art basel 2009, issue 1

Download all editions
from www.
theartnewspaper.
com/fairs
ART BASEL
FREE DAILY
LONDON NEW YORK TURIN VENICE MILAN ROME
ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Bye bye to bling: out goes the
glitter, in comes the classic
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts/ProLitteris, Zurich
The 40th edition of Art Basel sees a return to more understated works
The era of diamonds and gold as
artistic materials is passing,
judging by the art on offer at the
latest edition of Art Basel which
opens to VIP visitors today.
While the ground floor of the
fair has always been strong in
classic modern works of art,
there is a noticeable increase in
historically established names
such as Donald Judd, Alexander
Calder and Arte Povera artists
including Lucio Fontana, Piero
Manzoni and Michelangelo
Pistoletto. Meanwhile, artists
who exploited the boom years
with factory-like production
systems, such as Damien Hirst
and Takashi Murakami, are
much less in evidence this year.
“The bling is really off. A lot
of the bling artists are in a free
fall,” says Arne Glimcher of
PaceWildenstein (2.0/E1) which
is showing a 1929 wire sculpture of the US tennis star Helen
Wills Moody by Alexander
Calder ($3.8m) and an untitled
six part sculpture by Richard
Tuttle made of humble materials
such as wood, paper and wool
thread ($400,000).
Buyers are particularly inter-
Andy Warhol, Big Retrospective Painting, 1979—the 11-metre long work is on offer for $74m with Bischofberger (2.0/J1)
ested in works that demonstrate
intense labour on the part of the
artist, says Marianne Boesky
(2.1/V3). “They like things that
look handmade, not as if
they’ve been farmed out to a
fabricator,” she says.
An example, by one of
Boesky’s artists, is Torre de
Málaga,
2007,
in
Art
Unlimited—a ramshackle tower
house by Yoshitomo Nara. Made
of recycled materials, it contains
a cramped space modelled after
the
artist’s
own
studio
($600,000). A 10-ft sculpture, Le
Verso Versa du Vice Recto, 200007, by artist Pascale Marthine
Tayou, which resembles a woolly mammoth, is displayed in the
same section. It is made of paper
recycled from computer printouts (€220,000) and is on offer
with Galleria Continua of San
Gimignano and Beijing (2.1/X1).
The return to simple everyday materials recalls the artists
of the Arte Povera movement
who are represented this year by
more than 25 galleries. “This is
a movement where there has
never been much speculation,”
says Gianfranco Benedetti of
Galleria Christian Stein from
Milan (2.0/F1) in explanation of
the strength of their prices at a
time of falling values.
The gallery is offering classic
works by Jannis Kounellis dating from 1969 and 1970, as well
as contemporary pieces, and
works
by
Michelangelo
Pistoletto, Giuseppe Uncini and
others. Galleria Tega (2.0/W3),
another Milan-based specialist
in Italian art, is offering three
Lucio
Fontana
Concetto
Spaziale: Attese paintings from
the early 1960s for prices up to
€1.55m and a rare Piero
Manzoni “Achrome” work from
1959 for €1.9m.
Tried and tested
As ever, galleries throughout the
fair are relying on the giants of
modern art such as US minimalist Donald Judd—but many this
year are presenting them in
heavily curated booths.
They include the González
gallery from Madrid (2.0/R2)
which has devoted its entire
stand to “Progressions”, a single
exhibition of six Judd sculptures
made from anodised aluminium,
galvanised iron and stainless
steel, dating from 1967 to 1976.
The artist also takes pride of
place at L&M Arts (2.0/E2),
which is offering a 1987
Untitled sculpture consisting of
ten copper and Plexiglass units
for “under $4m”. According to
gallery director Dominique
Lévy, it is the only single copper
stack in the world. “Judd completely reinvented the language
of sculpture,” says Lévy, who
stresses that the gallery is presenting a “more heavily curated” stand than in previous years.
The prevalence of curated
displays this year is catering to
the connoisseurs who are returning to the art market now that
the speculators have disappeared, says Mathias Rastorfer
of
Gmurzynska
gallery
(2.0/V1), which is juxtaposing
works by Calder with thematically-linked
pieces
by
Fourth stakeholder in Hirst’s skull revealed
Viktor Pinchuk, the Ukrainian billionaire art collector, has
emerged as a stakeholder in Damien Hirst’s diamond-encrusted
skull, For the Love of God. Pinchuk, who is currently hosting a
massive display of Hirst’s work at his Kiev gallery, was referred
to as a part-owner of the skull in The Washington Post. The
majority stake is jointly owned by Hirst, his business manager
Frank Dunphy and Jay Jopling of White Cube (2.1/E5). Last
year Hirst told the French newspaper Le Monde that if the skull
did not sell privately, it would be offered at auction. For the Love
of God was first unveiled at White Cube in June 2007 with an
asking price of £50m. An offer from dealer Alberto Mugrabi,
believed to be around £35m, was rejected. The skull was shown
at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam last autumn but a proposed
global tour with stops at the Hermitage in St Petersburg, the
British Museum in London and venues in the Far East, has been
cancelled. Mr Pinchuk did not return emails or phone calls
requesting a comment. C.R.
CONTEMPORARY ART AUCTIONS
w w w.phillipsdepury.com
29 JUNE
2009
LONDON
Alexander Rodchenko.
Calder “pulls together modernism and contemporary art”,
says Nathalie Seroussi (2.0/U5)
who is showing an Untitled iron
mobile painted in red, white and
black from 1961 (€1.25m).
A recurring favourite at Art
Basel is Andy Warhol who is
represented this year by 31 galleries.
They
include
Bischofberger from Zurich
(2.0/J1) whose entire stand is
devoted to a single, 11-metre
canvas by the artist, Big
Retrospective Painting, 1979.
Priced at $74m, it could be the
most expensive work on offer at
the fair and a considerable gamble for the gallery.
Works by Picasso, traditionally one of the most expensive
artists at the fair, include a 1965
group portrait, La Famille du
Jardinier, at Richard Gray
(2.0/S1), priced at $6.5m. The
work has been in a private collection and has never been publicly shown.
Most dealers surveyed say
they expect far fewer American
visitors this year. The speculators and their entourages are
also gone, they say. “The undereducated guy with a cell phone
who fancies himself as an art
advisor has completely disappeared,” says Andrew Fabricant
of Richard Gray. “This is a
return to dealing like it was
before. There’s no more impulse
buying and the amateurs are
gone,” he says.
“There’s much more to art
than expensive materials,” says
London dealer Maureen Paley
(2.1/P3) who is showing work
by Wolfgang Tillmans and Seb
Patane among others . “All that
glisters is not gold—sayings
like this have real meaning.”
Georgina Adam, Viv Lawes,
Bruce Millar, Cristina Ruiz
and Lindsay Pollock
A “virtual”
Venice
Biennale to
go on show
in Moscow
Dasha Zhukova, the founder of
the
Garage
Centre
for
Contemporary Culture in
Moscow and partner of billionaire Russian businessman
Roman Abramovich, has told
The Art Newspaper that video
footage of the national pavilions
in the Giardini and the displays
in the Arsenale will be shown on
large screens in the gallery for
one month from 15 June. The
footage also contains artist
interviews as well as a commentary by Russian artist Gosha
Ostretsov. “A lot of people
haven’t been able to travel to
Venice this year because of the
financial situation,” she said. So
Ms Zhukova sent a team to the
biennale to film the displays and
bring the show back to Moscow.
