The Art Newspaper

“We grow every time there is a recession”

Collector, dealer and designer Axel Vervoordt on carving out a niche, his Venice show and creating a home for his foundation

By Brook S. Mason. From Art Basel Miami Beach daily edition
Published online: 03 December 2009

In addition to these monumental exhibitions, Vervoordt not only undertakes interior decoration but tackles houses from the ground up. In serving up his particular brand of taste, he quickly snared big-name clients such as French fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy.

The Art Newspaper caught up with Vervoordt on the eve of Art Basel Miami Beach, where his son Boris is scouring the fairs and catching up with clients.

The Art Newspaper: Is this your first Art Basel Miami Beach fair?

BV: Not at all. I was at the first one but I missed last year. I go to see what is happening in the art and design world.

TAN: Tell us about your Florida clients?

BV: They are very private but our first design commission there was in 1998 for an American couple. Now we are working on ten commissions. We do use 17th-century antiques there.

TAN: Why did you form the Vervoordt Foundation?

AV: We created the foundation last November to separate more clearly our business and those endeavours that are not about selling. The exhibitions such as those in Venice are about the future generations and growing our vision. “In-finitum” was the first show organised and produced by the foundation along with the Musei Civici di Venezia. Work was borrowed from institutions and the show included examples from my private collection and galleries as well. The foundation will soon be housed in its own museum [due to open in 2012 in a 30,000 sq ft space at Vervoordt’s Kanaal building in Wijnegem, northern Belgium].

TAN: Tell us about the process of putting “In-finitum” together?

AV: We started with a think-tank, bringing together art historians, archaeologists and curators at the castle [the medieval Gravenwezel Castle near Antwerp, where Vervoordt resides] or in Venice for the weekend. It takes four to five sessions to get the concept. Bernard Lietaer, Berkeley research fellow and author of Of Human Wealth [2007], Daniela Ferretti, architect and curator at the Palazzo Fortuny, and others attended.

TAN: How do the installations spur commissions and sales?

BV: We can’t measure it. But at the Haughton International Fine Art & Antique Dealers fair in October, five sales were to new clients. Almost all of them had seen “In-finitum”. Is there a direct link? We don’t know.

TAN: I understand that Paris dealer Kamel Mennour paid $500,000 to install his current Huang Yong Ping show [until 19 December] in the chapel of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Did yours cost as much?

BV: We don’t get into costs because that has nothing to do with the exhibition goal. They are more transcendent.

TAN: How has your role as a dealer changed?

AV: Now it’s far more about teamwork. I depend on almost 100 others including art historians and restorers. I do the more philosophical efforts such as the think-tank.

TAN: Tell us about your residential commissions and sales?

AV: We are working on 50 to 60 houses, some are large. I am personally working on ten of them. At the moment we’re restoring the home of Picasso in Mougins [France] for a young Dutch family. Their entire collection had to be reviewed. We tried a Basquiat in the house but it didn’t work. Even a Kiefer didn’t go, but a Kapoor is fantastic there. Happily, the family has other houses. Eighty percent of our sales are to collectors and museums, from the Getty to the Metropolitan. The rest is furniture we make for our clients and other interior designers.

TAN: What is the nationality of your client base?

AV: The dominant cities are New York, Los Angeles and St Petersburg. New Yorkers make up the overwhelming portion. Russians are brand new and I never thought we would have them. I saw their taste as flashy but that has changed.

TAN: Has the recession affected your firm?

AV: We grow every time there is a recession as our style fits in an even more pronounced manner. We saw that also in the recession at the end of the 1980s. Then I bought the castle. This time, we have more important clients and are working with higher quality objects.

TAN: Where do you source your material?

AV: Around 20% of the antiques and art come from the sales rooms; the rest we buy privately. Many times we buy back works from our clients and often go directly to artists such as the Zero Group. In acquiring contemporary art, you have to know that in five years time the work will be enormously important. I bought my first Fontana in 1969 and I love it. In 1998, I bought Anish Kapoor’s first major sculpture, At the Edge of the World. It’s eight metres in diameter. In those days, it cost a fortune, $2m. Now that seems cheap and I will never sell it.

TAN: Many collectors have told me your exhibitions only work in Europe as the American buildings are too sterile, not steeped in history. Do you agree?

AV: Not at all. An installation would work very well in New York in an unrestored house. Or it could be a garage, but a large one.