TEFAF New York To Champion Women Artists Across Genres And Geographies

Embark on a fast-paced, boldly colored journey of shapes meticulously assembled to create the “organized chaos” of a dynamic urban landscape. The viewer navigates the complex composition, imaging how disparate elements can fit together with frenzy and finesse.

Repulsed by the natural landscapes in her earlier paintings, Shirley Jaffe (born 1923, Elizabeth, N.J.; died 2016, Louveciennes, France) sought inspiration from the buzzing cities she encountered alongside her artistic exploration, evolving from Abstract Expressionism to a graphic, geometric style, while preserving the spontaneity and large-scale compositions that evoke emotions and psychological inquiry.

Perhaps the circles represent tires and the lines tracks, with elements of a metro map. Though the direct inspiration for Untitled (circa 1967) remains unknown, Jaffe was at the time inspired by the demolition site of the Gare Montparnasse train station in 15th arrondissement of Paris, situated on the left bank of the River Seine.

Visitors to the 11th edition of TEFAF New York 2025, which opens to the public between May 9-13 at the Park Avenue Armory, will have the rare opportunity to closely examine each precise brushstroke of this pulsating oil on canvas, evoking the unrivaled vigor of city life, presented by Galerie Nathalie Obadia (Stand 366).

A wide array of masterworks by women artists will be featured at this year’s New York engagement of the European Fine Art Foundation’s preeminent global art fair. Ninety-one leading dealers and galleries from 13 countries and four continents will showcase rare and pristine examples of Modern and Contemporary art, jewelry, antiquities and design, along with exclusive curated spaces in the Armory’s 16 period rooms.

Representation of women artists is critical at art fairs, and TEFAF New York’s commitment to Modern and Contemporary art and design enables a closer focus. The representation of women artists among dealers continues to inch up, climbing by 1% in 2024 to 41%, according to the ninth edition of The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report by Dr. Clare McAndrew, Founder of Arts Economics.

An ethereal young woman with a bouquet is depicted in pastel hues, conveying a sapphic modernity. Marie Laurencin’s Jeune Fille au bouquet (circa 1935), a highlight of Almine Rech (Stand 322), celebrates the artist’s embrace of femininity as empowerment. Laurencin divorced herself from Cubism by the 1910s, joining Natalie Clifford Barney’s sapphic salon alongside Sylvia Beach, Tamara de Lempicka, and Laurencin’s early patron, Gertrude Stein. The French painter, printmaker, and stage designer (1883-1956) rose to prominence among the Parisian avant-garde as a member of the Cubists associated with the Section d’Or, alongside Sonia Delaunay, Marie Vorobieff, and Franciska Clausen, but cut ties with the movement to hone her distinctive feminine aesthetic foreshadowing the rise of the lipstick lesbian in the 1980s.

Anne Imhof (born 1978, Giessen, Germany) carves into centuries of art history – exemplifying the scope of TEFAF Maastricht – to draw from antiquity, the Italian Renaissance, and Auguste Rodin in Untitled (Silas) (2024), on view at Sprüth Magers (Stand 306). Imhof’s ongoing drawing practice influences her patinated bronze relief depicting two elongated, long-haired, androgynous nude figures, reclining on rocks, grasping each other’s oversized hands. Imhof plays with scale, as two breaching dolphins appear slight in the distant right, while a third comparatively miniature figure, stands in the water to the left, grasping a stretched dolphin with outsized hands and draping it over their shoulders like a shawl. The German visual artist, choreographer, and performance artist lives and works between Frankfurt and Paris.

The white poppy, a symbol of peace and a rejection of the glorification of war (ideology that seems abandoned amid ongoing geopolitical terror), blossoms to portrait status in Emma Reyes’ White Poppy (1979). The nearly 3½ tall, over 2-foot wide work on paper appears life sized to a typical child around four years old. A fully bloomed white poppy towers alongside live buds that could be its children, as Reyes’ close-up floral imagery amplifies the connection between humans and nature. While urbanites gaze at Jaffe’s monumental canvas, naturalists may appreciate Reyes with Leon Tovar Gallery (Stand 366). The Colombian painter and intellectual (1919-2003) was born in Bogotá and lived in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Jerusalem, Washington, and Rome before settling in Paris, discovering nature within global cities.

With single entry tickets starting at $60 ($25 for students, and free for children under 12), TEFAF New York is a genuine immersive experience, offering a comprehensive and intimate look at an array of museum-quality artworks, including some that may be on view for the first time.