Speaking in Venice last
Friday, she also revealed plans
for a large exhibition of contemporary Russian art to be held at
the Garage later this year. It will
go on an international tour. A
venue has already been found in
Paris, although she declined to
identify it. Talks are also underway to send the exhibition to
“Berlin, London, New York and
Los Angeles”. C.R.
Art Basel
Happy birthdays
© Kurt Wyss
UMBERTO ALLEMANDI & CO. PUBLISHING
Art Basel celebrates its
40th anniversary with a
rollcall of all 3,109 galleries that have participated since 1970, listed
on a billboard at the
entrance to Art Unlimited
(which celebrates its
tenth birthday). Ninety
galleries and 30 art publishers from ten countries
attended the first fair,
which drew 16,300 visitors. This year almost
300 galleries from 33
countries will attend. Only
four dealers have come
every year since the
launch: Annely Juda
(2.0/G1), Lahumière
(2.0/M2), Hans Mayer
(2.0/Q1) and Beyeler
(now as a foundation).
See pages 4, 5 & 6. G.H.
Dealers selling to dealers
Trends
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
The world’s most esteemed and
acquisitive collectors are expected to descend on Art Basel this
week, eager to peruse and purchase. Even if many of those
buyers stayed away, however,
there would be business at the
fair. One of the most active, and
lesser known, aspects of its success is the volume of deals done
between dealers.
Yesterday afternoon, as stands
were hung and vacuumed,
exhibitors combed the fair, looking for works they might wish to
acquire over the next few days,
for themselves, for clients or for
gallery stock.
“There is a significant amount
of dealer-to-dealer business conducted during the fair,” says
Michael Findlay, a director of
New York’s Acquavella Galleries
(2.0/R1). “This is, after all, a
trade fair which is also open to
the public.”
“A good dealer is always looking to buy because there are great
opportunities,” says dealer
Barbara Mathes (2.0/P3), who is
showing Louise Bourgeois and
Sol LeWitt. “I have been walking
round today looking to buy later.”
San Francisco gallerists John
and Gretchen Berggruen (2.0/J3)
spotted a Bridget Riley painting
yesterday, perfect for a client who
had been hunting for one. They
planned to email the image with a
“buy” recommendation.
Dealers are often collectors
themselves—and have the
advantage of being the first to
view works in the fair. “We get to
have the first look,” says Paul
Gray of Chicago’s Richard Gray
Gallery (2.0/S1), who at a recent
Art Basel purchased a painting
by Kerry James Marshall from
Jack Shainman (2.1/H4).
Indeed, Art Basel is rooted in
the tradition of dealers selling to
dealers. Back in the early 1970s,
the event was a wholesalers’
bonanza. These deals have persisted over the years. While primary market vendors tend to be
more reluctant to sell to fellow
dealers, among secondary market
Artists showing both at this year’s
Venice Biennale and Art Basel.
Listings are arranged:
artists’ name, position in Venice,
representation at Art Basel.
(See show guide for stand numbers.)
© Katherine Hardy
“This is, after all, a trade fair which is also open to the public”
Henk Peeters, nr 60-11 Pyrografie (90 walmulehen), 1960, at the
Mayor Gallery, 2.0/A1
sellers, buying among colleagues
is a big component of running a
robust gallery business.
“In the past, the best business
we have done at this fair is by
acquisitions,” says dealer David
Leiber of Sperone Westwater
(2.0/T3), who says opportunistic
buying for gallery stock yielded
big profits over the years. The
gallery usually buys three to five
works during the course of Art
Basel. Leiber said the gallery had
already expressed interest in a
1960 work by Henk Peeters at
London’s
Mayor
Gallery
(2.0/A1), a work Sperone had
borrowed for a recent exhibition.
In some ways these are ideal
transactions. “We know each
other so it eliminates any uncertainty,” says Leiber.
Milan dealer Giulio Tega
(2.0/W3) presented Italian postwar paintings to a steady stream
of dealers, and has had strong
interest in a Fontana sculpture
from a fellow exhibitor. “We’ve
bought a lot here,” says London
dealer Helly Nahmad (2.0/Q3),
while orchestrating the set-up of
his late Miró exhibition. “We
have also sold a lot to dealers.”
Dealer-to-dealer activity is
also crucial at the Design
Miami/Basel fair. “Business was
always very important between
dealers,” says Paris-based
François Laffanour of Galerie
Downtown. He says dealer business was more crucial in the past,
before the number of design collectors expanded. Now he thinks
twice before such deals. “I need
to be sure I keep furniture for the
collectors too,” he says.
Lindsay Pollock
Schaulager loan helps Kunstmuseum
stage blockbuster Van Gogh show
Visitors to the Schaulager may be
astonished at the generosity of
the Kunstmuseum Basel in
lending 180 major paintings and
sculptures, for “Holbein to
Tillmans” (until 4 October). The
Schaulager, a bold project funded
by the Emanuel Hoffmann
Foundation, is a storehouse of
modern and contemporary art,
open for groups, which has an
annual summer show. The foundation has close links with the
Kunstmuseum, but there are also
practical reasons for the loan.
The Kunstmuseum has
cleared many of its permanent
collection galleries for its spectacular Van Gogh landscapes
exhibition, which is expected to
attract 500,000 visitors by the
time it closes on 27 September.
The long suite of rooms has
given the Van Goghs space and
helps the museum cope with the
crowds. Lending to the
Schaulager was therefore a sensible arrangement for both venues.
There was also an additional
reason for the loans, however:
insurance. Although not officially announced, the 70 Van Goghs
are believed to be worth around
CHF2bn ($1.8bn), and in addition the Kunstmuseum is responsible for insuring its own permanent collection while it is in its
building. So, moving works to
Schaulager—many of them valuable—has helped to reduce the
insurance burden.
