art basel 2010, issue 1

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ART BASEL
FREE DAILY
UMBERTO ALLEMANDI & CO. PUBLISHING
LONDON NEW YORK TURIN VENICE MILAN ROME
ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 15 JUNE 2010
Art Unlimited opening
Statement art
It’s big but it’s not brash
Galleries bring large-scale works inspired by the Arte Povera spirit of the cheap and the free
Ambitious art is back on the
agenda again at Art Unlimited,
Art Basel’s exhibition of largescale installations and videos. In
another sign of returning market
confidence—following strong
results at the New York auctions
last month—galleries have been
making a splash and using the
cavernous spaces in Hall 1 to
make bold statements.
Now in its 11th year, Art
Unlimited, which opened to
VIPs yesterday afternoon, presents 56 projects, six of them
larger than 200 sq. m—in sharp
contrast to the slimmed-down
offerings in the section last year.
The fair organisers also report a
20% increase in the number of
applications to Art Unlimited
(151) compared with 2009.
While big is back, this year’s
displays show little signs of
returning to the glitz of the boom
years, typified by Carsten
Höller’s fairground ride Mirror
Carousel, 2005, shown at Art
Unlimited by Gagosian in 2006
or Takashi Murakami’s eighttonne, platinum-leaved Oval
Buddha, 2007, which Blum &
Poe sold for $8m in 2008.
Instead, galleries are eschewing spectacle and have brought
more cerebral works. There is
also an emphasis on pieces made
from cheap, disposable materials
or found objects. At the heart of
the exhibition, Galleria Continua
of San Gimignano and Beijing is
showing
Michelangelo
Pistoletto’s Labirinto e grande
pozzo, a maze constructed from
rolls of cardboard that was first
made by the artist in 1969. The
work, priced at €650,000,
Michelangelo Pistoletto’s massive maze, first made in 1969, sets the tone
exemplifies the desire “to return
to a more sober” reality, said
gallery director Lorenzo Fiaschi.
“Artists are speaking sottovoce
this year to communicate strong
sentiments.” At the adjacent
stand, David Zwirner is showing
another work from 1969, a
curved fluorescent installation
by Dan Flavin, Three Sets of
Tangented Arcs in Daylight and
Cool White (to Jenny and Ira
Licht) priced at $4m (U42). The
gallery announced its representation of the Flavin Estate last
autumn, and chose Basel to
unveil the piece that has only
been shown once before, at the
National Gallery of Canada, in
the year it was made. “It is one
of the best years of Art
Unlimited,” said the gallery’s
Ales Ortuzar. “The works are
much more committed and
large-scale. People are taking
risks again, and are prepared to
invest in bold statements that
they hope will pay off.”
Like Flavin, Andrew Dadson,
a 30-year-old from Canada, uses
fluorescent lights as his materials. Black Painted Light, 2010,
is a series of office lights painted
black by the artist. They are on
offer for €33,000 with the
Turinese gallery Franco Noero
(U24). The use of inexpensive
materials continues in Couscous
Springtime will bloom in New York
Giant roses will flower in Manhattan
next spring. Artist William Ryman is to
install 38 plants up to 25ft high on
Park Avenue from 57th to 67th Street.
The works will be unveiled in January
and will remain in place for five
months (impression, right). Ryman had
hoped to scatter giant discarded bottle
caps, crushed cans and bubblegum
wrappers at the base of the roses but
says Mayor Bloomberg is “doing an
anti-litter campaign” and would not
allow it. The $1m installation has been
commissioned by the Park Avenue
Sculpture Committee and approved by
the New York City Parks Department.
Meanwhile at Art Basel, Ryman, son of
the minimalist painter Robert, is showing four new works at the Marlborough stand (D15).
These, which are as colourful as his blooms, are priced at $50,000 and $60,000. C.R.
Ka’aba, an installation priced at
€70,000 by the French-Algerian
artist Kader Attia (U30) who is
represented by Christian Nagel
of Berlin and Galerie Krinzinger
of Vienna. Attia has placed an
axonometric drawing of the
Ka’aba at the centre of a circle
of couscous, a material he likes
because it is a “3,000-year-old
symbol of North Africa”.
“We like to work with artists
who use materials that, in themselves, have no value,” says
Nagel. Another artist represented by Nagel, Michael Beutler,
has created a vast landscape of
crimped tubes, Pipeline Field,
2010, €45,000, made out of
rolls of white Tetra Pak paper
(U6). “We wanted to do this last
year but felt we should postpone
because it wasn’t such an interesting market and things were a
little tighter,” says Nagel.
Video works this year include
Doug Aitken’s Frontier, 2009
(U31), in which fellow artist Ed
Ruscha swaggers across a sixchannel installation that forms
the second part in the trilogy
begun with Migration, 2008.
The work is priced at $450,000,
with one of the edition in
Rome’s Macro collection. The
last silent movie by Susan Hiller
is a recording of 24 nearly
extinct dialects from around the
world priced at £75,000 (U52).
One version has recently been
sold by the Timothy Taylor
Gallery (F6) to Frac Bourgogne.
But not everyone is subscribing to this year’s rustic look.
Yayoi Kusama’s Aftermath of
Obliteration of Eternity, 2008
Art Statements, presenting
young
artists
in
solo
displays,
takes
place
alongside Art Unlimited. This
year 26 galleries have been
chosen
to
take
part.
Although the quality is
uneven, a few galleries stand
out, including Arataniurano
(S17) from Tokyo, with work
by Takahiro Iwasaki (above).
Meanwhile, the BritishJapanese
artist
Simon
Fujiwara, showing with Neue
Alte Brücke (S20), has
recreated the bar his parents
used to run in Spain under
the dictator Franco but with
subtle alterations. The stand
was awarded the Baloise Art
Prize yesterday and the
installation sold to a private
European foundation for
€90,000. A performance by
the artist takes place on the
stand every day at 5pm.
(U56), on sale for €500,000,
had long queues yesterday as
visitors waited for their moment
inside the mirrored box with its
jewel-like LED lights reflected
to infinity.
Cristina Ruiz, Charlotte
Burns and Georgina Adam
Zurich galleries
Mixed feelings about makeover
One of Zurich’s main gallery
districts has fallen prey to gentrification, temporarily scattering a cluster of dealers, private
and non-profit museums that
pioneered the once gritty area
along the Limmatstrasse, northwest of the city’s centre. A renovation and expansion of the
1898
red-brick
former
Löwenbräu brewery will begin
in September with completion
scheduled for 2012.
The current tenants include
dealers such as Eva Presenhuber
and Hauser & Wirth, private
museums—the Migros Museum
for Contemporary Art and Daros
Foundation—and the non-profit
Kunsthalle Zurich. “It’s a cleaning phase for the future on all
levels,” says Beatrix Ruf, director of the Kunsthalle Zurich. She
said the development will result
in a permanent future for the
organisations in a space that was
always somewhat temporary.
The building is owned by PSP
Swiss Property, a real estate
investment company that owns
Swfr 5.2bn worth of property. In
addition to renovating and
expanding the art spaces within
the historic brewery, PSP plans
to develop a 20-storey condominium tower and a new building with office space.
The renovated space will be
a marked improvement for the
Kunsthalle, which currently
lacks offices, storage space and
an archive. The plan is for a
new floor to be added to
increase the square footage.
But the dealers have mixed
feelings about the plans. “Of
course we need a renovation. We
need better facilities,” says dealer Bob van Orsouw, a tenant
since 1998. “It’s a pity that we
have to move out for two years. ”
Iwan Wirth, co-founder of
Hauser & Wirth, who moved
into the space in 1996, appreci-
ates the “low key and modest”
ambience. “I would have loved
to keep the status quo here,” says
Wirth who nonetheless expects
the renovated complex will be
positive. Hauser director Florian
Berktold said the new expansion
will make space available for
younger dealers.
