Gold At Adrian Sassoon TEFAF New York Spring

Gold is scarce, splendid and desired. Indeed gold has bewitched people across millennia and borders. Radiant and glowing, gold waits to welcome visitors to Adrian Sassoon’s stand at TEFAF Spring 2018 where exceptional works of art made from or incorporating this most prized and precious metal will be on view.

Highlights of Sassoon’s presentation include masterpieces by Hiroshi Suzuki and Giovanni Corvaja; internationally celebrated artists whose medium is precious metal.  Suzuki has taken a single sheet of 18ct gold and hammer-raised it into a vase. Chased and polished, the surface portrays sinuous rhythms and a variety of golden hues. Corvaja’s characteristically intricate, translucent ‘Mandala Bowl’ was recently praised in The Economist as a contemporary treasure. Soap bubble light in one’s hand; the artist wove it from 4,000 metres of fine 18ct gold wires.  Technically ingenious, Corvaja created the piece inside a vacuum chamber of his own design, making it possible to avoid the use of solder; gold was able to adhere to itself. Both of these captivating works express new, even higher levels of artistry.      

From Australia and the UK respectively, celebrated ceramic artists Pippin Drysdale and Felicity Aylieff use gold to accentuate their new work, making them more covetous than ever before.  Drysdale’s use of intense lustred glazes for her ‘Devil’s Marbles’ series gives her porcelain installations new depths of richness.  The elegance of line in Aylieff’s hand-painted, monumental vases is emphasised by her use of gold highlights, creating a bold, graphic pattern.

Showing for the first time in New York, Adrian Sassoon is delighted to represent Bit Vejle, a Danish psaligrapher (an artist who draws with scissors). ‘Twittering in the Royal Copenhagen Tree’ is an extraordinary work where the artist has painstakingly applied gold leaf to the intricately worked paper. This large-scale, framed masterpiece depicts a self-styled, contemporary Nordic fairytale.

Adrian Sassoon said: ‘Throughout history, gold has been used by artists for their most prized and precious works, national regalia and religious treasures. We are proud to be showing a selection of skilled artists who have innovatively harnessed the potential of this illustrious material.  We believe that their artworks are exquisite enough to adorn the most decorated palace or introduce the luxury of gold into a minimalist interior.’