Martin Bailey
Art Basel listings 09/06/09
ArtFilm—“New
Landscapes” curated by
Marc Glode
10pm Stadtkino Basel,
Steinenberg 7
Michael Bauer: Anthem
until 28 June
Javier Téllez: Mind
the Gap
until 28 June
Basim Magdy: Last
Good Deed
until 31 December
Kunsthaus Baselland
St Jakob-Strasse 170,
Muttenz
www.kunsthausbaselland.ch
Art Club
11pm-3am Campari Bar,
Kunsthalle Basel,
Steinenberg 7
Satellite Fairs
Design Miami/Basel
9-13 June
Hall 5, Messe Basel,
Messeplatz
www.designmiami.com
Vincent van Gogh—
Between Earth and
Heaven: the Landscapes
until 27 September
Kunstmuseum Basel
St Alban-Graben 16
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
Liste—The Young Art Fair
9-15 June
Burgweg 15
www.liste.ch
Scope
9-14 June
Sportplatz Landhof
Riehenstrasse 78a
www.scope-art.com
Volta5
until 13 June
Markthalle,
Viadukstrasse 10
www.voltashow.com
Exhibitions
Giacometti
until October 11
Franz West
until 6 September
Marc Quinn: Selfs,
1991-2006
until 19 July
Visual Encounters:
Africa, Oceania
and Modern Art
until 28 June
Fondation Beyeler
Baselstrasse 101
www.beyeler.com
Karin Hueber
until 2 August
Lucy Skaer: a Boat Used
as a Vessel
until 14 June
Kunsthalle Basel
Steinenberg 7
www.kunsthallebasel.ch
Hagar Schmidhalter:
Set Against a Blue Sky
with Clouds and Water
until 28 June
© Israel Museum, Jerusalem
2
Van Gogh’s Corn Harvest
in Provence, 1888
Little Theatre of Gestures
until 15 August
Museum für
Gegenwartskunst
St Alban-Rheinweg 60
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
Armour & Evening Dress
until 30 August
Museum Tinguely
Paul Sacher-Anlage 2
www.tinguely.ch
Holbein to Tillmans:
Prominent Guests from
the Kunstmuseum Basel
until 4 October
Schaulager
Ruchfeldstrasse 19,
Münchenstein
www.schaulager.org
The New Acropolis
Museum: Architecture
and Collections
until 24 June
Skulpturhalle Basel
Mittlere Strasse 17
www.skulpturhalle.ch
From the Venice Biennale to Art Basel
Bächli Silvia (Switzerland): Freeman,
Munro, Nelson-Freeman, Skopia, Stampa
Baldessari John (Making Worlds—
shortened to MW throughout):
Bernier/Eliades, Crown Point, Gemini, Marian
Goodman, Leavin, Mai 36, Meert,
Sprüth Magers
Barba Rosa (MW): Carlier Gebauer,
Marconi
Barceló Miquel (Spain): Bischofberger,
Lambert
Bartolini Massimo (Denmark/Nordic/
MW): De Carlo, Frith Street, Magazzino
Bas Hernan (Denmark/Nordic): Lehmann
Maupin, Miro, Perrotin
Bayrle Thomas (MW): Air de Paris, Brown,
Pia, Weiss
Bertozzi
&
Casoni
(Italy):
Sperone Westwater
Boyce Martin (Collateral): Bonakdar,
Johnen, Modern Institute, Presenhuber
Byars James Lee (Collateral): Werner
Cattelan Maurizio (Denmark/Nordic):
De Carlo, Marian Goodman, Perrotin
Chan Paul (MW): Greene Naftali
Chen Zhen (MW): Continua
Conrad Tony (MW): Buchholz
Cuoghi Roberto (MW): De Carlo
De Dominicis Gino (MW): Rumma
Djurberg Nathalie (MW): Marconi
Dubossarsky Vladimir & Vinogradov
Alexander (Collateral): Deitch, Krinzinger
Elmgreen Michael & Dragset Ingar
(Denmark/Nordic): De Carlo, Miro,
Perrotin, Wallner
Evans Cerith Wyn (MW): Buchholz, Fortes
Vilaça, Neu, White Cube
Fahlström Öyvind (MW): Feigen,
Scheibler, Seroussi
Favaretto Lara (MW): Klosterfelde, Noero
Feldmann Hans-Peter (MW): 303 Gallery,
Fischer, Johnen, Minini, Pia
Finch Spencer (MW): Lisson
Floyer Ceal (MW): 303 Gallery, Lisson,
Schipper
Gamarra Sandra (Peru), Aizpuru
Garaicoa Carlos (Cuba), Benítez,
Continua, Strina
Gerrard John (Collateral): Hilger
Gilbert & George (MW): Bernier/Eliades,
Fischer, Lehmann Maupin, Ropac, White Cube
Gillick Liam (Germany): Air de Paris,
Fontana, Kaplan, Kerlin, Knust, Presenhuber,
Schipper
Gladwell Shaun (Australia): la Città
Gonzalez-Foerster Dominique (MW):
Mot, Schipper
Gusmão João Maria & Paivo Pedro
(Portugal): Fortes Vilaça, Zero
Star of Venice: Bruce Nauman. His Soft Ground Etching—Green, 2007 (detail),
is on sale for $6,500 at Gemini, 2.1/L7
Guyton\Walker (MW): Air de Paris,
Greene Naftali
Harrison Rachel (MW): Greene Naftali,
Meyer Kainer, Regen Projects
Hecker Florian (MW): Coles, Neu
Herrero Federico (Costa Rica): Aizpuru
Höller Carsten (MW): Air de Paris, Kaplan,
Schipper
Horelli Laura (Denmark/Nordic): Weiss
Horn Rebecca (Bevilacqua): Kelly,
Lelong, Pauli, Weber Jamileh, Ziegler
Huang Yong Ping (MW): Gladstone
Jacobson Martin (Denmark/Nordic):
Andréhn-Schiptjenko
Jonas Joan (MW): Crown Point, Lambert,
Wilkinson
Kallima
Alexey
(Russia):
Lehmann Maupin
Khedoori Rachel (MW): Hauser & Wirth
Khedoori Toba (MW): Regen Projects
Kjartansson
Ragnar
(Iceland):
Luhring Augustine
Koh Terence (Denmark/Nordic): Ropac
Koo Jeong-A (MW): Lambert
Krystufek Elke (Austria): Meyer Kainer
Langa Moshekwa (MW): Bernier/Eliades
Lévêque Claude (France): Gdm
Levine Sherrie (MW): Cooper, Crown
Point, Jablonka
Liu Ye (China): Sperone Westwater
Lucas Renata (MW): Strina
Macuga Goshka (MW): Kreps, Schöttle
Margolles Teresa (Mexico): Kilchmann
Masbedo (Italy): Noire
Matta-Clark Gordon (MW): Zwirner
McQueen Steve (Great Britain):
Marian Goodman
Meireles Cildo (MW): Lelong, Strina
Mir Aleksandra (MW): Prats
Monk Jonathan (Denmark/Nordic):
Gdm, Kaplan, Lambert, Lisson, Meyer
Riegger, Wallner
Nauman Bruce (USA): Fischer, Gemini,
Nitsch, Sperone Westwater, Young
Olesen Henrik (Denmark/Nordic):
Buchholz, Klosterfelde Edition
Parreno Philippe (MW): Air de Paris,
Petzel, Schipper
Pavel Pepperstein (MW): Kewenig
Pessoli Alessandro (MW): Greengrassi
Pistoletto
Michelangelo
(MW):
Continua, Luhring Augustine, Persano, Stein,
Tega
Potrc Marjetica (MW): Nordenhake
Qiu Zhijie (China): Long March
Quinn Marc (Collateral): Blau, HopkinsCustot, Ropac, Thomas, White Cube
Ramo Sara (MW): Fortes Vilaça
Rauschenberg Robert (Guggenheim):
Feigen, Freeman, Gemini, Gray, Mayer,
PaceWildenstein, Thomas, Waddington,
Washburn, Weber Jamileh
Rehberger Tobias (MW): Grässlin,
Neugerriemschneider, Petzel
Roccasalva Pietro (MW): Johnen, Zero
Samaras Lucas (Greece): Friedman,
PaceWildenstein
Saraceno Tomas (MW): Bonakdar
Saunders Nina (Denmark/Nordic):
Andrehn-Schiptjenko, New Art Centre
Shekhovtsov Sergei (Russia): XL
Shuravlev Anatoly (Russia): Meile
Sighicelli Elisa (Italy): Marconi
Starling Simon (MW): Kaplan, Modern
Institute, Neugerriemschneider, Noero
Strukelj Miha (Slovenia): Hilger
Tan Fiona (Netherlands): Freeman,
Frith Street
Tayou Pascale Mathine (MW): Continua
Tillmans Wolfgang (Denmark/Nordic):
Aizpuru, Buchholz, Crousel, Paley, Regen
Projects, Rosen
Tiravanija Rirkrit (MW): Brown, Crousel,
Fontana, Klosterfelde Edition, Kurimanzutto,
Neugerriemschneider
Toderi Grazia (MW): Marconi
Weinberger Lois & Franziska (Austria):
Janda
Wesley John (Fondazione Prada):
Waddington
White
Pae
(MW):
Hufkens,
Neugerriemschneider
Yang Haegue (MW): Kukje
Yun Chu (MW): Vitamin
Zeng Fanzhi (China): Acquavella
Compiled by Brigid von Preussen, with
additional research by Robert Curran
WHERE WARHOL INSURES HIMSELF.