During the renovations the
Migros Museum, Hauser &
Wirth, and Galerie Bob van
Orsouw will relocate to the
Hubertus Exhibitions space
located two miles from the city
centre. The Kunsthalle plans to
mount programmes and shows at
venues across Zurich. These
groups have announced their
intentions to return to the
Löwenbräu.
Galerie Eva Presenhuber and
Galerie Peter Kilchmann are set
to move permanently in April
2011 to new spaces in the nearby
Maag-Areal area.
Lindsay Pollock
AUCTIONS LONDON
CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING SALE 29 JUNE 2010
CONTEMPORARY ART DAY SALE 30 JUNE 2010
ITALIA 30 JUNE 2010
phillipsdepury.com
2
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 15 JUNE 2010
Spain
News in brief
Giving it all away
Modigliani breaks auction record in France
Art Basel veteran on her decision to donate her collection to Cáceres
The Spanish town of Cáceres has
an unlikely champion backing its
bid to become European Capital
of Culture in 2016—Germanborn gallerist Helga de Alvear,
who is donating her collection of
contemporary art to the town.
Spanish officials hope that the
new Fundación Helga de Alvear
will attract tourists.
Ironically, De Alvear was
nearly thrown out of Art Basel in
1989 for “showing trash”. She is
now an Art Basel regular—this
year she is showing work by
Isaac Julien, Santiago Sierra and
Jane and Louise Wilson (M8).
These artists all feature in her
collection, which comprises
2,123 works by Spanish artists
and international figures such as
Donald Judd, Thomas Demand
and Pipilotti Rist.
The inaugural exhibition at
the foundation, “Margins of
Silence” (until 30 September),
marks the first phase of the
museum, which opened this
month in La Casa Grande, a former university building in the
town centre that has been remodelled by Spanish architects
Mansilla+Tuñón. An extension is
scheduled to complete the project in 2012, with EU money.
But, with such political and economic instability in the region, is
De Alvear concerned that the
funds will fall through? “We are
pushing everybody. The politi-
Helga de Alvear
cians say they have the money in
place, but I don’t want to give
them anything before [the building] is finished. People have to
learn that this is important.”
When she took over the influential Spanish gallery Juana
Mordó in 1984, “everyone wanted me out. They said ‘The
German—the only thing she has
is money.’” She broadened the
scope of the gallery, moving
away from Spanish artists from
the “El Paso” group, including
Pablo Serrano and Antonio
Saura, to a more international
programme of photography,
video and installation art. It was
not a popular move: “In Spain,
nobody knew the work, and
nobody wanted it.”
She has strong views about
the lack of transparency of some
of her fellow exhibitors at Art
Basel. “If I want to buy something, why can’t I see what it is
worth? Art is a market, so we
should put the prices on the
walls.” She bristles at the term
“dealer”. “I would never buy
from a dealer. A gallerist works
with artists. A dealer buys art.
You are one or the other.”
So, why is such a shrewd
operator giving away her collection? “I can’t take it with me. It’s
wonderful to have art in my bathroom or bedroom, but art is for
everyone.” De Alvear was initially in negotiations with San
Sebastian and Vigo. So, why
Cáceres? The rather Proustian
spur was a restaurant, Adrial, one
of Spain’s finest. “We came to
the restaurant in 2003, and I met
the town president, and it all
clicked.” He initially suggested
De Alvear—who comes from an
industrialist family—open a factory instead of a museum, if she
wanted to help the region. “I said
why don’t you care about culture? You need more interesting
things if you want people to
come.”
The centrepiece of the
Fundación opening was Ugo
Rondinone’s 2009 large-scale
tree sculpture, A Day Like This
Made of Nothing and Nothing
Else, which she purchased from
Eva Presenhuber at last year’s
Frieze Art Fair. “At that time,
everybody was in crisis and
thought nothing would sell.
When I bought the tree, Amanda
[Sharp, Frieze’s co-director]
said: ‘Oh good! You saved the
fair!’” Charlotte Burns
www.fundacionhelgadealvear.es
In Memoriam
“No artist influenced others more than Sigmar Polke”
His gallery remembers the German artist who died last week
Speaking at Art Basel yesterday,
Gordon VeneKlasen of Sigmar
Polke’s
longtime
gallery
Michael Werner (B5), paid a
personal tribute to the artist,
who died last week in Cologne.
Polke was born in 1941 in the
former German region of Lower
Silesia (now part of Poland); his
family fled to Thuringia in 1945
and afterward to West Germany.
He worked as an apprentice in a
stained glass factory in
Düsseldorf before entering the
Arts Academy under Joseph
Beuys. In 1963 he founded the
capitalistic realism movement
with Gerhard Richter and
Konrad Fischer: but he constantly innovated, experimenting
with innovative materials, turning his hand by periods to prints
and
sculpture,
satirising
American pop art as well as
making photographs, drawings
and paintings.
“No artist has influenced
other artists more than Polke,”
said VeneKlasen. “And people
have yet to appreciate fully how
extraordinarily vast his practice
was. He worked across so many
fields, from photography, sculpture, painting, film…there was
Death of leader is a blow for the Getty
James Wood, the J. Paul Getty Trust president and chief executive,
has died suddenly of natural causes aged 69. A distinguished US
museum director, he led the Art Institute of Chicago from 1980
until 2004, and before that he directed the St Louis Art Museum.
Mindful of the need to foster the next generation of US museum
directors, he helped found the Harvard Program for Art Museum
Directors. Wood was lured out of retirement by the Getty trust in
February 2007 to restore its tarnished reputation after the former
president Barry Munitz’s abrupt departure. Mark Siegel, the chairman of the Getty’s board of trustees, said in a statement: “In just
a little over three years under Jim’s leadership, the Getty moved
forward in significant ways toward a renewed and strengthened
mission.” J.P.
nothing he hadn’t done. He was
always moving forward, making
every exhibition fresh and new.
In addition he was incredibly
learned, and had an amazing
library with everything from art
history volumes to books about
Mesoamerican Indians, studies
of geography and geology—
everything fascinated him.”
Polke had his first show with
the Werner gallery in 1970,
when he was still living in
Düsseldorf. He remained faithful to the gallery and for the last
20 years worked virtually
exclusively with it. “We had a
very close relationship,” said
VeneKlasen.
“Polke was unusual in that he
had no assistants, so I functioned a bit as his personal
assistant; he was quite reclusive
and it was quite difficult to gain
access to his studio. But he was
a delightful man, with great
humour, great generosity but
also great precision.”
His impact on younger artists
was enormous, said VeneKlasen,
“He had a direct influence on the
generation of Kippenberger and
Oehlen; Peter Doig refers to him
all the time, saying ‘I never look
at Richter; I only look at Polke.’”
Polke’s works are in museums
worldwide, including MoMA,
Tate Modern, the Zurich
Kunsthaus, the Reina Sofía and
the Osaka Museum of Modern
Art; while the Dallas collector
Howard Rachofsky has major
holdings.
Georgina Adam
A Modigliani sculpture smashed the record for
the most expensive piece ever sold in France
at an auction at Christie’s Paris yesterday. Tête
de Caryatide, 1910-12, soared over its very
conservative €4m-€6m estimate, going to an
anonymous phone buyer for €43.2m. There
were nine phone bidders vying for the work,
with a US and a European collector still in hot
pursuit at €38m. The piece, which had been
part of the Gaston Lévy collection since 1927,
is one of only ten Modigliani sculptures in private hands, and one of only 27 confirmed Modigliani sculptures in
existence, according to Christie’s international head of impressionist
and modern art, Thomas Seydoux. He said: “The sale was crazy. We
expected the work to make around €15m-€20m, but there were still
four bidders past €25m,” adding: “It’s hard to price something so
rare—but sculpture has been fetching record prices recently, and
there is a new consciousness about exceptional works.” C.B.
