Sculptures by Boaz Vaadia, Philippe Hiquily and Bryan Kneale stand in guard in front of the long neoclassical brick Chelsea façade that conceals the annual international art and antique fair, Masterpiece, larger and better than before with art, furniture and decorative items from the antique to the contemporary, including a stylish 1958 Riva Tritone speedboat, as a steady stream of taxis and special buses are drop off international art connoisseurs
Well known artists and designers are here including Claes Oldenburg, Gillian Ayres, David Mach, Eric Gill, Keith Haring, Brigit Riley (currently at the National Galleries of Scotland), Stik, Michael Craig-Martin and Henry Moore, plus Arts & Crafts furniture by Charles Robert Ashbee, but there much that is new including imaginative work by South African contemporary artists Angus Taylor and Deborah Bell and digital art by, for example, Pablo Armesto. A highlight was the contemporary, but traditionally-inspired, handmade furniture by the Edward Barnsley Workshop.
As in previous years, the focused art makes the show from Phyllida Barlow’s ‘Revolution in the Making: Abstract Sculpture by Women 1946-2016′ as you enter to other works by artists including Gary Hume, Zheng Lu, Pietro Consagra (also currently on show at VB Dover Street), Tony Cragg, Susie MacMurray and Anthony James.
It was good to see that Scottish art was represented by, for example, Allan Ramsey, John Michael Wright and William Strang (at Agnews) and, much more up to date, Callum Innes and David Batchelor at the Ingleby Gallery from Edinburgh, now in its new home, plus there seemed to be a theme related to Anthony Caro, whose work is currently on display at Cliveden from Blain|Southern but was also included on other stands, including Annely Juda who had an exhibition of his work earlier in the year.
Inevitably, there was a strong representation with several galleries from China, a sign of shifting sands in the art world, which is no doubt why London was pulling out at the stops with parallel events in the auction houses, Mayfair Art Weekend and London Art Week.