7j 79F <_d[ 7hj ?dikhWdY[i [l[ho Yb_[dj _i Wi kd_gk[ Wi Wdo meha e\ Whj$ M[ WdWboi[" fbWd WdZ d[]ej_Wj[ \eh ekh Yb_[dji ed Wd _dZ_l_ZkWb XWi_i WdZ
eXjW_d j^[ X[ij feii_Xb[ YedZ_j_edi \eh cki[kci" ]Wbb[h_[i WdZ fh_lWj[ Yebb[Yjehi$ ;l[d _\ oekh dWc[ _id¼j MWh^eb$ <eh ceh[ _d\ehcWj_ed" YedjWYj
79F <_d[ 7hj ?dikhWdY[i" 8_hi_]ijhWii[ '(&" *&'' 8Wi[b" Im_jp[hbWdZ$ F^ed[ !*' ,' )'/ /* +&$ ;cW_b0 WYf6WYf#_dikhWdY[$Y^
mmm$WYf#_dikhWdY[$Y^
)"6/$) 0' 7&/*40/ -0/%0/
#VSMJOHUPO (BSEFOT
-POEPO 84 &5
6OJUFE ,JOHEPN
1BJOUJOH 4DVMQUVSF 1BSU **
8PSLT ° +VOF ° "VHVTU ,FJUI $PWFOUSZ
5 ' MPOEPO!IBVODIPGWFOJTPODPN
XXXIBVODIPGWFOJTPODPN
&BSMZ .PSOJOH GSPN UIF TFSJFT
´&DIPFT PG "MCBOZµ
0JM PO DBOWBT XPPE HFTTP BOE HMBTT
Y DN
4
From Stübli to global hub
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Forty years of Art Basel
T
Artists, buyers, sellers, organisers, critics and restaurateurs have recorded their memories of Art Basel’s first four decades
© Kurt Wyss & Messe Basel
he Avant-garde really was avant-garde then. There were
very few contemporary art museums, prices were generally
low, the galleries and collectors were a small band of true
believers and there was only one contemporary art fair, in
Cologne, which had started in 1967 with just 18 German galleries.
Then, a year later, three Basel gallerists met in the Matterhorn
Stübli—nothing grand: Gemütlichkeit and the Swiss dislike of
ostentation have kept its highly sophisticated art scene very understated. They were Trudl Bruckner, Ernst Beyeler, and Baltz Hilt, and
they decided that Switzerland should have an art fair too.
Trudl Bruckner has said that Ernst Beyeler was the key to its success because he had the international connections. His expertise in
modern art also meant that the fair included the canonical masters of
the 20th century and attracted the solid, rich collectors who could then
be drawn into more adventurous territory. Certainly, Mr Beyeler was
the presiding genius in Basel thereafter. He inspired the schoolboy
Sam Keller, who went on to become a brilliant head of Art Basel and
then his curator at the Fondation Beyeler.
Inevitably, there is some nostalgia for those early days, when gallerists banged the nails into their stands themselves, when the
Beyelers had a bash on the Friday night, Sydney Janis and Leo
Castelli danced brilliantly, and artists came to the fair because it was
a good place to hang out. The restaurateur Peter Wyss, who has never
missed an Art Basel, says of the Kunsthalle restaurant: “There they
were, those world stars of art, at our table. Not anywhere else. With
us! Side by side with ordinary guests, with school children, lawyers,
sportsmen, captains of industry, financiers and housewives.” Franco
Donati of the eponymous restaurant remembers that he did not dare
ask Robert Rauschenberg to draw in his guestbook, but the artist asked
for it. He made two holes each in opposite pages, took his black and
white silk polka-dot hankie, tied the corners through the holes, and,
voilà, when you opened the book you had a trampoline. Later, though,
the high-powered business atmosphere made the fair uncool, famous
artists got too busy to do much hanging out anywhere, and since 2002
Art Basel has resorted to inviting them specially.
It is easy to forget that the art fair experience was new then. As
Annemarie Monteil, the Basel art critic, says: “[It] allowed a new kind
of freedom in looking. There wasn’t some museum director steering
your eye and soul with labels, stylistic preconceptions and didactic
material. The public could experience art close up.” Gerd Harry Lybke,
Photographs by Kurt Wyss
“Do I enjoy it?... You show up in some
dealer’s booth and the expression on their
faces… is like parents when their children
turn up while they are having sex:
you just shouldn’t be there… they are not
the glorified idea of a dealer; they are
selling things”
Ernst Beyeler, 1976
Art Basel, 1971
Marc Tobey, 1971
© Kurt Wyss Basel
J Kurt Wyss, with introduction and captions by Hans-Joachim Müller, ed. Hans
Furer, Looking back at Art Basel: Photographs (Schwabe Verlag, 2009) 252 pp,
SFr48 (hb) ISBN 9783796526046
© Kurt Wyss & Messe Basel
of Eigen+Art, sees it also as a performance: “All the gallerists are the
interpreters on their stands of the play the artists have given them with
their art. They are directors of the performance and managers of the
programme. Artists shape the dealer.” This young east German went
there in 1990 straight after the fall of the Berlin wall and rushed enthusiastically from stand to stand, introducing himself and his Leipzig
gallery. By the following year he was taking part in the fair himself,
“still unaware of how the high the bar was to be allowed in”.
Art Basel is now always oversubscribed. It is an accolade to be
allowed to take part and it can also be spectacularly good business. The
late Annely Juda and her son David have been there since the start.