Wanted: new director of Pulse
Helen Allen, founder of the key satellite fair Pulse, has told The Art
Newspaper that she has left the post of fair director to pursue other
art world projects. “I have been approached by three or four parties
to run art programmes and events, one of which is a two-year project,” she said. Allen is assisting Ramsay Fairs, the owners of Pulse,
in the search for a new director, which should be finalised within
the next month. “There are three solid candidates,” she added. Allen
founded Pulse in 2005; the fair will be held at Miami’s Ice Palace
in December and at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea,
Manhattan, next March. G.H.
Madridfoto contemplates move
The Spanish international photography fair, Madridfoto, is debating
whether it should stay in the centre of the capital city at the Palacio
de Deportes de la Comunidad, or return to the peripheral Ifema exhibitions and fairs park located near the city’s airport, Barajas.
Considered a good alternative to Parisphoto for young photography
galleries, Madridfoto’s next edition is scheduled to open one week
earlier than this year, between 5 and 8 May 2011. R.C.G.
Ex-journalist to head Art Dubai
The Dubai-based specialist of contemporary Middle Eastern art
Antonia Carver has been selected to succeed John Martin as director
of Art Dubai. Carver is currently director of Bidoun Projects, the
curatorial wing of the eponymous magazine that focuses on Middle
Eastern culture and art. She also sits on the Dubai international film
festival committee and has been a correspondent for The Art
Newspaper. “There’s never been such a level of international interest
in the region and its art and culture,” she said. “There is a new maturity in the market with a group of young Emirati and UAE-based collectors who are interested in how the market works and are looking
at international as well as regional artists.” A number of these collectors are attending Art Basel this year. Carver says she will be consulting with the team who run the fair, 50% of which belongs to the
Dubai International Finance Centre, before unveiling any new projects, but she already knows she wants to “broaden the fair into
Menasa region and also work with innovative, international galleries
interested in the Middle East, to create a real regional platform for
discussion about art, as well as working closely with the Sharjah
Biennale.” There is a notable precedent of journalists becoming fair
directors right here at Art Basel: Marc Spiegler, co-director of the fair,
was also previously a journalist, and wrote for this paper. G.A.
The world through Woods’ eyes
The Mexican collector Eugenio López has
commissioned British artist Richard Woods to
decorate his Mexico City penthouse. The artist is
also creating patterns for the London home of
Turinese collector Patrizia Sandretto Re
Rebaudengo and is in talks with Swiss collector
Maja Hoffmann. For $45,000 (plus materials and
labour) you can buy a unique Woods pattern at
Design Miami/Basel from New York dealer Perry
Rubenstein (G32). Also for sale is a new series
of cubes printed with the artist’s trademark
designs—mock Tudor panelling, stone paving,
coloured bricks and Victorian flora—priced at
$10,000, $20,000 and $45,000. “The goal is to
clad the entire world to make everyone see it
through Richard’s eyes,” says Rubenstein. C.R.
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4
Interview: Ulf Küster
Behind the scenes at the Beyeler
Visitors to the Fondation Beyeler can watch the unfolding conservation of a Matisse cut-out
© Roland Schmid
W
Matisse’s Acanthes in situ. Below, Ulf Küster, the project’s curator
moment, you can see how
Matisse composed the piece. We
can show how he moved the
shapes around on the ground
layer. This is particularly exciting because his other cut-outs
don’t show this process. There is
another piece in the Museum of
Modern Art (MoMA) in New
York called Memory of Oceania
(1952-53) which also has charcoal traces, but it apparently hasn’t been examined in this way
yet. There are other works with
traces of charcoal but ours and
MoMA’s seem to show the same
working method whereas the
others were mainly for his “Blue
Nudes” and one or two others in
a sketchy, unfinished state. Ours
is a finished work.
Now the question is whether
Acanthes was assembled by his
assistants after Matisse’s death,
as other paper cut-outs assembled before his death do not
have charcoal traces. This issue
is still unclear.
TAN: And if Acanthes was
assembled after his death?
Would this devalue the piece?
UK: Since all the bigger cutouts were assembled outside the
studio under the guidance of
Matisse’s muse Lydia Delectorskaya this would not make a difference. However, we have here
the original paper layer Matisse
used on the walls of his studio
which makes the whole piece
especially precious.
TAN: Matisse never threw
anything away and the Archive Henri Matisse in Issy has
preserved scraps of paper
from his cut-outs. What have
you found in the archives?
UK: We examined the archives
with the help of its director,
Wanda de Guébriant, focusing
primarily on the photographs.
We haven’t found photos of
© KEYSTONE/G. Bally
hile the headline show
at the Fondation Beyeler is a remarkable retrospective of the late American
artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, visitors going to the museum in
Riehn will also get a rare opportunity to watch conservation in
action. Capitalising on the public’s increased desire to observe
what traditionally are considered
“backstage” practices, the
Beyeler has opened a glassfronted conservation studio in its
lower-ground-floor gallery as
part of its three-year restoration,
and technical and scholarly
investigation, of Matisse’s
Acanthes, 1953, a massive paper
cut-out (The Art Newspaper,
March, p22). Throughout his
career, Matisse struggled to find
the ideal form of artistic expression—the grande décoration that
combined multiple disciplines
including painting, sculpture and
drawing. It wasn’t until he was in
his seventies when a physical illness stopped him from painting
that he discovered papiers
découpés or paper cut-outs—a
form that was to consume him
for the remainder of his life. We
spoke to the project’s curator Ulf
Küster about the project.
The Art Newspaper: What
have you learned about Matisse’s Acanthes since the conservation studio opened?
Ulf Küster: The ground layer of
Acanthes originally hung in
Matisse’s apartment in NiceCimiez. We know this because
we can see traces of charcoal
[where Matisse drew directly
onto the ground layer] as well as
the pinholes where the gouache
shapes were attached to the
paper. If you mark the pinholes
and try to classify them, which is
what we are doing at the
“
People are
increasingly
interested in the
‘backstage’ work…
they want to see
the structure
of what we do
”
Acanthes yet, but they are still
in the process of archiving a lot
of photographic material donated by Delectorskaya.
TAN: How have your colleagues reacted to the project?
UK: The grand opening in
March was very successful.
Many paper cut-out [specialists]
came and gave support, especially ones from the Stedelijk
Museum in Amsterdam who
have the massive paper cut-out
La Perruche et la Sirène, 1952,
which was actually sold by Ernst
Beyeler. They’re really willing
to share their knowledge. They
have knowledge of glue, the
acidity of paper and the ageing,
yellowing of paper. This support
network of paper specialists
focusing on large-scale works is
something Nationale Suisse [the
project’s sponsor] is keen to help
us establish. It’s important for
modern and contemporary art in
general if you think of the number of large-scale paper works
out there, like [Richard] Serra’s
drawings and prints.
The Archive Henri Matisse
has many connections to Matisse
collectors and has been very
helpful in terms of providing
contacts at the Musée Matisse in
Nice and the one in Le CateauCambrésis. They also know
some of Matisse’s assistants who
are still alive—many of whom
do not respond to letters and
don’t necessarily have email. So
in terms of networking we have
made a big step forward.
TAN: What has been the public’s response to observing the
conservators at work?
