★ TEFAF New York

01Por que importa

New York's May week is dominated by the evening auctions and, since 2012, by Frieze. TEFAF New York's function is to give the historical and decorative arts trade a place in a week that otherwise belongs to contemporary material, and to give American curators in those fields a reason to attend something other than a sale.

Our reading is that its value is disproportionate to its size. It is small, easy to see in an afternoon, and the only fair in the city where a serious antiquity, a Tiffany interior and a contemporary design commission are in the same building.

02A semana ao seu redor

TEFAF New York sits in the middle of the city's busiest art fortnight. The May evening auctions at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips run in the same days, and their previews are free and open for several days beforehand; Sotheby's Madison Avenue building is a short walk from the Armory. Frieze New York at The Shed usually overlaps or immediately precedes, along with Independent in Tribeca and NADA New York. The Upper East Side is the fair's natural extension: the Metropolitan Museum, the Frick Collection, the Guggenheim and the Neue Galerie are all within twenty minutes on foot, and Madison Avenue's galleries and antique dealers open shows to the week.

03Quando chegar

Wednesday if you hold a preview invitation, which gives Thursday at the fair and the evening free. On a public ticket, Friday or Saturday morning is best, and Monday and Tuesday are the quietest and most rewarding days of the run. The fair takes two to three hours; plan the rest of the day around the auction previews and the Museum Mile.

04Onde se hospedar

The Upper East Side is the obvious base and the one that makes the week walkable: the Armory, Sotheby's, the museums and the Madison Avenue galleries are within twenty minutes on foot, and the Carlyle, the Mark and the Lowell are the landmark addresses. Midtown around Central Park South has far more rooms. Downtown, in Tribeca or SoHo, is better for anyone whose week is really about Frieze and the satellite fairs.

05Acesso e hospitalidade

One invitation-only collectors' preview precedes the public run; invitations are issued by TEFAF and by exhibiting dealers and are not sold. Public tickets for the five days are sold on tefaf.com and at the Armory, with prices published by the organizer each year and not reproduced here. TEFAF's vetting applies to every object on show. Free alternatives during the same week are substantial: the auction previews at all three houses are open to anyone.

06Onde ocorre a actividade social

The Armory's own bars and the restaurant installed for the fair are the meeting points, and the period rooms function as informal sitting rooms during the run. Outside, the week's geography for this audience is the Upper East Side: the Madison Avenue galleries between 64th and 79th Streets, the bars at the Carlyle and the Mark, and the Sotheby's lobby during preview days. Central Park is directly west of the Armory and the pleasantest way to move between the fair and the museums.

07Como chegar

08Aspectos práticos

09Histórico

TEFAF opened in New York in 2016 with two fairs a year at the Park Avenue Armory: a spring edition for modern and contemporary work and design, and a fall edition covering art from antiquity to about 1920. The pairing was the foundation's answer to the American market's split between historical and contemporary buying. In 2021 TEFAF announced it would stop running two New York fairs and consolidated to the single spring edition, which has run annually since.

10Quem está presente

American collectors of historical material, decorative arts, design and jewelry; museum curators and acquisition committees from East Coast institutions; the Madison Avenue and European historical trade; and an overlap audience in the city for the May auctions and for Frieze. The mix is older and more design-oriented than the contemporary fairs sharing the week.