12 Must See Highlights At Brafa Art Fair, Brussels 2024

Founded in 1956, Brafa is one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious annual art fairs, showing ancient and modern painting, textiles, sculpture, jewelry, silverware and furniture. This year’s fair, at the iconic 1930s Brussels Expo buildings (until 4 February) features 132 international galleries from 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

There’s plenty to enjoy at Brafa, including two rare portraits by female Renaissance painter Lavinia Fontana, a reconstructed room by Art Nouveau master, Victor Horta, a solo exhibition of pop artist Tom Wesselmann and works by Belgian surrealist artist Paul Delvaux, some for sale, others to admire. Like Frieze Masters in London, Brafa feels more like a museum show than an art fair. This is partly due to the selection criteria: unlike most commercial art fairs, Brafa is run by a committee that includes participating gallerists who have to approve every single work before it goes on display.

De Wit Fine Tapestries, Belgium, Stand 21

Since 1889, family-run De Wit has sold, conserved and restored tapestries for private clients and major museums. They are the world’s leading tapestry restorers, relied up upon by the Rijksmuseum, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Louvre and the Victoria and Albert Museum. Their stand at Brafa is a marvel of ancient and contemporary tapestries from 17th-century masterpieces to colorful works by Sonia Delaunay.

This London gallery is co-owned by David Stern and Lélia Pissarro, great-granddaughter of the renowned Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro. As well as Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings by Renoir, Pissarro, Boudin, Signac, Vlaminck and Martin, the gallery shows works by modern and contemporary artists like Herbin, Kusama and Kapoor and of course, work by 15 artist descendants of Camille Pissarro. The Brafa stand has an impressive mix of all of this, including a wonderful abstract work by the French artist, Auguste Herbin.

As one of the few galleries in Europe to deal exclusively with artworks in silver, this German stand is an essential stop. On show are stunning antique and contemporary silver art pieces including Art Deco tea sets, a basket by Josef Hoffmann, and a beautiful work by contemporary artist Ryuhei Sako.

Based in the Marais district of Paris, this gallery specialises in modern and contemporary masters such as Bonnard, Picasso, Arp, Ernst, Léger, Calder and Wesselmann. A special place is given to the Surrealists (André Masson in particular) and to Post-War abstract art. And a great selection of Picasso limited editions are a big draw to this year’s Brafa stand.

The unique beauty and character of Venice is perfectly represented by a family-run jewelry shop occupying five arches in a corner of St Mark’s Square. Painstakingly crafted jewelry with Venetian themes include rings that open to reveal surprises, Venetian window earrings, gondola brooches and rings with colorful enamel Venetian masks surrounded by precious gems.

One of the highlights of this year’s Brafa is an incredible, reconstructed ground floor interior (priced at 12 million euros) by Victor Pierre Horta, a Belgian architect and designer, one of the founders of the Art Nouveau movement. Three sets of precious woodwork are on show from a living room, a dining room and a third room. In addition to the paneling, a superb bronze fireplace and Belgian red marble, a pair of bronze radiator covers, an elegant pair of oak and wavy maple buffets, four golden plaster statuettes by Pierre Braecke, an oak and maple bench, doors, stained glass and more.

This Belgian gallery has a brilliant solo show dedicated to one of the leading figures of Pop Art, Tom Wesselmann (1931-2004). As many works are already in museum collections, this is an exceptional exhibition and includes the American artist’s first works from the late 1950s and early 1960s. These were primarily collages made from wallpaper and advertisements, sometimes combined with painted nudes in American interiors.

Specialising in 20th Century Modern Art, this London gallery’s stand is packed with gems including Eclipse, a 1961 work Alexander Calder and works on paper by Marc Chagall. Another real standout of the stand is New York, Architectural Composition (1940) an incredible oil painting by Lyonel Feininger. Shown several times at the Museum of Modern Art, and as part of the 1956 Venice Biennale American Pavilion, the painting presents an intriguing combination of the artist’s native Northern Germany and his adopted home of Manhattan.

Luxembourg gallery Zidoun Bossuyt has a must see painting from a European private collection by Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist well known for exploring themes of race, power and social inequality. The work, entitled Blue Skies, is painted on wood, a medium very rarely seen in public collections of Basquiat’s work.

A trio of Max Ernst sculptures (Big Brother, Séraphin le néophyte, and Séraphine-Cherubin) priced at 2.6 million euros dominate this German gallery stand. Works of his son Jimmy Ernst and his granddaughter Amy Ernst are also on show, along with a selection of paintings and works on paper by CoBrA artists, a European avant-garde modern art group.

Spanish gallery Nicolás Cortés has two portraits by Lavinia Fontana (Italy, 1552-1614), the daughter of Prospero Fontana, a Mannerist painter who was one of the very few women recognised as a leading artist of her time.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of the death of the Belgian painter Paul Delvaux (Belgium, 1897-1994), the Paul Delvaux Foundation is the guest of honor at this year’s Fair, illustrating his artistic career with around 15 works in two dedicated spaces. This display is a taster of a major exhibition opening this fall at La Bouverie in Liege, Belgium. And a further 30 works highlighting the artist’s main themes: women, stations, trains, antique decor and skeletons are on display on several exhibitors’ stands. Boon Gallery (Knokke, stand 26) is showing La ville lunaire (1944) and Francis Maere Fine Arts (Ghent, stand 40) a work entitled L’été (1963), Galerie Taménaga (Paris-stand 87) is showing La tente rouge (1966) and Opera Gallery (Geneva, stand 107) a work from 1968 entitled La fin du voyage.

Practical info

Brafa Art Fair, Brussels Expo, Halls 3 & 4. Runs until Sunday 4 January 2024.

Ticket prices for adults are €25 and €10 for 16-26 (under 16s go free)