UK: Very few knock on the window…some knock on the door if
they have questions, but for
most, being able to observe the
work through the window is
enough. Information is displayed outside the studio and we
have an original colour film
showing Matisse cutting and
arranging a paper cut-out.
TAN: There does seem to be
an increasing appetite in the
public for a more active role in
the museum experience.
UK: The public is no longer content with looking at things being
presented by curators who know
everything, by directors who
know even more and by conservators who keep their secrets.
They want to be part of the culture we work with and present
and this studio is part of this new
development. People are increasingly interested in the “backstage” work—a key word that is
becoming more important in
museums. They want to see the
structure of what we do, and
where all the big money is going.
TAN: The fact that one of the
Art Salon talks is on the
Acanthes project shows the
public’s desire to hear more
about conservation. Can you
tell us about the talk?
UK: It will focus on the general problems associated with
paper cut-outs—how to care for
them, how to exhibit them, etc.
We’ll also be discussing the
benefits of staging an open conservation studio. I’ll be there
but the main speakers are the
Tate’s Nicholas Cullinan—the
Tate has plans to mount an
exhibition on paper cut-outs—
and Dietrich von Frank, an art
historian and the main driving
force at our sponsor. I
Interview by Emily Sharpe
J Talk: Matisse and his Paper-Cuts:
the Conservation Project at Fondation
Beyeler, 18 June, 6pm-6.30pm, Auditorium, Hall 1, Messe Basel, Messeplatz
S I N C E 17 0 7
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Anselm Kiefer, Les femmes de l’antiquité, c. 2000, 73 x 50 cm, Auction May 2010, price realised € 191,300
Keeping it Real
Whitechapel Gallery
The D. Daskalopoulos
Collection
An Exhibition in Four Acts
10 June 2010–22 May 2011
Supported by:
Act 1: The Corporeal
10 June–5 September 2010
Sherrie Levine Fountain (Buddha): 5, 1996, Cast bronze, 42.5 x 40 x 30 cm.
© Sherrie Levine. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Photo: Tom Powel.
whitechapelgallery.org
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
10 June–5 September 2010
17 September–5 December 2010
17 December 2010–6 March 2011
18 March–22 May 2011
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Jean-Michel Basquiat in his studio at the Great Jones Street,
New York, 1985, In front of Untitled, 1985,
Private Collection, Photo: Lizzie Himmel ©
© 2010, ProLitteris, Zurich
Specific Objects without Specific Form
9.5. –
5.9.2010
0D\$XJXVW
)21'$7,21%(<(/(5
7
Cultural identity
What makes Switzerland tick?
The art, the architecture, the galleries, museums and fairs…
S
many places. Of course, every Swiss city has a
very high standard of living that comes at high
expense, so it’s tough for some artists, but
Switzerland has been successful in attracting
good people from the art world and will continue
to do so. I also happened to move to Zurich at
the beginning of a ramping up of its position as a
cultural centre. The jokes about the grey Gnomes
of Zurich and about it being boring were
replaced with vibrant creative industries in
music, architecture and art—at the moment its
gallery scene is as strong as anywhere in Europe
outside of London, Berlin and Paris. I differentiate the old Swiss, characterised by stereotypes of
narrow-mindedness and accuracy, from the new
Swiss, those who travel internationally and speak
multiple languages.”
Part of Swiss artist Christoph Büchel’s “Swingers Club” at Vienna’s Secession, earlier this year
© Arne Skorepa
Simon de Pury (b. Basel, 1951), chairman
Phillips de Pury & Company
“If you look at all the artists that have a regular
presence at auction and on the wider art market,
there is a disproportionate number of Swiss on
that list—including Urs Fischer, Pipilotti Rist,
Sylvie Fleury, Ugo Rondinone and many others—especially in comparison to bigger countries. This stems from several factors. First there
has long been a tradition of showing contemporary art in Switzerland. In the 1950s and 1960s
the kunsthalles in Bern and Basel staged great
early shows of American Abstract
Expressionism, one of the first big exhibitions of
Joseph Beuys and Harald Szeemann’s “When
Attitudes Become Form” of 1969, which was
truly groundbreaking. Secondly, being open to
the latest developments in art has created an
environment that has been good not only for
artists but for collectors, which is why
Switzerland has such a great density of collecting activity, comparable to Manhattan and the
Rhineland area around Cologne. However, it’s
not just a question
of money but of attitude also. A spirit of
“mécène”, or philanthropy, has seen
wealthy families
buying for the benefit of the public
too—take the
Emmanuel
Hoffmann
Foundation, Maja
Oeri or the BarbierMueller Museum in
Geneva, which is
the only museum in
the world open
every single day of the year. There’s a long list
of Swiss collectors, such as Raoul La Roche and
Oskar Reinhart, who have felt this obligation to
bring art to the community at large and were it
not for the initiative of Ernst Beyeler we
wouldn’t have Art Basel, which has brought the
global art market to a Swiss audience. All of
these things have forced Switzerland to look outside itself, rather than inwards.”
AP/Ronald Zak
Alain de Botton (born Zurich, 1969), philosopher and writer
“I think Switzerland’s greatest cultural contribution by far is to architecture, and there wealth
does play a role. Switzerland pours relatively
high amounts of money into communal buildings like schools, hospitals, railway stations and
stadia, and as a
result, there are
some truly stunning
structures around
the country.
Architects like Peter
Zumthor, Diener &
Diener, Gigon &
Guyer, are worldclass names who
have married SwissGerman efficiency
to a certain brutal
material honesty.
They’ve accepted
the modern world without drama or flashiness
and their buildings are loved for their integrity.
When it comes to the visual arts, you have to
remember that the dominant mood of
Switzerland is protestant and on the whole
protestant countries don’t do pictures very well.
Also, it’s a country that’s very much focused on
business and shuns the arts as distractions and
luxuries. This is a deeply austere, hard-working
country that has no time for fripperies. Also, it
never had an aristocracy to fund the arts and
nurture them. Even now, most wealthy Swiss,
bar a few exceptions, think that art is a waste of
time. No wonder Swiss artists need to go abroad
to find fresher air to breathe. That said, when
they do, the results are often very fruitful.”
Hans Ulrich Obrist (b. Zurich, 1968), codirector of exhibitions and programmes and
director of international projects at the
Serpentine Gallery
“It’s strange for me as I have made and toured
exhibitions everywhere except for Switzerland,
so I really am in exile. But my childhood was
fascinating and formative because of the extreme
concentration of
museums there—art
is literally everywhere in
Switzerland. I could
visit exhibitions in
four cities in one
day at a time when
the country was a
real laboratory for
shows, not only with
Harald Szeemann
but I have powerful
memories of seeing
Mario Merz’s city of
igloos, for example. The Dutch architect Rem
Koolhaas says that when you’re from a small
country like we are, there’s more of an urge or
an imperative to travel, so many Swiss artists
have indeed left, whether it was Alberto
Giacometti, Meret Oppenheim or Thomas
Hirschhorn, all of whom moved to Paris. Perhaps
because there’s not just one Swiss capital of culture, those artists searching for an art centre were
forced to leave—yet this polyphony and
Switzerland’s federalism are also among its
strengths. Besides, I believe it’s the dynamism of
the artists and not the institutions that’s important—people are cities and without them there’d
be no art world. So I’ve always said that I was
born in Zurich in 1968 but I was born a second
time in 1985 when I met Fischli & Weiss in their
studio. That was my epiphany, when I decided I
wanted to be a curator and work with artists.”
Annette Schönholzer (b. 1964, dual SwissAmerican nationality, right, with Marc
Spiegler), co-director Art Basel
“For many, Switzerland can still seem like a par-
adise, yet day-to-day life is not like that because
of the complexities that arise from the use of
four languages and its division into 26 cantons.