The first year they made a loss; the second, they had sold all their 22
Christo collages by the end of the opening. Hans Mayer, another
founding participant, describes a 1980s Art Basel, when he bought a
Palladino from Giancarlo Politi of Flash Art for Sfr2,000 and sold it
to the Neapolitan dealer, Lucio Amelio, for Sfr4,000 just as he got it
through the door. Amelio then sold it a few minutes later for Sfr7,500
to a Munich dealer, who a few hours later sold it on for Sfr10,000. Of
course, the fact that this story gets told shows that it is not the norm.
Everyone has good and bad years, but this fair is the last that a gallery
would cut out of its programme, however tough the times.
The Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell, who have bought
335 works at the fair since 1979, explain why it is going to become
even more important. “Until the 1990s, almost all art of interest was
found in either Europe or the US, but in the last 20 years we have
found ourselves looking at, and purchasing, art from Asia, Africa,
the Middle East and Russia. Without an art fair like Art Basel, it
would have been impossible to see this work in person without an
unbearable amount of travelling.” Art Basel’s motto could well be
“From Stübli to global hub.”
Anna Somers Cocks
© Kurt Wyss Basel
John Baldessari, artist, California
Robert Indiana and lovers, 1973
Modern and Contemporary Art
Valuations and consignments for our upcoming auctions
David Salle
price realised € 107,900
Palais Dorotheum, Dorotheergasse 17, 1010 Vienna
Tel. +43-1-515 60-570, [email protected], Catalogues online: www.dorotheum.com
Piero Manzoni
price realised € 1,112,000
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Forty years of Art Basel
Life imitates art by Roberto Longo, 1985
© Kurt Wyss Basel
Gary Hill, Hand Heard, 1997
Claes Oldenburg and his art, 1975
“
5
[It] allowed a
new kind of
freedom in
looking. There
wasn’t some
museum
director
steering your
eye and soul
with labels,
stylistic
preconceptions
and didactic
material. The
public could
experience art
close up
”
Annemarie Monteil, Basel art critic
A Tom Wesselmann, 1972
Artists
6
Art Unlimited: a decade of showing off
Artists such as Nathalie Djurberg, Hans-Peter Feldmann and Fabrice Gygi mount major works
Photos © Katherine Hardy
rt Basel may be hitting
middle age this year at
40 but its boisterous offspring Art Unlimited, the fair’s
influential exhibition of largescale works and video installations, is also celebrating a landmark birthday. Spectacle is
everything in the hangar-like
Hall 1, the home of Art
Unlimited. Now in its tenth edition, it has given artists such as
Daniel
Buren,
Takashi
Murakami, Gregor Schneider,
Ai Weiwei, Christoph Büchel
and Nan Goldin carte blanche
to show mainly outsize, headspinning, single pieces.
“Large-scale works were
being produced and we had to
respond to the needs of artists
and galleries who could only
show art of this scale in biennials or museums,” says Simon
Lamunière, the Geneva-based
curator and co-founder of
Art Unlimited. “Since it was
established in 2000, more than
600 artists from across the
world have exhibited extraordinary, museum-scale works, that
are complex and demanding
in terms of format, sound, space
or light.”
The idea of a commercial
“exhibition” with curatorial
ambitions was a key strand of
former fair director Sam
Keller’s strategy to transform
Art Basel into a full-fledged cultural festival. Lamunière points
out that the concept of displaying larger works was pre-tested
at the fair in the Art Video
Forum from 1995 and Art
Sculpture in 1999.
Art Unlimited became possible when Messe Schweiz, Art
Basel’s parent company, reconstructed Hall 1 to provide a total
of 12,000 sq. m of display and
events space. Art Basel provides
the basic infrastructure of walls
and ceiling in Hall 1, while galleries are responsible for most
costs, including transportation,
which is often considerable.
Every year curators, dealers
and artists embrace the hall’s
possibilities, and meet Art
Unlimited’s overheads. Parisbased artist Kader Attia, who
launched
his
installation
Infinities at the 2006 edition,
said: “I think it is a very good
thing to have such a space for
art, in which artists are given the
opportunity to show ‘curatorial’
Top 20 works at Art
Unlimited (2000-09) selected
by co-founder Sam Keller
Sculptures and installations:
1
2
3
4
Richard Serra, VT II, AB2003
Bruce Nauman, Corridor Piece, AB2000
Christoph Büchel, Unplugged (Simply Botiful), AB2007
Hans Op de Beeck, Location (5), AB2004, and Merry-goround (2), AB2007
5 Matti Braun, S.R., AB2003
6 Carlos Garaicoa, Now Let’s Play to Disappear (II), AB2005
7 Job Koelewijn, Cinema on Wheels, AB2004
8 Teresa Margolles, En el aire (In the Air), AB2004
9 Hélio Oiticica and Neville D’Almeida, Cosmococa,
Programa in Progress CC4 Nocagions, AB2006
10 Pierre Huyghe, L’Expedition Scintillante, AB2007
Video/film/performance:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
© Katherine Hardy
A
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Simon Lamunière sitting front of Hans Op de Beeck’s Location 6, 2008
projects, in an art fair.”
Joanna Stella-Sawicka, the
director of Stephen Friedman
Gallery in London, argues that
Art Unlimited has turned the
traditional fair setting on its
head. “[It] allows a certain creativity on the part of the artist
and the dealer, providing an
opportunity to re-present, for
instance, an artist who is only
known for working in certain
media,” she says, citing the
Scottish artist David Shrigley.
Better known for his wry drawings, this year Shrigley is showing a creepy-crawly sculptural
installation, Untitled, 2008,
(1.0/U53, priced at £140,000) at
a space shared by Galleri
Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen,
and Stephen Friedman Gallery.
“Not all artists can be adequately represented in a booth, which
can be quite restrictive,” says
Stella-Sawicka.
But
one
unnamed dealer told The Art
Newspaper that “the Art
Unlimited experience is not
comparable to racing around a
biennial where there’s more of a
sense of curiosity and possibly
more scholarship.”
Lamunière believes that
moving beyond the booth mentality has been key to the success of Art Unlimited in the past
ten years. “Galleries who have
not yet participated in Art
Unlimited especially think in
terms of what a booth will
allow. I don’t think in terms of a
booth, but of space,” he says. A
curatorial concept is also crucial, he believes, as are “a projects’ immediate environment,
the space in which they are situated and the manner in which
they are accessed. Designing
the spaces allocated to the various works is just as important
as promoting the dialogue that
may occur between them.”
So has Art Unlimited kickstarted a market for “large art”?
Michael Kohn of Michael Kohn
Gallery, Los Angeles, is uncertain. He is showing a video
Francis Alÿs, Zócalo, AB2000
Philippe Parreno, The Boy from Mars, AB2004
Marina Abramovic, Self-portrait with Skeleton, AB2005
Aernout Mik, Pulverous, AB2003
Miguel Angel Rios, Morir (’till Death), AB2004
David Claerbout, Rocking Chair, AB2006
Marc Lewis, Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside,
AB2006
8 Ceal Floyer, Waterline, AB2004
9 Sergio Prego, Cowboy Inertia Creeps, AB2004
10 João Onofre, Untitled (Vulture in the Studio), AB2003
work by late US artist Bruce
Conner, His Eye Is on the
Sparrow,
2006,
in Art
Unlimited (1.0/U13) this year.
