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Membership and Participation with Art Fairs and OrganisationsVHOKThe need and importance for independent art and antique dealers to be part of a professional organization and proclaim their unique knowledge became particularly apparent in the beginning of the twentieth century. World politics, two European wars and their economic consequences weakened the independence of every erudite art dealer. In 1912 one of our family members became a founding father of what later became known as the Association of Dealers in Art and Antiques, also known as the V.H.O.K. in the Netherlands. Delft Arts and Antiques FairThe next step was to organize joint selling exhibitions for works of art and attract a large public to support our commercial businesses. The answer to these wishes was and still is the art fairs. Again it was Evert Douwes (VI) to participate in 1948 at the first Delft Art and Antiques Fair. For forty years this quality art fair was thriving at the beautiful location of the present art museum in the city of Delft. TEFAF MaastrichtMeanwhile, ideas for an annual international fair developed and in 1975 Evert Sr. (VII) was one of three founding members to inaugurate the very first European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, now known as the TEFAF. During the past thirty years it has grown into the world's finest quality art and antiques fair. Every March it hosts over two hundred of the world's best known dealers in their own field of expertise and it attracts collectors, museum curators and connoisseurs from all over the globe. PAN AmsterdamIn the spirit of the TEFAF success, six Dutch art and antique dealers initiated a new and unique concept for a Dutch national fair in 1986. Again our family firm was one of these six co-founders. They selected a knowledgeable and mixed group of professional dealers to become shareholders of the most prestigious Dutch art and antiques fair called "Pictura Antiquairs Nationaal" known as the PAN Fair. The concept of shareholding for such a group of dealers was a first. Also, they felt that such a large fair should preferably be taking place in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. Every December it hosts over one hundred mainly Dutch art dealers, covering all disciplines and periods of art history. A few years after its successful start, the Delft Art and Antiques Fair joined the PAN Fair, thus ensuring it to be the largest and most important Dutch art fair to date. Art & Antiques Fair 's HertogenboschDouwes Fine Art also participates in the second largest Dutch Art and Antiques Fair in the Netherlands, held every April in the city of 's Hertogenbosch. In 2005 this beautiful fair will be housed in a renovated monument and in 2006 it will celebrate its fortieth fair. Salon in GulpenIn order to bridge the gap in the Dutch art market calendar between the April and December fairs, our firm joined an exclusive group of fifteen expert colleagues to participate in the so-called Rendez-Vous des Collectioneurs in the small city of Gulpen, only fifteen minutes east of Maastricht. Every year, late September or early October, a type of Salon Exhibition is being held within the unique and spaciousness of a grand pyramid. SpiegelkwartierDouwes Fine Art also participates every year in the activities of the local Art and Antique Quarter "Het Spiegelkwartier", close to the Rijksmuseum. SLADFor the past twenty five years our Douwes Fine Art London branch has been a member of the British Art Dealers Association and presently of the Society of London Art Dealers (S.L.A.D.). CINOAC.I.N.O.A. is the umbrella organisation for recognized national associations for art and antique dealers. Its aim is to encourage contact and professional relations between the top echelon of dealers, their chambers of commerce and their governments, worldwide. Since its foundation in 1935, Douwes Fine Art has been a member of this essential organisation. ------------------------------------------------------ Douwes Fine Art has also been an active participant at other important international art fairs, such as the Biennale in Florence (1963), the Biennale in Paris (1977), the Burlington Fine Art Fair in London (from 1978), the Grosvenor House Art Fair in London (from 1982) and the Dutch Art Exhibition at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York (1982 and 1983).
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