Perhaps on a cultural level people communicate
more effectively, because otherwise many of
these places are very separate in their thinking
and their identities, which is why making them
all work together is very difficult to achieve. I
worked in arts funding here for much of my
career and found that the problems that come
with Switzerland’s diversity can also be its
strengths. There are numerous opportunities to
access public money (although the amounts are
not always great) and even if you’re an artist
begging door-to-door in order to raise the production costs you need, it can be a great place to
start a career on a small budget. If you follow the
rules and stick to the regulations you can climb
up the ladder, but you have to know your way
around the system. Swiss society rewards you for
hard work, not for making mistakes. There’s still
a strong attachment to private funding as well,
although the money coming from companies is
relatively scarce.”
Marc Spiegler (b. 1968, dual FrenchAmerican nationality), co-director Art Basel
“What struck me, as an outsider who came to
Switzerland from the
US at the beginning
of my thirties, was
that it felt like a relatively balanced
environment for the
arts: it had thriving
galleries and institutions, a great culture
of collecting and
some degree of corporate money, as
well as state support
that was generous in
comparison with
other countries. This has meant that there have
been different ways for different waves of artists
to survive and that even during difficult times
there are still more possibilities here than in
Theodora Vischer (b. Basel, 1956), curator
and formerly director of the Schaulager
“I think Switzerland’s identity is bound up in its
diversity. We must not forget that there are distinctive languages and cultures here and therefore there’s not one national identity or one artistic centre, but many: Zurich is important for the
market, Basel for its
museums and
Geneva or Lausanne
are becoming
increasingly important for art schools
and artists. There are
historical reasons
too why the notion
of identity might be
different for Swiss
people than for
French or Germans,
but in all my years
working for both
public and private institutions here—whether in
collecting or making exhibitions—there was
never a conscious decision to differentiate
between Swiss and non-Swiss artists. If you look
at collections in Swiss museums, or at the early
private collections, they were all international,
with a couple of Swiss artists such as Ferdinand
Hodler and Robert Zünd soon joined by Paul
Cézanne or Claude Monet, just as today it’s not
only Fischli & Weiss but Paul McCarthy too.”
Iwan Wirth (b. Zurich, 1970), president,
Hauser & Wirth
“My family and I are now based in London but
the gallery grew out of Zurich and there are still
many fantastic reasons to be there: there’s an
efficient infrastructure (which is true of all
Switzerland), a very business-friendly environment and many talented people that have been
educated in all aspects of the art industry, especially in art history and curating. And that is not
to mention the bonded warehouses and
freeports that are
unique in the world.
Our artists love
doing shows in
Zurich—although
London and New
York are important
in other ways—they
are much more
relaxed putting on
exhibitions there and
can combine it with
a holiday. Many of
them are also based in Switzerland and form part
of the country’s cultural make-up—Fischli &
Weiss, Pipilotti Rist and Roman Signer for
example—while others live abroad—Christoph
Büchel in Iceland and Ugo Rondinone in New
York—because sometimes it’s important professionally for people to leave the honey pot. Yet,
even then, they are still well supported by their
government: Büchel’s controversial “Swinger’s
Club” project recently installed at the Secession
in Vienna received Swfr15,000 from
ProHelvetia, the federal cultural institute.
However, it’s very un-Swiss to shout about your
nationality, which is why Swiss artists don’t rely
on the kind of branding that has made British
artists so well known. On the contrary, Swiss
artists want to be promoted as individuals. It’s a
very egalitarian society, but also a local one, so
the languages, regions and dialects all promote
individuality.”
Interviews by Ossian Ward
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© Felix Clay
witzerland is best known, perhaps
unfairly, for its watches, cheese and
chocolate, but how strong is its
culture? As, this week, Basel once
again becomes the centre of the art
world, we ask leading figures
about the wider state of Swiss arts, both at
home and abroad.
8
Artists at Art Public
All images Katherine Hardy
Time is right for Bettina Pousttchi’s giant banner
Ai Weiwei leads the field with an early sale
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s Field, 2010, has been drawing admiring glances from visitors and their
pets. Five years in the making, it is available in various sizes, from a maximum 7x7 module installation (€2.5m) down to a 2x2 version (€350,000). “It’s like a self-folding structure in early Ming
style,” he said. Yesterday, a private collector snapped up a 3x3 (€650,000). “It is not an object you
can relate to as practical,” Ai said. “It can last forever, indoors or outdoors.”
It is a busy time for the leading Chinese artist, who is working in China on a commission for Tate
Modern’s Turbine Hall in London (to open in October). On the eve of Art Basel, he told The Art
Newspaper: “It’s going smoothly, and is intense, because time is short.”
Ai also said the Caochangdi area in Beijing, home to his studio and numerous big name galleries,
may not now be demolished. Planners had wanted to demolish buildings in Caochangdi as part of a
major upheaval that has already seen numerous Beijing art zones and studios pulled down. “After we
recently did the event ‘Over My Dead Body’ it seems they will not do it now, but you cannot trust
them, or what they say.”
Recently, groups of people on the online social networking service Twitter have begun translating
Ai’s prodigious output on the site. Ai publishes numerous comments on Twitter, including the names
and other details of children killed in the Sichuan earthquake, on their birthdays. About 40,000 people,
mainly from mainland China, follow his messages. Twitter is blocked in China, so they use VPNs or
other software to access the site.
“Several people are translating, there are several accounts,” Ai said. “I think the one aiwwenglish
is a good one. The others are using machine translation. I have no contact with them.” Ai turned to
Twitter after his blog was blocked by Chinese authorities in early 2009. Chris Gill
For this year’s Art Basel,
Bettina Pousttchi has hung a
gigantic photographic banner,
entitled Basel Time II, 2010,
across the facade of Hall 1
(work not for sale, but prints at
Buchmann Galerie, 2.0/B1, for
€16,000, edition of six). It mirrors the clock that hangs above
the main entrance to the fair at
Hall 2, which might cause a
few visitors to double take. It
recalls an earlier work: in 2009
the German-Iranian artist
installed a 2,000 sq. m
photograph on the facade of the
Temporäre Kunsthalle in
Berlin. Echo, 2009, recalled the
Palast der Republik, the building that once stood on the site
of the temporary gallery but
that had been demolished
months earlier.
The Art Newspaper: What is
the concept behind the work?
Bettina Pousttchi: Basel Time
II was developed for the fair,
but it relates to Echo. They
both deal with questions of
memory and architecture. The
works are also about how
photography plays an important
role in our ability to recall
things, especially architecture
and events.
TAN: Switzerland has
long been famous for its
clockmaking.
BP: The clock is a symbol of
the fair and a symbol of
Switzerland as well. But it also
represents the possibility of
photography to freeze a
moment. I have been obsessed
with photographing public
clocks for a few years now.
Basel Time is part of a project
called World Time after the
clock in Alexanderplatz in
Heimo Zobernig touches the void, and thinks bigger
It’s no surprise that the
Austrian artist Heimo
Zobernig’s Black Cube, 2010,
seems to complement the
Messeplatz’s black and grey
colour scheme uncannily well.
In 2004 the artist, who
designed the Messe Basel lettering in the square’s asphalt,
worked with the architects to
make sure that it would be a
clutter-free “plinth” for largescale sculpture. Zobernig’s
super-sized soft, black sculpture is riddled with holes not
unlike a block of the local
cheese. The artist describes the
work as “minimalism meets
Big brother lamp-posts get a little brother on the Messeplatz
When not installing playfully
absurdist sculpture in museums
and public spaces, Swiss artist
Eric Hattan (b1955) divides his
time between Paris and Basel.
He lives a short bike ride from
the Messeplatz so knows it, and
the 40m-tall lamp-posts, well.