“I’m not so sure it has stimulated the market but it has definitely sustained it. Large-scale
works are not easy to exhibit so
to house and conserve them. But
will the recession lead to a
downsizing of Art Unlimited
and a drop in supply and
demand? Lamunière admits that
the number of galleries applying
has fallen slightly from 2008
when over 200 projects were
submitted: “This year we
any opportunity to do so is a
plus. Also, because Art
Unlimited is so large in scale it
can make some very big works
of art look quite manageable.
It takes away the fear factor,”
he says.
The grandiose projects found
in Hall 1 have traditionally been
sought after by museums and
private foundations that are able
received as many projects of the
usual high standard, but fewer
uninteresting works. There are
still many galleries capable of
making the effort. Anglo-Saxon
[galleries] have responded more
quickly.”
Lamunière’s highlights for
2009 include Location 6, 2008,
by the Belgian artist Hans Op de
Beeck (1.0/U49, priced at
Large-scale works are not easy to exhibit
so any opportunity to do so is a plus
—Michael Kohn, gallerist
€480,000). The work by the Art
Unlimited stalwart, which has
been shipped from China, is
billed as “a sculpted trompe
l’oeil grove”. The artist’s
icebound diorama can be found
at the end of a tunnel leading
to a wooden igloo-dome.
Installations by Franz Erhard
Walther (1.0/U21), Fabrice
Gygi (1.0/U31) and Joseph
Marioni (1.0/U42) are also
worth seeking out, says
Lamunière.
Around 75% of the pieces in
the 2009 exhibition are new, he
says, adding that this edition
examines “a world that reinvents itself by constructing new
overlapping relationships under
the influence of a ‘mediareality’.” He diplomatically refuses
to be drawn on his preferred
pieces of the past ten editions
but confesses that compared
with Art Unlimited, “walking
around Hall 2 [and the main
fair] with its thousands of pieces
makes me a bit dizzy.”
Gareth Harris
Franz Erhard Walther, 55 Handlunsdahnen, 1997-2003, Munro, U21; Fabrice Gygi, Minoviras, 2009, Gallery Chantal, U31; Joseph Marioni, A Sanctuary for Light, 2009, Galerie Mark Muller, U42
NEWS, EVENTS, POLITICS, BUSINESS, ART, MONTHLY
Grab
your copy
“The Art Newspaper is an invaluable source of
information about art and the art world”.
PHILIPPE DE MONTEBELLO
Unique in its conception and scope, each issue provides over 70 pages of news, interviews,
features and debate. Reporting on everything from old masters to conceptualism, each month
THE ART NEWSPAPER brings you the important stories from around the globe.
WWW.THEARTNEWSPAPER.COM
ADVERTISING: +44 20 7735 3331 SUBSCRIPTION: +44 1795 414 863
8
Design
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Dealers step outside of the comfort zone
From Colombian weavers to Korean wunderkind, gallery bosses are crossing borders to find new talent
When Design Miami made its
debut in 2005, dealers, designers
and collectors from North and
South America and Europe came
in droves. Fast forward to 2008
and Indians, Russians, Emiratis
and others edged out some longtime collectors in the hunt for
good design here at the Basel
version of the fair, the fourth edition of which opened yesterday.
“Ten years ago, I dealt primarily in 20th century masters such
as Jean Prouvé and George
Nakashima,” says New York’s
Cristina Grajales.
“Today, I am working with
Hechizoo
Indians
from
Colombia who are turning out
intricate weavings with gold and
copper fibre, along with the
Israeli lighting designer Ayala
Serfaty and Irish designer
Joseph Walsh, whose furniture
approaches sculpture,” she adds.
“Despite the recession,
there’s a new internationalism to
design,” says Ambra Medda,
who created Design Miami and
its Basel sister. She said that for
the latest Swiss edition of her
fair, clients, designers and dealers are coming from 20 more
countries than have previously
been represented.
“Last year, we had delegations from China, Korea, Qatar,
Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Dubai
at the fair,” says Ms Medda.
This year, she fully expects an
even more varied group.
The biggest expansion comes
from Asia, with South Korea
making the most notable splash
on the global circuit. Seoul’s
Seomi & Tuus Gallery are participating in Basel for the first
time, while Cologne’s Gabrielle
Ammann, Parisian Galerie
Indian-born designer Satyendra Pakhale’s Bell Metal Chaise, 2008, with Gabrielle Ammann
Downtown-Francois Laffanour
and New York’s Johnson
Trading Gallery are showcasing
South Korean design.
Designers such as the South
Korean/Belgian collaborators
BoYoung Jung and Emmanuel
Wolfs emphasise nature and
environment with their cire
perdu (lost wax) cast bronze,
tree-like tables and consoles at
Gabrielle Ammann.
South Korea is claiming
superpower status in the design
world as World Design Capital
2010. In October this year, two
million people are expected to
take part in the Seoul Design
Olympiad 2009, a three-week
event with special exhibitions,
competitions and conferences.
But South Korea is not alone
among the Asian nations in nurturing designers who attract a
western clientele.
Gabrielle Ammann points to
Satyendra Pakhale from India
whose work is snapped up by
collectors from his homeland
and from Germany.
A specialist in bronze furniture, Pakhale was unable to find
the advanced bronze fabrication
facility he wanted in India, so
he moved to Amsterdam, wryly
observing: “Originality really
comes from one’s origins.” His
work includes a €60,000
bronze chaise longue which
combines both traditional and
high-tech elements.
Sales of Pakhale furnishings
demonstrate a great change in
collecting habits. “The crazy
times of the brand names like
Ron Arad… are long gone; now
collectors want extraordinary
craftsmanship coupled with a
strong and timely message,”
says Ms Ammann.
European dealers report connections to collectors from all
over the world. Rossella
Colombari of the Galleria
Colombari in Milan, for example, is building up a truly international clientele for Carlo
Mollino, Gio Ponti, Ico Parisi
and Franco Albini.
“What is new for me are
Turkish clients with homes in
Paris [who] are very active,”
said Ms Colombari.
“One naturally thinks [of]
European and American taste as
totally different but that’s hardly
the case at all,” says Miriam van
Dijk who, along with her husband Irving, runs Priveekollektie
Contemporary Art/Design located in Heusden, the Netherlands.
Last December, they participated in Design Miami/Basel and,
although their three-year-old
firm, which sells work by graduates of the highly regarded
Design Academy in Eindhoven,
was the youngest gallery on the
fair floor, they racked up record
sales, including a crystal chandelier by Dutch designer Pieke
Bergmans for $125,000.
And in keeping with the new
spirit of internationalism, dealers are in search of new territories. “Japan is [the] next frontier
for me,” says Pierre-Marie
Giraud of Brussels who carries
glass by Kyoto-born Ritsue
Mishima who works in Venice.
Paris dealer Eric Philippe,
meanwhile, is seeing strong collecting by Europeans of modern
Danish designers. “There’s no
doubt that you’ll never again be
able to [define] the design
collecting community as…
American and European dominant,” says Ms Medda.
