Tag: Collecting

Homa Taj In Conversation with Swiss-German Dealer Bennet Vertes

Salis & Vertes is one of Europe’s most prestigious modern and contemporary art galleries. Founded in 1994, its exhibition spaces in Zurich and Salzburg showcase some of the most iconic, museum-quality works of art spanning the past 150 years. Earlier this year, Bennet Vertes founded Vertes Modern in the heart of Zurich with a fresh program of art […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with Dutch Art Dealer: Robbert van Ham of Jaski Art Gallery

I first met Robbert van Ham at TEFAF Maastricht, late in March 2011. One of the leading international dealers of CoBrA art movement, the 36 year-old gallerist has been an active participant in the Amsterdam art scene, for the past two decades. My next meeting with van Ham was in his Jaski Art Gallery on Nieuwe Spiegelstraat, one […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with Berlin Art Dealer: Christian Ehrentraut

Despite his relatively young age, Christian Ehrentraut has been a part of Berlin’s art scene for years. He began his career at EIGEN+ART, the gallery that launched the careers of Neo Rauch and Martin Eder. By 2002, Ehrentraut had co-founded the short-lived but critically acclaimed artist-run project LIGA Gallery which was responsible for establishing the […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with Jan De Clercq of Meessen De Clercq Gallery

Meessen De Clercq was founded at the heart of Brussels, in 2009, by Belgian dealers Olivier Meessen and Jan de Clercq. When I visited MSSNDCLRCQ’s exhibition at Art Cologne, what struck me most about their installation was its quiet, poetic and graceful aesthetics. Meessen De Clercq’s roster of international artists includes: Ignasi Aballi, Jordi Colomer, Hreinn Fridfinnsson, […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with De Nieuwe Kerk’s Marlies Kleiterp on the Khalili Collection

Marlies Kleiterp is Director of Exhibitions at De Nieuwe Kerk and the Hermitage Amsterdam. After graduating from Leiden University as a classical archaeologist in 1988, she worked at the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden for 15 years, eventually as Director of Exhibitions. She joined the management team of the Nieuwe Kerk/ Hermitage Amsterdam in […]

Homa Taj on The FRICK’s Symposium on Collecting Italian Renaissance Art

On November 12th and 13th, The Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting in America held its eighth symposium A Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian Renaissance Paintings in America. The over-subscribed event bespoke of immense interest in the history of collecting, a burgeoning new field of study, especially in the United States. It also attested to […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with Van Gogh Museum’s Maite van Dijk

I met Maite van Dijk, Curator of Paintings at the Van Gogh Museum, early in October (2010) during an event that honored Dutch collectors and patrons. The highlighted included a talk by Marina Abramović the foundations of whose work were established in the Netherlands and supported by the Dutch government, in the late 1970’s. Ms. Van Dijk and […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with The Mauritshuis’ Quentin Buvelot on The Van Otterloo Collection

In Conversation with Dr. Quentin Buvelot, the Senior Curator at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (Het Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen, in The Hague on the outstanding collection of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo. The couple, originally from the Netherlands and Belgium, has put together a magnificent collection of Dutch and Flemish Old Master paintings: all are of outstanding quality and on a […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with The Frick Collections’ Inge Reist on Collectors & Merchant Princes

The Frick Collection’s Center for the History of Collecting in America Symposium, A Market for Merchant Princes: Collecting Italian Renaissance Paintings in America, November 12-13, 2010 Founded in 1913, The Frick Collection is a gem of an institution; it is America’s answer to The Wallace Collection that was established by The 3rd Marquess of Hertford, in 1897.  Not […]

Homa Taj In Conversation with PLAYBOY’s Artist in Residence – Olivia De Berardinis

A friend recently asked me, “How do you segue from writing about a Byzantine scholar to Playboy bunnies?” He was referring to my last interview with Professor James R. Russell, The Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at the Department of Eastern Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. My response? I had two words for him: […]