This is not the first time Hattan
has explored the sculptural
potential of the street lamp.
Déplacement/version, 2010
(€45,000 at French gallery
Bize, 2.0/G8), seems plucked
by a storm-force wind,
foundations and all. He has
leaned the ordinary-sized lamppost against the stanchion of its
Messeplatz “big brother”.
The Art Newspaper: What
makes lamp-posts
interesting?
Eric Hattan: The first time I
used a lamp-post was in 1994
in Geneva, where I installed
one in a house upside down so
that when you went to the main
floor and upstairs you found
the column, and finally you
found the light in the basement,
shining up instead of down.
TAN: Where did you find the
one in the Messeplatz?
EH: It is from a small village
just outside Basel. It is like a
flower that you pick and after a
image work in contrast to that.
Digital manipulation is also a
very important element in my
photographs. It puts a certain
amount of distance between the
spectator and the photograph so
that it doesn’t pretend to be
reality but shows a mediated
reality. Basel Time reminds me
of a TV monitor as it has these
horizontal stripes running
through the image. It wants to
show its origin in the medium
and the fact that it was technically made. A.S.
Listen out for Alberto Tadiello
The Art Newspaper: Is this the
first time that Black Cube has
been shown?
HZ: At the end of last year
young curators from Oslo
asked me to participate in a
show in a soccer stadium with
several dramatic sculptures. It
was one of them.
TAN: Why do you describe
the interior as “Batman’s
cave”?
HZ: It is dark and wet. It’s
very slippery and a bit scary.
I wanted a polished shiny surface. I would really have liked
to use a heavy plastic foil but it
would be very expensive. J.P.
Barbara Hepworth”. He was
inspired to make it after a visit
four years ago to the sculptor’s
house museum in St Ives,
Cornwall, in the south west of
England. Black Cube is a workin-progress (€100,000 at
Simon Lee, 2.1/L2, which
includes a Zobernig solo show
in its upper space). The artist
has ambitions to develop a
walk-through version.
Heimo Zobernig: The object
may look very simple but to
make the holes is a big problem
because there is no computer
programme that can help you
see the form before fabrication.
Berlin that shows all the time
zones of the world. For the
project I want to photograph
one public clock in every time
zone of the world. I have five
so far and they all show the
same time, which is a few
minutes to two.
TAN: Why did you want to
work in black and white?
BP: When you look at photography in public space it’s two
things: it’s either commercials
or fake facades. Working in
black and white makes the
few days it dries out and wilts.
But it will keep standing
because it has its enormous
pedestal, which weighs about
700kg. I hope visitors find
some humour in that.
TAN: You’ve called your
lamp-post a little brother to
the Messeplatz’s big brother.
Is the contrast in scale a comment on the art fair?
EH: You can see it like that but
it’s really a sculptural act: to
uproot something, hence the
title “déplacement”, to change
places. You have these enormous lights that no-one notices,
or they think are flagpoles. J.P.
Alberto Tadiello is fascinated
with the possibilities of sound.
For the series of works that
includes his Art Public installation on the Messeplatz—
LK100A, 2010—he spent time
researching devices ranging
from second world war prototypes for acoustic weapons to
old megaphones and gramophones. The piece (€35,000 at
Naples-based gallery T293,
1.0/S3) also periodically emits
a potent blast of sound across
the square. Italian-born Tadiello
has already been included in a
number of solo and group
shows, including the X
Initiative’s “No Soul for Sale”
in New York last year. He has
just completed a residency at
London’s Gasworks.
The Art Newspaper: Can you
explain the work’s name?
Alberto Tadiello: The title is
the identification code of a
manual siren, one of those tools
that are used in emergencies.
I’ve decided to use a code, a
term quite dry, without making
specific references to the work.
TAN: What does LK100A
sound like, and how does it
work?
AT: The work creates a very
powerful sound. When it is in
an enclosed space, the effect of
Dolby surround is extremely
strong. It “cuts across” the
head, going from ear-to-ear.
The sound is generated by the
emptying of the compressed
air stored in the tanks of the
compressors, which put the
membranes of the air horns
under stress. This exhalation is
forced to flow through the
pipes, loading them with different rustling and murmurs.
TAN: Why did you become
interested in including sound
in your work? And since
sound can often be evocative
and emotional, how do you
think it makes people feel?
AT: I think of it as a weather
disturbance. It’s not possible to
keep it, to own it: it’s intangible, sometimes inconsistent and
nothing could control it. It
gravitates around, sculpts light
and space, creates variations
and changes, it determines conditions and unforeseen...
Perhaps sound and noise have a
real quality, [something] basic,
physical. J.M.
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London 2010.
ANDY WARHOL (1928 –1987)
Silver Liz · synthetic polymer paint, silkscreen inks and spray enamel on linen · 393⁄8 x 397⁄8 in. (99.7 x 101.5 cm.) · Executed in 1963
£6,000,000 – 8,000,000
Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction
London · 30 June
Highlights on View
Contact
19 – 23 June
Francis Outred
[email protected]
+44 (0)20 7389 2270
8 King Street, SW1Y 6QT
Auction Viewing
26 – 30 June
christies.com
10
Design
Brighten up your day
In the June main edition
Sherry Griffin
© The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Collectors’ interest in lighting is growing fast, with museum exhibitions to follow
Our current edition contains
120 pages packed with the
latest art world news, events
and business reporting, plus
high profile interviews (and a
smattering of gossip)
News Find out what’s
behind the latest appointment at über collector
François Pinault’s troubled
Venice venues (top)…
Biennials Shanty town
roofs, recordings of extinct
dialects and fields of scrap
metal celebrate the vanquished, dispossessed and
marginalised at the 17th
Sydney Biennale (middle)…
Museums Early signs of
sibling rivalry as the director
of the Centre PompidouMetz insists that the new
€72m centre is not an
outpost (bottom)…
Art Market Should art
© William Oliver
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
fairs feel threatened by the
increasing number of
gallery weeks?
Lighting—from monumental
chandeliers to table and desk
lamps—is more prevalent at
Design Miami/Basel than ever
before, with 20 of the 32 dealers
bringing examples. Pieces
include Gino Sarfatti’s 1063, a
1954 neon floor lamp for
€42,000, which predates Dan
Flavin’s first neon light sculpture by eight years (Galerie
Kreo, Paris, G16) to American
designer Jeff Zimmerman’s
2010 chandelier, four metres
tall, and made up of over 400
hand-blown glass spheres
priced $200,000 at New York’s
R20th Century (G22).
And as collectors’ interest
grows, museum exhibitions follow. The Philadelphia Museum
of Art is staging “Hanging
Around: Modern and Contemporary Lighting from the Permanent Collection” from 17 July
until 10 October, with examples
by Ingo Maurer, Bruno Munari
and Marcel Wanders. Then the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and
the Museum of Fine Arts
Clockwise, from left: Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, Lianes, 2010; Jeff Zimmerman, Illuminated
Sculpture, 2010; Isamu Noguchi, Akari lamp, 1975; Marcel Wanders, Zeppelin hanging lamp,
2005; Ingo Maurer, Lüster chandelier, 2003
Houston are preparing a joint
exhibition on the same subject,
provisionally
scheduled
for 2015.
“Starting with the invention
of the light bulb, designers
straight through to Verner
Comparatively speaking, she
said: “There wasn’t much you
could do with a candlestick.”
Another factor underscoring
museum exhibitions is the wide
availability of reasonably priced
objects. The general public can
With pieces by Danish and American
designers in their homes, collectors see
lighting as the natural next step
“
Panton and beyond, turned their
attention to lighting for its enormous creative capabilities
beyond functionality,” said
Donna Corbin, Philadelphia
Museum of Art associate curator. She singles out lighting
more than any other utilitarian
object as offering designers
greater challenges, and points to
work with halogen bulbs, holograms and other new materials.