Brook S. Mason
J All galleries mentioned above are showing
at Design Miami/Basel; our main report will
run on 11 June.
New gallery
in Kuwait
Long-known for his Villa Moda
luxury-brand retail outlets with
branches in Kuwait, Qatar, Syria
and Dubai, Sheik Majed AlSabah of the Kuwaiti Royal
Family has recently opened his
10,000 sq. ft Al-Sabah Art and
Design Gallery in downtown
Kuwait City. The space had been
expected to take root in Dubai,
so why the move to his home
country for his new venture?
“We [Kuwait] are the least
hard hit by the recession,” says
Sheik Majed (Dubai, in the
meantime, has been buffeted by
a downturn in construction and
property prices).
The inaugural design show,
curated by New York ceramics
dealer Mark Dean, achieved
substantial sales, he says.
“Kuwaitis were enormously
receptive to design and they
were looking for work that is
challenging,” says Mr Dean. He
reported total sales equivalent to
Design Miami 2007—long
before the downfall of Lehman
Brothers started the economic
rot—including
pieces
by
Reinaldo Sanguino and Phillip
Maberry, among others.
“In cultivating design collectors, my intent is to link that
specialty to fashion and perfume,” Sheik Majed adds. To
that end he commissioned
designers Maarten Baas, Erik
Levy and Studio Joop to devise
artistic twists to Chanel perfume
bottles in limited editions; Baas
cast his bottles in concrete.
“So far, they’re a sell out
with 85 selling at up to $2,000
each,” says Sheik Majed. He
has, however, kept a few aside
and is currently in negotiations
with Phillips de Pury to auction
them in London. B.S.M.
UK at the Venice Biennale
53rd International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia
June 7 – November 22
Steve McQueen
Great Britain
John Cale
Wales
Martin Boyce
Scotland
Susan MacWilliam
Northern Ireland
Steve McQueen British Pavilion, Giardini di Castello 30122
www.britishcouncil.org/venicebiennale
John Cale Capannone 1, Ex-Birreria, Giudecca 800/o
www.walesvenicebiennale.org
Martin Boyce Palazzo Pisani (S. Marina), Calle delle Erbe, Cannaregio 6103
www.scotlandandvenice.com
Susan MacWilliam Istituto Provinciale per L’Infanzia, Santa Maria della Pietà, Castello 3703a
www.northernirelandvenice.com
The last word…
11
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 9 JUNE 2009
Contributors:
Georgina Adam is The Art Newspaper’s
editor at large, who has been an art market reporter for over 20 years. Also art
market correspondent for the Financial
Times, she writes regularly for RA
(Royal Academy of Arts) magazine and
lectures at Sotheby’s Institute of Art,
London
Louisa Buck has been The Art
Newspaper’s contemporary art
correspondent since 1997. She is the
author of Moving Targets: a User’s
Guide to British Art Now, and the coauthor of Owning Art: the Contemporary
Art Collector’s Handbook. She is also a
regular contributor to Vogue UK, Art
World and BBC radio
Viv Lawes is a reporter for The Art
Newspaper, who has been writing about
the art market for ten years. She
regularly writes for The Guardian
newspaper and the Antiques Trade
Gazette, teaches the history of design
and is the academic coordinator for a
post-graduate conservation course
Lindsay Pollock is a New-York based
writer who has been covering the art
market since 2000. Besides The Art
Newspaper, she writes regularly for
Bloomberg News. She is the author of
The Girl with the Gallery, a biography of
the art dealer Edith Halpert
Cristina Ruiz is the former editor of The
Art Newspaper. Now the paper’s features
editor, she is also an arts correspondent
for The Sunday Times
Jean Wainwright is the presenter of The
Art Newspaper TV, interviewing leading
artists, photographers, film-makers and
curators. An art critic and art historian,
she has published extensively as well as
appearing on television and radio
Linda Yablonsky is the US art critic for
Bloomberg News, a columnist for
Artforum.com’s diary, and a regular
contributor to the New York Times, Art
News and Art in America
Lest we forget
At the closing of the vernissage
and in the morning of the
public opening, we will
remember them. With a tear in
its eye, The Art Newspaper
honours the numerous galleries
among the 3,109 who have
appeared at Art Basel since its
1970 launch but have since
fallen in the front line of art
world warfare. Gone but not
forgotten organisations such as
Acoris Surrealist Art Centre of
London and Octant of Paris
appear on the war memorialstyle roll-call outside Art
Unlimited which brings to
mind Maya Lin’s muchimitated and never bettered
Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial
(1980-82) in Washington, DC.
To all dealers lucky enough to
have appeared at the Swiss
extravaganza over the last four
decades—we salute you all.
Keep off the street art
Brook S. Mason is The Art Newspaper’s
New York-based design and art market
correspondent. She also contributes
regularly to the Financial Times
Bruce Millar is The Art Newspaper’s
acting art market editor. He is the former
editor of Tate magazine and has been an
arts journalist for over 20 years
Editorial and production:
Group editorial director:
Anna Somers Cocks
Editor: Jane Morris
Deputy editors: Gareth Harris, Javier Pes
Assistant editors: Rosie Spencer,
Emily Sharpe
Copy editor: James Hobbs
Designer: Emma Goodman
Art director: William Oliver
Photographer: Katherine Hardy
Reporters: Georgina Adam, Viv Lawes,
Bruce Millar, Brook S. Mason, Louisa
Buck, Lindsay Pollock, Cristina Ruiz,
Jean Wainwright, Linda Yablonsky
Editorial interns: Rob Curran,
Brigid von Preussen
Managing director: James Knox
Project manager: Patrick Kelly
Acting head of sales UK: Ben Tomlinson
Head of sales US: Caitlin Miller
Advertising executives: Julia Michalska,
Justin Kouri
Published by
Umberto Allemandi & Co.
Publishing Ltd
UK office: 70 South Lambeth Road,
London SW8 1RL
Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3331
Fax: +44 (0)20 7735 3332
Email: [email protected]
US office: 594 Broadway, Suite 406,
New York, NY 10012
Tel: +1 212 343 0727
Fax: +1 212 965 5367
Email: [email protected]
American continent subscription
enquiries
Tel: +1 888 475 5993
Rest of the world subscription enquiries
Tel: +44 (0)1795 414 863
www.theartnewspaper.com
Printed by BazDruckZentrum, Basel
© 2009 The Art Newspaper Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this
newspaper may be reproduced without
written consent of copyright proprietor.
The Art Newspaper is not responsible for
statements expressed in the signed articles
and interviews. While every care is taken
by the publishers, the contents of
advertisements are the responsibility of
the individual advertisers
The public art projects in
Messeplatz are fraught with
participatory pitfalls for the
even the most art-savvy of
viewers. Jeppe Hein’s Loop
Bench is already forming a
multipurpose perch for al
fresco dealers’ conferences,
frolicking infants and even the
occasional romantic
assignation. Despite the fact
that General Idea’s AIDS
sculpture is covered in graffiti,
regarded by the artists as “an
integral part of the work”,
visitors should stop before
reaching for their spray cans.
