These days, much of the art world revolves around the art fair scene… it’s estimated there were more than 300 art fairs that took place in 2019, with thousands of international galleries participating. Think about that… there are only 52 weekends in a year, so we’re talking an average of around 6 fairs a week globally! Further, the hype machine is usually out in full force helping to generate absurd headlines in the likes of “Banana Sells for $120K,” which only fuels the hysteria… but it wasn’t always like this. It’s estimated that in the year 2000, there were less than 60 art fairs… one of those being the Los Angeles Art Show (LA Art Show).
The inaugural year of the LA Art Show in 1994 was hosted by just 14 fine art dealers in Pasadena, California, and saw a mere 250 attendees over the course of the weekend. The show focused on California Impressionist and 19th-century Academic works of art. Twenty-five years later, the LA Art Show has grown to become one of the leading art fairs in the United States with more than 120 international galleries exhibiting Old Master through Contemporary art, and upwards of 50,000 visitors… throughout all those years, one thing has remained consistent – the presence of Rehs Galleries from New York.
Early in the show’s life, Howard Rehs of Rehs Galleries was elected president of the Fine Art Dealers Associations’ Board of Directors – the group responsible for organizing the event. Mr. Rehs would go on to hold his position for more than a decade, while overseeing the show’s growth. In that time, the program significantly expanded to more than 100 participating galleries! As the show became more successful, they were forced to relocate several times before finally settling into the Los Angeles Convention Center in 2009, where the show is still hosted today. That was the final year Mr. Rehs served as the president… he would go on to negotiate the sale of the art fair in 2012 to the Palm Beach Show Group – a major organization in the art fair world which hosts 7 fairs annually in the United States.
But the sale of the show was not the end of Rehs in LA… in fact, if anything, Rehs Galleries (and Rehs Contemporary) has an even larger presence in the show these days; showcasing both 19th Century European and American works of art as well as Contemporary Art. The offerings displayed are the most expansive of any dealer on the floor, typically with more than 100 works on the walls ranging from a few hundred dollars up well into the 6-figures.
As the Los Angeles Art Show celebrates its 25th year, the folks at Rehs Galleries are, once again, preparing for their cross-country journey to take part in the festivities. Among the 100 plus works to be featured this year are Daniel Ridgway Knight’s Maria Among the Poppies (circa 1902), Henry Moret’s Falaises à Moëlan, Finistère (1901), Mitsuru Watanabe’s Naoko playing with Nanban-Jin, Tony South’s Jukebox Hero, as well as paintings by Bernard Buffet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Guy Wiggins, Le Pho, Julie Bell, Ben Bauer, Todd Casey, Nigel Cox, Hiroshi Furuyoshi, Hammond, Mark Lague, Cesar Santander, Beth Sistrunk, and Kari Tirrell. This year’s edition of the LA Art Show will run from February 5-9th, 2020 at the Los Angeles Convention Center – South Hall.
About Rehs Galleries, Inc.
Rehs Galleries Inc. is, along with its principals, considered one of the world’s leading dealers of 19th and early 20th-century European paintings and is currently involved in the catalogue raisonné research projects for Daniel Ridgway Knight, Julien Dupré, Emile Munier, and Antoine Blanchard. Howard Rehs was a past president of the Fine Art Dealers Association, is currently on the Board of the Antiques Council, and has been a member of the Internal Revenue Service’s Art Advisory Panel since 2008.
Contact:
Howard L. Rehs, Director, Rehs Galleries, Inc.
https://www.rehs.com
SOURCE Rehs Galleries, Inc., Jan 10, 2020