Designer’s debut in hot glass at GlassLab
Wendell Castle, the veteran US furniture designer, will use his creative skills to fashion hot glass for the first time in the GlassLab at
the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, near Basel. Castle will
test the possibilities of the medium in the mobile studio of the
Corning Museum of Art, New York State, tomorrow and on
Thursday. He is one of ten designers and a design studio making use
of the furnaces assisted by expert technicians. This is the first time
the lab team has visited Germany. Previously the studio in a shipping container has allowed designers, such as the Campana
Brothers, to create “design prototypes” in the US, France and during Design/Miami’s 2007 edition in Miami. J.P.
Cutting-edge Swiss design to show in London
Twenty-two young Swiss designers and design studios will be presenting their latest work at the A Foundation’s London space, a notfor-profit organisation promoting contemporary creativity.
Sponsored by the company that makes the design classic, the Swiss
Army Knife, it will be a showcase for the nation’s ability to marry
form and function. “Switzerland: Design for Life” (19 June until
1 July) will include work by Laurent Benner, Alexandre Bettler,
Kueng Caputo, Zak Kyes, Jurg Lehni, Urs Lehni & Lex Trub,
Loris & Livia, Elena Rendina and Regis Tosetti, in a range of media.
The design studio collective Nerves is also producing a limited
edited of the army knife, inspired by a model of 1908 called
Matterhorn. J.P.
”
buy lighting by Ingo Maurer and
other major designers for moderate costs and, in some cases, purchase inexpensive copies at
Conran, Ikea and elsewhere.
Designers such as Marcel
Wanders showcase their own
lighting in their hotels, further
piquing potential client curiosity.
“Museums are just catching up
with that interest,” said Corbin.
Six years ago, lighting made
up just 20% of Paris dealer Eric
Philippe’s (G19) total annual
sales. “Now it is 40% with a sale
every single week to a collector
or interior decorator,” he said.
“My problem is finding good
examples to stock.”
What’s driving this growing
interest, according to dealers, is
the increasing sophistication of
the client base. “With pieces by
Danish and American designers
already in their homes, collectors see lighting as the natural
next step,” said Philippe.
“Lighting is about new technology moving from candles to
gas to early electric bulbs then
new uses of plastic,” said Peter
Brant, the newsprint magnate
whose private museum, the
Brant Foundation Art Study
Center in Greenwich, Connecticut, contains only a small portion of his collection. Brant has
over 100 pieces with 40 alone by
Italians such as Achille
Castiglioni. At his Greenwich
home, he has candlesticks by
W.A.S. Benson and stained glass
lamps by Tiffany Studios and his
collection includes major examples by Verner Panton, Serge
Mouille and Jean Royère.
“Works by influential designers are not simply light fixtures,” said New York architect
Lee Mindel, who is now completing rock musician Sting’s
London home. “So much is really sculpture with light and more
collectors are viewing lighting
as an art form,” he said. Mindel
has recently acquired lighting
by Gunnar Asplund from his
1925 library in Stockholm along
with examples by Olafur
Eliasson and Fontana d’Arte.
Interest in lighting is also
growing far beyond the US and
Europe to Asia. “I never expected it but we now have clients
from Korea for Prouvé and
Perriand,” says Patrick Seguin
(G03). David Wiseman with
R20th Century recently gained a
commission for ceiling lighting
in the Christian Dior store in
Shanghai, while Galerie Kreo
now has collectors in Japan who
are acquiring the Breton
Bouroullec brothers’ lighting.
Seguin is seeking to further
broaden his international reach.
At the Abu Dhabi Art Fair in
November, he plans to present a
solo exhibition devoted to Jean
Royère. “As [he] had an office
and studio in Beirut, with King
Farouk and other major families
as clients, it makes sense to present archival material and especially lighting in that region,”
said Seguin, who is preparing the
catalogue raisonné on Royère.
As ever, limited supply boosts
prices. “When I began collecting
lighting in 1980, prices were
unusually low,” said Peter Brant.
“With still great material available, I would tell a young collector, ‘go out and acquire great
period lighting.’”
Brook S. Mason
Features Analysis:
finding money for the arts in
a global financial crisis…
Artist interview
Belgian-born, Mexico-based
artist Francis Alÿs on running
into the centre of tornadoes,
failing to sabotage the art
market and the appeal of
living in Mexico…
Books Better with age:
five new books devoted to
British octogenarian sculptor
Anthony Caro…
Get your free copy
from Stand Z13
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including some live
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Coming up in July
News Round-up of the 6th
Berlin Biennale… Country
house treasures going to auction… Iceland to buy back art
from its beleaguered banks…
of Caravaggio’s death by
looking at how an artist
largely ignored in the 19th
century had become a cult
figure by the 21st…
Museums Mixed
Artist interview The
gambling millionaire David
Walsh is building a museum
in Tasmania that will be
unlike anything you’ve ever
seen before; we take an
exclusive first look…
Conservation Dürer
altarpiece restored and
reunited after 1988 acid
attack…
Books Getting to know
the Victorians through their
jewellery…
reactions to Zaha Hadid’s
MaXXi… Where the Whitney
goes next… Cuts at the
Hamburg Kunsthalle… Neo
Rauch donates painting to
his hometown of Leipzig…
Opinion With govern-
ment cuts looming, critic and
cultural historian Robert
Hewison offers a “rational”
argument for arts funding…
Features We commemorate the 400th anniversary
Art market An analysis
of the forthcoming June
impressionist, modern and
contemporary sales in
London…
To subscribe to the paper
and digital version go to
www.theartnewspaper.com/
subscribe
UBS is pleased to be the main sponsor of Art Basel.
www.ubs.com/sponsorship
© UBS 2010. All rights reserved.
;IBOH)VBO)FSP/PDPXIJEFTUFFMXPPEBOEQPMZTUZSFOFGPBNµYY
;IBOH)VBO
"SU6OMJNJUFE)BMM
+VOF°
J1IPOF"QQOPXBWBJMBCMF
4FBSDI;IBOH)VBO)FSP/PJOJ5VOFT4UPSFT
REDEFINING THE MARKET
ANDY WARHOL SELF PORTRAIT, 1986
$32.5 million
ESTIMATE $10 – 15 MILLION
A RECORD FOR A SELF PORTRAIT
BY THE ARTIST AT AUCTION
© SOTHEBY’S, INC. 2010 TOBIAS MEYER, PRINCIPAL AUCTIONEER, #9588677
© 2010 ANDY WARHOL FOUNDATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS / ARTISTS RIGHTS SOCIETY (ARS), NEW YORK
8 8 85 ) & 1" $ & ( " - - & 3: $ 0 .
Invitation to Consign Contemporary Art
AUCTIONS IN LONDON 28 & 29 JUNE ENQUIRIES +44 (0)20 7293 5401
NEXT AUCTIONS IN NEW YORK 9 & 10 NOVEMBER ENQUIRIES +1 212 606 7254
I
SOTHEBYS.COM/CONTEMPORARYART
12
What’s On Basel 2010
FAIRS
S AM Schweizerisches
Architekturmuseum
Steinenberg 7
www.sam-basel.org
15 and 17-20 June, 10am-8pm
16 June, 10am-10pm
Environments and Counter
Environments: Experimental
Media in ‘Italy: the New
Domestic Landscape’, MoMA
1972
Until 27 June
Art Basel
Halls 1 and 2, Messe Basel
Messeplatz
www.artbasel.com
15 June, VIP Preview 11am-9pm
16-20 June, 11am-7pm
In an effort to create a more
“biennale” feel, organisers are
introducing three new elements:
Off Press, a section focusing on
alternative arts publishing; Art
Features, 20 gallery projects ranging from artists “in dialogue” to
rare historical material; and
Art Parcours, a series of performances and installations staged
throughout Basel. Over 300 galleries are participating in the 41st
edition of this modern and
contemporary fair.