Tagging its well-marked
surfaces is gently discouraged
by Victor Gisler of Mai 36
Galerie who declares that it
is “vintage graffiti”. However,
for those itching to make
their mark, the gallerist
adds the pragmatic view
that “the piece is in
a public place and
people might want to
write on it.”
Horse-drawn Basel
In the past we’ve had impastoing elephants and brush
wielding monkeys courtesy of
Russian duo Komar and
Melamid, and now yet again it
seems that, in a multitude of
media, animals are in the
artistic ascendant. A bestial star
of the Venice Biennale was
undoubtedly Cholla the
painting horse, who was
selling his gesturally
calligraphic watercolours in
the Giudecca 795 Art Gallery
for €2,000 apiece, and even
gained honourable mention in
a major Italian watercolour
prize when entered incognito
by his savvy gallerist Rosalba
Giorcelli. In a more sober
Swiss environment, however,
apart from a touch of animated
animalistic frolicking courtesy
of Nathalie Djurberg’s rhinos
and apes, art history wins the
day with the favoured beast of
Basel being Giacometti’s
magisterial hound over at the
Beyeler, even if he is not
barking but cast in bronze.
Recessionistas rule OK
In these straitened times,
inverse conspicuous
consumption is now the order
of the day, with competition
hot among dealers to see who
can spend the least money.
There is much talk of cutting
shipping and insurance costs
with many taking an almost
perverse pleasure in parading
their frugality as the aisles of
Art Basel ring with such
protestations as: “I’ve never
flown first class in my life”
or—in the case of the majority
of dealers—“I usually fly first
class but I
don’t
pay
for it.”
Indeed, such
is the gusto
with which one prominent and
aristocratically-connected
London gallerist has embraced
austerity that he now runs his
own white van to deliver works
of art and when he is not using
it, the canny fellow covers his
already meagre costs by renting
it out to other people. For a
very reasonable rate, of course.
From A to Z (list)
Bruce Nauman may well be the
belle of Art Basel this year
with works on sale at no less
than five galleries, including
Sperone Westwater (2.0/T3).
But the US artist was also
making his presence felt at the
Venice Biennale last week with
his barnstorming national
pavilion presentation, awarded
a Golden Lion. The art titan,
who is notoriously publicity
shy, even ventured out for his
own party in the Giardini—
only to be turned away
apparently by surly Biennale
officials because he had the
wrong pass. No way to treat a
modern master.
Will gives good head
Anyone with a throbbing head
courtesy of the Venice-ZurichBasel roadshow spare a thought
for William Cobbing, whose
performance Excavation at
Volta, taking place every day
until Saturday between 2pm
and 6pm, involves the artist
encasing his entire head in
cement and stone and then
taking a hammer and chisel to
this heavy headgear in an
attempt to carve the contours of
his face underneath. Crowds at
the Volta opening last night
were visibly wincing at his
inaugural demonstration of
artistic head banging, and
although there were no takers
at time of writing, for those
masochistically inclined to try
this at home, the mask, chisel
and hammer can be purchased
from Furini Arte
Contemporanea (G15) for a
mere €2,000.
Banned in Italy,
welcome to Israel
German wünderkind artist
Gregor Schneider’s Cube
project, which is inspired by
the Ka’ba (the holiest site of
Islam), was banned from the
2005 Venice Biennale and
removed from the
accompanying exhibition
catalogue for fear of offending
Muslims. But in a canny,
cultural bridge-building move,
the Herzliya Museum of
Contemporary Art, north of Tel
Aviv, is set to publish a
catalogue devoted solely to the
Cube installation in four
languages (Hebrew, Arabic,
German and English) as part of
its forthcoming Schneider show
(13 June-13 December).
Headline-hitting Schneider’s
work can be seen at Art Basel
this year, with three
photographs of his Haus UR
project, 1988, on view at
Fischer (2.0/F3).
Oh Brother, where art
thou?
A notable and regrettable
absence from the private view
of “Giacometti” at Fondation
Beyeler was celebrated
architect Bruno Giacometti,
younger brother of artist
Alberto. He was invited as the
guest of honour but declined,
and in view of his age—101—
this was completely
understandable. The centenarian
lives just outside Zurich, and
will doubtless be viewing the
exhibition once the hubbub has
subsided. The exhibition runs
until 11 October.
Confessions of an art dealer…
Jack Shainman,
director of Jack
Shainman Gallery,
New York (2.1/H4)
Things that keep me
awake at 3am…
Despite the transformation
we are experiencing in the
economy, I sleep well at
night. We’ve been very
fortunate. However, the last
adrenaline rush that kept
me up at 3am was probably
the sale of an El Anatsui to
an important museum at
last year’s Art Basel. It was
the excitement and pride of
a significant, well-deserved
moment for El.
Dealers are misunderstood
because…
People think that art
dealers/gallerists are just
into the commercial aspect
of the business. What most
don’t realise is that this
business requires
unconditional mental and
often financial support for
artists as well as the ability
to accommodate work that
is too challenging or too
large for private spaces.
© Katherine Hardy
ART BASEL DAILY EDITION
Jack Shainman in front of a work by Kerry James Marshall
Galleries also offer one of
the last free venues to view
art. Arts education for the
public is something that we
take seriously. Our work
entails a commitment and
drive that goes well beyond
the capital realm. We
create a context that looks
effortless, but that
requires a tremendous
amount of passion and
energy to pull off.
Art fairs are important
because…
Let’s make no mistake, art
fairs are important, but
there are far too many of
them. However, they are
particularly relevant today
as an outlet for curators,
considering the decline in
museum budgets. There is
also dialogue that occurs
and a social aspect to the
art fairs that is significant.
At best, they create an
opportunity for artists
to gain exposure and for
galleries to generate
income, which
is always helpful.
Small talk is…
Essential, unfortunately.
I last cooked for…
My last house guests were
Bob Rennie and Carey
Fouks, amazing,
committed collectors and
friends who are opening a
private museum in
Vancouver that I imagine will
rival the best contemporary
art museums in the world.
They came for breakfast. I
am not much of a cook so
we outsourced, but I can
plate Murray’s bagels with
the best of them.
The museum I’d like to
lead…
Directing a museum is a
really tough job and a huge
responsibility. In today’s
climate, museum directors
have to balance financial
strain with a constantly
changing interaction with
the public. It’s a tough job
that I absolutely would not
want. However, I wouldn’t
turn down a curatorial
position at MoMA or the
Studio Museum in Harlem.
The artist I should have
signed…
Thierry De Cordier, a Belgian
artist. This was years ago. I
don’t know how I missed
that opportunity. I was either
too young or too American.
He’s a great artist whose
work I still admire and is
now represented by Marian
Goodman in Paris. Had I
been born 60 years ago, I
would have signed Picabia.
My secret passion…
Is riding horses
competitively. I was born to
jump. Now that I have
returned to the sport, I have
to make time for it. This is
hard when you own a
gallery. However, both of
these passions are
competitive and each one
cultivates and stimulates
creativity in its own way.
Maintaining a certain level of
fitness while trying to raise
the bar in my riding and
jumping helps me to do the
same in the art business.
Interview by Gareth Harris