MASTERPIECE LONDON

Earlier this month we had Ascot; on Monday Wimbledon opened its gates. And on Thursday June 30, after a two-year hiatus, so will Masterpiece London, one of the set-piece events in the English summer calendar, taking place until July 6 in the South Grounds of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea.

Masterpiece is, of course, a high-end art and antiques fair, launched in 2010, famed for its upmarket galleries, its elegant layout, and its numerous champagne bars (this year moved to the end of the central aisle, to ease congestion).

Elisabeth Frink
Tribute IV, 1975

There will be plenty of British Modern art on show, and much more besides: Old Masters paintings; high-class antiquities (including a three-volume first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma); stands displaying luxury boats and Ferrari sports cars. There’s even a triceratops skull, discovered in 2019, and 60 million years old. 

This year the entrance will be decorated by enormous yellow anemone designs by British painter Sarah Graham; expect to be dazzled by two giant light installations by Pakistani-American cross-disciplinary artist Anila Quayyum Agha.

Masterpiece is the heir to the Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair, which ran for 75 years until 2009. This year there will be 150 stands, and, by all accounts, advanced ticket sales have been even healthier than in 2019.

A number of our own British Art Fair exhibitors past and present will have stands, including Alan Wheatley, Charlie Smith London, Christopher Kingzett, James Hyman, Jonathan Clark, Jonathan Cooper, Osborne Samuel, Patrick Bourne & Co, Piano Nobile and Portland Gallery. We look forward to visiting them, and wish them all the very best for a successful Masterpiece London 2022.