France’s flagship art and antiques fair FAB Paris returns for a third edition and brings together 100 international exhibitors presenting antiquities, fine art, furniture, jewellery, manuscripts and sculpture spanning three millennia and six continents. FAB Paris was launched in February 2022 at the Carousel du Louvre in in a bid to combine the synergies of La Biennale des Antiquaires and Fine Arts Paris. Following on in quick succession from Art Basel Paris and Paris Photo, FAB Paris takes over the newly restored Grand Palais from 22nd to 27h November.

Le Gout des Femmes is strongly represented at FAB Paris, with an enigmatic Ancient Egyptian head formerly in the collection of Belle Epoque icon Coco Chanel at Galerie Cybele, and a historic “Goût Rothschild” collection of fine art and furniture once belonging to Belle Epoque society figure Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild.

A revival of the artistic love affair between Japan and France that dates back to 19th Century Japonisme and its influence on artists such as Casset, Manet and Toulouse Lautrec can be encountered at FAB through presentations of Japanese Post-war women artists Saori Akutagawa and Teruko Yokoi, and French avant-garde artist Marie Laurencin, whose popularity is such in Japan that she has a museum dedicated to her in Tokyo. This dialogue between Japan and France commenced in 1854 when Japanese ports reopened after two centuries to Western trade, enabling a flow of Nipponese aesthetics and craftsmanship into France and a mutual admiration society began.

Two women at the top of their game in the specialised areas of rare jewels and manuscripts are Parisian high jewellery artist Lydia Courteille, who unveils a new collection at FAB Paris inspired by Visconti’s cinematic version of Sicily, and Camille Sourget, who is presenting the first German bible printed in Nuremberg in 1483 alongside exquisite illustrations of Parrots at her eponymous Librairie Camille Sourget and making a strong case for Paris as the capital of bibliophilie.

FAB Paris takes over the ground floor of the Grand Palais and has a less frenetic pace than the frenzy of Art Basel Paris or Paris Photo, enabling visitors to take their time to experience creative excellence in a variety of artforms, from Antiquity to Altarpieces, Baroque to Minimalism. Post-War and Contemporary is also represented with my highlights including Otto Fried at Brame & Lorenceau, Vasarely at Galerie Hurtebize and ‘Picabia, Miro, Picasso’ at Galerie Helene Bailly.

FAB Paris 2024 Highlights

Saori Akutagawa and Teruko Yokoi

Tokyo gallery ‘A Lighthouse called Kanata’ are exhibiting Saori Akutagawa and Teruko Yokoi, two previously overlooked post-war abstract artists, juxtaposed with contemporary glass sculptor Niyoko Kuta. The gallery’s founder Wahei Aoyama explained to me at the fair: “We are proud to represent women artists who have been virtually unrecognised during the prime of their career, yet who are now being reevaluated for the beauty of their work, in particular Teruko Yokoi, the first wife of Sam Francis who was always under the shadow of her more established husband during their short me together, as well as Saori Akutagawa, who was also under the shadow of her more famous husband musician Yasushi Akutagawa. Coupled with the glass work of Niyoko Ikuta, who was a single mother raising two young sons on her own, it was only in the artist’s mid-50’s when she began to garner great recognition and sell out every work she has created. It is important to place women in the correct aesthetic and academic context to which they deserve, and we find it truly worthwhile to be able to assist women artists, both living and posthumously, garner the recognition they deserve based on the merits of their work.”

Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin, who has a museum dedicated to her in Tokyo, is the standout artist on display at Paris and Tokyo-based Galerie Tamenaga, the first gallery in Japan to introduce European Modern Art in 1969.

Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

The eternal return of the “Goût Rothschild” is foregrounded in a special exhibition featuring 50 unseen works from the legendary collection of the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, a palace on the French Riviera built by Béatrice de Rothschild (1864-1934). The exhibition scenography was designed by acclaimed interior designer Jacques Garcia.

Ancient Egyptian Treasures at Galerie Cybèle

A highlight of the Antiquities section is Ancient Egypt specialist gallery Cybèle, who are showing a stucco burial mask of a woman with an enigmatic smile which feels like a precursor to Da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’. The mask dates back to Roman Egypt, Tuna el-Gebel, Antinoopolis, 55-100 A.D. and once belonged to Coco Chanel.

Lydia Courteille

Parisian high jewellery artist Lydia Courteille is known for her opulent creations, encyclopaedic knowledge of jewellery and a roll call of famous clients, from Karl Lagerfeld to Catherine Deneuve, Miley Cyrus to Madonna. To date Courteille has designed 55 collections influenced by art, cinema and poetry. Her latest collection ‘Revoir Palerme’ is an ode to Sicily and Visconti’s cinematic masterpiece ‘Il Gattopardo’ (‘The Leopard’) and features necklaces, rings, earrings and bracelets inspired by Palermo and featuring rare gemstones such as yellow tourmalines, sapphires, bumblebee jasper, green Paraibas and diamonds.

Rembrandt and Durer

Frankfurt-based Old Master print specialist Helmut H. Rumbler is presenting a collection of Old Master prints including Dürer’s iconic master engraving “Adam and Eve” and his famed woodcut of a Rhinoceros that became Europe’s defining image of the exotic animal for more than two centuries.

Dürer’s print was inspired by an Indian Sultan’s unusual gift to King Manuel of Portugal of a rhinoceros, the first to arrive in Europe since Roman times. Also not to be missed are exquisite Rembrandt prints including ‘Female Nude Seated on a Mound (circa. 1631).

Camille Sourget Librairie

Camille Sourget Librairie is showing the first book of Parrots, François Levaillant’s beautifully illustrated “Histoire naturelle des perroquets” (1801-1805) and the first German Bible printed in Nuremberg in 1483, as well as other rare books.

Picasso Ceramics and Etchings

Helene Bailly gallery is exhibiting Picasso ceramics and prints with works by fellow Spanish avant-garde geniuses in ‘Picabia, Miro, Picasso’. Meanwhile Galerie Jean-Francois Cazeau juxtaposes Picasso ceramics and Minotaur etchings with an evocative Yves Klein blue sculpture inspired by Michelangelo’s Slave titled ‘L’Esclave Mourant d’apres Michel Ange’ (1962), and Filippo di Giuliano’s 15th Century ‘Master of the Fiesole Epiphany’.