STRASBOURG.- This year, the Strasbourg art fair ST-­‐ART is celebrating its 18th anniversary. About nineteen galleries from Europe and Asia are being presented from 22 to 25 November at France’s second oldest fair for contemporary art. Many renowned gallery owners are also there including the French exhibitors Jean-­‐Pierre Arnoux und Pascal Gabert (both from Paris) Bertrand Gillig, Radial Art Contemporain and J.P. Ritsch-­‐Fisch from Strasbourg and AD Galerie from Montpellier.

There are Paola Forni from Italy and Galerie El Quatre from Spain. German galleries have also signed up again after good sales in the past, thus the Syrlin-­‐Galerie from Stuttgart and Jordan Seydoux and Mario Bermel, both from Berlin, are there. The Ortenau region is represented by exhibitors Cascade, HMQuadrat and Arthus.

The framework programme this year is unusual. In a special exhibition, ST-­‐ART pays homage to the French painter Olivier Debré (1920-­‐1999), who worked in the lyrical abstraction style. About 40 paper works are being shown in black and white, ink drawings and gouaches from the years 1945-­‐1947. Debré, whose family originated from Alsace, limited himself, in the time after the liberation of France from the Nazi regime, to the colours black, white and grey, in order to convey his sorrow about the horror of occupation and the concentration camps.

Moreover, the art collector Jürgen A. Messmer is showing pieces from the Kaiserstuhl Works by the Swiss painter André Evard in the kinetic art style. For the 50th anniversary of the twinning of the two cities Strasbourg and Boston, ST-­‐ART presents “The Par Avion Project” a joint project with 50 artists from both cities.

At the Strasbourg ST-­‐ART, a whole range of art from the 20th and 21st centuries can be seen, from paintings, to plastic and graphic art, to photo and video and to glass art. Last year, 26,000 visitors came to this fair, including many art enthusiasts from Germany. About 900 works of art were sold.