AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS.- FineArtFair.nl  is the cutting-edge virtual exhibition at which the Netherlands’ leading art and antique dealers will be presenting their recent acquisitions and top pieces on the Internet around the Christmas period. The previous two exhibitions attracted no less than 80,0000 visitors.  

The exhibitors are all members of the Association of Fine Art Dealers in the Netherlands (Dutch abbreviation VHOK). The guest exhibitor on this occasion will be Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. 

The Internet has proved an excellent medium for displaying art and antiques to an interested public. Simple to access, the Internet is fast, effective and easy to reference. FineArtFair.nl 2003 will offer a meticulous selection of new acquisitions and top pieces from the collections of members of the Association of Fine Art Dealers in the Netherlands. From archaeological finds and medieval sculptures to renaissance furniture. Jewellery and 18th-century silver will feature alongside ceramics, glass and Asiatic art, old masters alongside icons and modern art.  

Guest exhibitor Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen of Rotterdam has collaborated with FineArtFair.nl to compile the exhibition Dali and the mysterious Ducasse. The subject of this exhibition is a series of famous prints that Dali produced to illustrate ’Les chants de Maldoror’ (1869) by the Comte de Lautréamont, a pseudonym for Isidore Ducasse who died tragically young. Poetry and prose merge in this literary work to evoke Maldoror’s delirious dreams. The etchings in the series are Dali’s first major graphic work. The artist’s finely drawn lines display his powerful imagination, which would reach its height in his later oeuvre. 

FineArtFair.nl has been organized by the Association of Fine Art Dealers in the Netherlands (Dutch abbreviation VHOK). Founded in 1911 the Association represents the highest professional and ethical standards in the art world. Exhibitors at the FineArtFair.nl will include regular contributors to the TEFAF art fair in Maastricht and pAn-Amsterdam. Some of the exhibitors are also familiar as experts from the television programme Tussen Kunst en Kitsch (the Dutch version of The Antiques Roadshow).

The Association of Fine Art Dealers in the Netherlands belongs to the CINOA, the Confédération Internationale des Négociants en Oeuvres d’Art. The Association is the first member of this international organization to arrange a virtual exhibition. 

Several outstanding objects at FineArtFair.nl 2003 - Each of the 54 exhibitors will be presenting four pieces on the exhibition website.  Archea Ancient Art will be exhibiting a kylix, a Greek drinking bowl on a high foot, dating from the sixth century BC. The ancient Greeks drank wine diluted with water from such terracotta vessels. The Black Figure painted decoration on this kylix appropriately represents exuberantly dancing youths and maidens.  

A striking piece presented by Van Aalst Antiquiteiten is a brass inkwell in the form of a triton riding on a dolphin. The shell in the triton’s hands holds the ink. The inkwell was cast in the second half of the seventeenth century, with variations after an original by Francesco Fanelli, an Italian artist who worked in London between 1635 and 1642. During this period his workshop produced a number of inkwells, always with minor variations on the original model. 

The prestigious terrestrial globe from the Antiquariaat Forum collection boasts a unique provenance. The renowned cartographer Jodocus Hondius made this globe in 1601 as a presentation piece. According to the inscription he originally dedicated the piece to the military leaders of the United Provinces of the Netherlands. However, Hondius also wished to sell this model in the southern provinces, which were then at war with the northern provinces. As a publicity stunt he presented the globe to Archduke Albrecht and Archduchess Isabella who were ruling the southern provinces on behalf of Philip II of Spain. A second inscription with the names of Albrecht and Isabella was affixed over the original dedication. 

Kunsthandel Noortman will be displaying a sun-drenched harbour view by Abraham Begeyn, a little-known seventeenth-century Dutch master, who produced attractive landscapes. ’Harbour scene in the Levant’ offers a panoramic view from the quay over the water, to the blue cloud-studded sky and distant mountains. A striking feature of the painting is the colonnade on the quay, devoid of major activity. To one side of the bales and bundles people are engaged in relaxed conversation. They include a prominent eastern figure, identifiable from his clothing and plumed turban, and a westerner in a tall hat trimmed with an ostrich feather.

‘L’Orage’ (1963) by Willem de Kooning, to be exhibited by Kunsthandel Borzo, is a work from a unique moment in the life of this Dutch-American painter. 1963 was the year in which the artist moved from Manhattan to Long Island. There he had a large studio built (where he worked until 1990 when Alzheimer’s disease forced him to lay down his brush). 1963 also saw a change in the artist’s choice of subject, with women being replaced as a source of inspiration by the landscape, sea and sky. Painted in yellow, white and blue, ‘l’Orage’ is a fascinating example of De Kooning’s new subject matter.