.S. Fitzgerald said during his stays in Antibes.
The Salon d’Antibes offers a journey through time, to the discovery of the works created in each epoch. An eclectic journey where each booth offers different, unique, rare and exceptional pieces. A journey that reveals the quintessence of the different styles of all ages in ever more refined, unpublished or spectacular productions and which testify to the possible marriage between styles, from antiquity to the present day. Visiting the Salon d’Antibes is an odyssey marked with the most beautiful furniture, objects and works of art, realized in past centuries but also today, by the best artists (painters, sculptors …) Or craftsmen (cabinetmakers, markers, bronzers, ceramists, jewellers, gilders, designers …). Among these are exceptional furniture created by the great masters such as André-Charles Boulle, Charles Cressent, Jean-Henri Riesener, Jean-François Hache and Martin Carlin, or other unmarked, equally magnificent. It is in tune with the furniture of the eighteenth century, exposed in all the majesty of its timeless splendour that always builds the heart of the salon of Antibes!
As for gallery owners and merchants specializing in modern art and contemporary art, they offer a selection of works by the great masters of painting, sculpture and furniture of the twentieth century and the most emblematic creations of the Contemporary art and design or industrial furniture. The faithful collectors and amateurs, both French and foreign, return each year to Antibes to visit this fair, to dream or to offer themselves among the thousand and one wonders offered the most sumptuous or one that will simply correspond to their desires. Since its inception, the organizers of the show have always chosen specialized and quality exhibitors. The antique dealers and selected gallerists are references in their sectors: furniture, works of art, objects of decoration, lighting, goldsmith’s art, carpets, watches and antique jewellery, tableware … in each of these fields eras are represented, from the oldest to the most contemporary. Thanks to the presence of these specialists, this show offers a complete and diversified selection of unique and rare works. It is thanks to this rigorous selection of exhibitors gathered for each of its editions that the Salon d’Antibes has obtained its letters of nobility, its notoriety and its international reputation. Every year, exhibitors at the Salon d’Antibes select and book their best finds of the year. They also compete in elegance to decorate their stands and turn them into superb rooms. From one stand to another, visitors to the Salon d’Antibes can thus move from a cabinet similar to that of Queen Marie Antoinette to an interior in the purest Art Deco style with unique pieces signed Adnet and Ruhlmann, before discovering a stand similar to a loft in New York or another gathering creations of great designers.
On other stands, paintings by the great masters of modern and contemporary art are presented as on the rails of a large museum. Elsewhere, table services and silverware are installed as for the finest meal, pieces of porcelain services arranged next to a fabulous tabletop, which once belonged to Versailles. This is also the spirit of the Salon d’Antibes: simplicity is close to the exception. Alongside the antiques and flea market, you will also find furniture and art objects of the twentieth century, a major area of focus of the Salon d’Antibes. Most of these dealers, antique dealers and gallery owners are also international benchmarks in their fields of activity. The Salon d’Antibes never ceases to surprise and upset the codes of decoration, by selecting each year new exhibitors emblematic of the latest trends.