James Butterwick, Art Adviser to Oracle Capital Group,  Makes Maastricht Debut

James Butterwick, Art Adviser to Oracle Capital Group, Makes Maastricht Debut

Russian Art is set to make a comeback at the world’s premier art and antiques fair for the first time in 20 years.

London dealer and Art adviser to Oracle Capital Group, James Butterwick, who part specialises in the Russian Avant-Garde, will be taking part in this year’s TEFAF Maastricht (March 13-22) with a high-powered array of 30 works priced from €20,000 to €2.75 million.

Star names like Natalya Goncharova, Mikhail Larionov and Aristarkh Lentulov will feature on Butterwick’s stand alongside works by two lesser-known geniuses – revolutionary Cubo-Futurist Alexander Bogomazov and Malevich disciple Lazar Khidekel, a lifelong Suprematist.

Not since New York’s Leonard Hutton Galleries brought Russian Constructivists to Maastricht in the mid-1990s has Russian Art headlined a stand at the world’s top fair.

Butterwick says it feels ‘marvellous to be admitted’. Showing at Maastricht ‘has been a goal ever since I first started in this business, but one I thought unattainable.’ He declares himself ‘very lucky’ and feels other specialist colleagues would be equally deserving of such an honour.

Butterwick’s Maastricht exhibition at Stand no. 708 will present a panorama of Russian & Ukrainian Art for the period 1890-1930 – beginning with the Symbolist and mould-breaking Mikhail Vrubel, the ‘Cézanne of Russian Art,’ then charting Primitivism, Cubo-Futurism, Constructivism and Suprematism before ending with a work by Boris Kustodiev that borders on the Socialist Realist.

Most of the works are drawings or watercolours. ‘Fewer and fewer great paintings are appearing on the market’ explains Butterwick. ‘But €200,000-300,000 can buy you a sensational work on paper.’

Although his stand will feature in TEFAF’s Works On Paper section, Butterwick is also entitled to take three paintings to the Fair – led by a stunning 1916 Goncharova, The Bridge, inherited by the artist’s husband Mikhail Larionov after her death in 1962. Also shown will be two 1915 oils by Bogomazov.

Butterwick is a tireless crusader against the forgeries that plague the Russian Avant-Garde market. ‘I know that I do bang on about the need for provenance and exhibition history’ he admits ‘but it is essential when buying early 20th century Russian Art. To reassure clients, he only sells works with crystal-clear history.

Former owners of another Butterwick TEFAF highlight, a 1917 gouache by Liubov Popova, include Leonard Hutton Gallery, New York and the pioneering Russian art collector George Costakis. Butterwick’s rare ensemble of Bogomazov work has been built up in consultation with the world’s leading specialists and collectors in Kiev. And the Khidekels were bequeathed by the artist to his son Mark and daughter-in-law Regina, the President of the Lazar Khidekel Society.

‘I want to show Western collectors how good Russian and Ukrainian art really is’, declares Butterwick. ‘For a brief period, probably 1910-1920, in terms of its revolutionary nature and search for new form, Russian Art was the equal of Western. We have bookended our stand with work that demonstrates how and why the Russian avant garde happened as well as what it became.’

JAMES BUTTERWICK has been selling Russian art since 1985. He lived in Moscow – where he met his wife and Gallery partner Natasha – from 1994-1996 and 2002-05, and speaks fluent Russian. He is a member of SLAD (Society of London Art Dealers) and the only foreign member of the International Confederation of Antique & Art Dealers of Russia.

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