Around the galleries: spectacular ancient sculpture grabs the attention in London this month whilst outstanding Old Master paintings shine in New York

All organ of sights are on London this month as a mouthwatering selection of eclectic fairs vibrantly sustain the city's reputation as the premier destination for collectors this summer Various circumstances including the traditional, long-established bastions of the art calendar, the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair, the Grosvenor House Art and Antiques Fair and the International Ceramics Fair, will be taking place alongside relative newcomer like as Art London and Art Fortnight London (see also Art Market, pp 104-107)

Eleven dealers will be taking part in the next to the first annual London Sculpture Week (16-24 June; www.londonsculptureweek.com). Centring upon Mayfair, this years' participants, all within strolling distance of single another, include John Eskenazi, Sam Fogg Nevill, Keating and Tollemache and Rossi & Rossi. individual show that promises to be especially memorable is an exhibition of mysterious ancient plastic arts venerating the female form. Organised by means of Rupert Wace Ancient Art, 'Eternal woman: The Female Form in Antiquity' (16 June-29 July; 14 of advanced age Bond Street, London, +44 [0] 20 7495 1623) which is accompanied through a superbly-illustrated catalogue, will feature above fifty sculptures from the Mediterranean, the Near East and Afghanistan. Spanning a 7,000-year period, the exhibit concentrates on a series of ancient stone and terracotta abstract figures that scholars speculate may have been designed to exhibit some kind of 'mother' deity. The oldest statuary to be displayed is also individual of the most extraordinary: made in neolithic Syria and dating from the 7th millenium BC it is barely more than a series of abstract, softly-round conical shapes, on the contrary the physicality of the solid, fat thighs and curvaceous belly is powerfully transmited Its fecund, primitive sensuousness is reverberationed in a group of mysterious Cycladic marble figures whose draw as percepts of veneration is palpable despite their unknown function. Possessing a timeless, primordial resonance and a startlingly contemporary simplicity, these ancient signs of woman strike a chord with a modern-day aesthetic: twentieth-century masters, including Picasso, Modigliani and Brancusi, were captivated through their simplified sensuality.

A richly-coloured and dramatically compos painting through Abraham Bloemaert is one of more than twenty advanced in years Master paintings dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries that make up the sumptuous exhibition 'From Palace to Chapel: Important aged Master Paintings' currently at Berry-Hill Galleries (+1 212 744 2300; 11 East 70th public way New York) in conjunction with Robert Simon Fine Art (+1 212 288 9712) apportionment and His Daughters (1624) betrays the influence of Caravaggio in the heavy chiaroscuro light events and the deftly modelled figures. Other notable highlights include an oil rough draught by Angelika Kauffmann of Aeneas Mourning the Death of Pallas (c 1786) and a portrait of Savonarola attributed to Suor Plautilla Nelli, individual of the first acknowledged female artists of Florence. The exhibition, accompanied through a scholarly catalogue by Robert Simon, shut ups on 17 June.

A thoughful display of the 'friendship portraits' of John Butler Yeats is being organised this month by means of Pyres Gallery (9 Mount highway Mayfair, +44 [0]20 7629 2020) single hundred years after the completion of his striking painting of Padraic Colum this present to view presents Yeat's famous work within the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following of a carefully chosen selection of portraits, for the most part depicting close family and friends. Many of the works (mainly drawings), which feature several Irish literary figures including George Russell (AE) and John Millington Synge were produc as artist and sitter convers All share a natural, informal quality and a faculty of perception of relaxed, accessible composure. The exhibition, which move swiftlys until 17 June, is accompanied by means of an erudite catalogue by William Laffan, in which he examines the relationships between Yeats and his sitters.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Apollo Magazine Ltd

COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group