Hot Art Fair
Claramatte Parkhaus
Klingentalstrasse 25
www.hot-art-fair.com
15 June, 4pm-11pm
16-19 June, 1pm-9pm
20 June, 1pm-6pm
Previously titled Bâlelatina, Hot
Art focuses on artists using, discussing or referring to Latin
American art. Many of the artists
are new to the European market,
and the fair features work in a
variety of media. This fifth edition
is being held at the Claramatte
Parkhaus.
Liste—the Young Art Fair
Werkraum Warteck PP
Burgweg 15
www.liste.ch
15-19 June, 1pm-9pm
20 June, 1pm-7pm
The self-styled “young fair”
restricts exhibitors to galleries
that are less than five years old,
and whose programme has
already attracted international
attention. The 15th edition welcomes 64 galleries from 21 countries, including newcomers from
Beijing, Berlin and Malmö.
Scope Basel
Kaserne Basel
Klybeckstr 1b
www.scope-art.com
15 June, VIP Preview 3pm-7pm
For its fourth Basel edition, Scope
moves to the historic Kaserne,
Basel’s former military barracks.
The newly renovated cultural centre hosts 85 galleries showing
emerging art. The fair presents
solo and thematic group shows
alongside an expanded programme of film, music, theatre
and performance.
The Solo Project
St. Jakobshalle
Brüglingerstrasse 19-21
www.the-solo-project.com
16 June, VIP Preview 10am-noon
16 June, Public View noon-8pm
20 June, 10am-5pm
Now in its third year, this fair provides a platform for galleries to
present a series of solo projects.
© 2010, ProLitteris, Zürich
Design Miami/Basel
Hall 5, Messe Basel
Messeplatz
www.designmiami.com
The event in the design calendar,
Design Miami/Basel brings
together 32 historic and contemporary galleries in an exhibition
space designed by Swedish architect Mia Hägg and graphic design
consultancy MadeThought. The
fair boasts a programme of exhibitions, discussions and seminars
as well as a “Designer of the
Future” award.
Basquiat
Fondation Beyeler
Until 5 September, www.beyeler.com
This is the most comprehensive exhibition of work by late American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
since the 1992 retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York—and the largest
ever staged in Europe. To mark what would have been the artist’s 50th birthday had he not died of
a heroin overdose in 1988 at the age of 27, the Fondation Beyeler has assembled over 100 paintings,
drawings and objects that trace Basquiat’s meteoric rise from high-school dropout to one of the
most sought after artists of his generation. “Putting [the exhibition] together has been the result of
my entire professional career,” said the Fondation Beyeler’s director Sam Keller, who curated the
show which contains many pieces loan from private collections. Above, In Italian (detail), 1983
This edition features 22 international galleries hailing from cities
such as London, Lisbon, Tokyo
and Oslo, presenting work by one
or two artists.
Volta6
Dreispitzhalle
Dreispitz Areal, Gate 13,
Helsinki Strasse 5,
Münchenstein
www.voltashow.com
16 June, VIP Preview 2pm-4pm
16 June, Public View 4pm-8pm
17-20 June, noon-8pm
Approximately 86 galleries specialising in emerging artists are
participating in Volta6. This year
there are three new sections:
Volta Solo, dedicated to singleartist presentations; Volta
Lightbox, which focuses on lightworks; and Volta Uncovered,
which presents sculptural and
painted work, as well as interventions on the exterior of the
Dreispitzhalle.
NON-COMMERCIAL
SHOWS IN AND
AROUND BASEL
AARAU
Aargauer Kunsthaus
Aargauplatz
www.aargauerkunsthaus.ch
15-16 and 18-20 June, 10am-5pm
17 June 10am-8pm
Ugo Rondinone:
the Night of Lead
Until 1 August
Markus Uh
Until 1 August
Abstractions II:
Non-Representative Tendencies
in the Collection
Until 1 August
BASEL
Antikenmuseum Basel
St Alban-Graben 5
www.antikenmuseumbasel.ch
Hermes versus SMS:
Communication in Antiquity
Until 15 August
Fondation Beyeler
Baselstrasse 101
www.beyeler.com
15-20 June, 9am-8pm
Basquiat
Until 5 September
Felix Gonzalez-Torres:
Specific Objects without
Specific Form
Until 29 August
Kunsthalle Basel
Steinenberg 7
www.kunsthallebasel.ch
15, 17-20 June, 10am-8pm
16 June, 10am-10pm
Strange Comfort (Afforded
by the Profession)
Until 22 August
Fabio Marco Pirovino:
Razzle Dazzle
Until 28 November
Moyra Davey:
Speaker Receiver
Until 17 June-29 August
Kunsthaus Baselland
St Jakob-Strasse 170
www.kunsthausbaselland.ch
15-16 and 18 June, 11am-6pm
17 June, 11am-8.30pm
Leopold Kessler: VoksShoeshine Machine
Until 4 July
Keren Cytter: Repulsion
Until 4 July
Agnieszka Brzezanska:
Cosmic Equation
Until 4 July
Karin Suter: Dwelling on Matter
Until 4 July
Kunstmuseum Basel
St. Alban-Graben 16
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
Gabriel Orozco
Until 8 August
Rosemarie Trockel: Drawings,
Collages, and Book Drafts
Until 5 September
Matthäus Merian d. A.
(1593–1650)
Until 25 July
Kunstmuseum Basel Extension
Until 19 September
Museum für Gegenwartskunst
St. Alban-Rheinweg 60
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
Rodney Graham: Through
the Forest
Until 26 September
Museum Tinguely
Paul Sacher-Anlage 2
www.tinguely.ch
Robot Dreams
Until 9 September
Tinguely for Karola
Until 20 June
Plug.In
St. Alban-Rheinweg 64
www.iplugin.org
Eva&Franco Mattes
aka 0100101110101101.org
AD/HD
Until 19 September
ZUG
Kunsthaus Zug
Dorfstrasse 27
www.kunsthauszug.ch
Ilya Kabakov: Orbis Pictus
Until 20 June
Schaulager
Ruchfeldstrasse 19
www.schaulager.org
16 June, noon-6pm
Matthew Barney: Prayer Sheet
with the Wound and the Nail
Until 3 October
ZÜRICH
Haus Konstruktiv
Selnaustrasse 25
www.hauskonstruktiv.ch
15 and 17-18 June, noon-6pm
16 June, noon-8pm
Ryan Gander: Zürich Art Prize
2009
Until 8 August
Franz Mon
Until 8 August
BERN
Kunsthalle Bern
Helvetiaplatz 1
www.kunsthalle-bern.ch
Animism
Until 18 July
Kunsthalle Zürich
Limmatstrasse 270
www.kunsthallezurich.ch
15-16 and 18 June, noon-6pm
17 June, noon-8pm
Rosemarie Trockel
Until 15 August
Kunstmuseum Bern
Hodlerstrasse 8-12
www.kunstmuseumbern.ch
15 June, 10am-9pm
Albert Anker
Until 5 September
Chantal Michel, Honey, Milk and
First Violets: a Confrontation
with Albert Anker
Until 5 September
Don’t Look Now
Until 20 March 2011
Kunsthaus Zürich
Heimplatz 1
www.kunsthaus.ch
15 and 19-20 June, 1pm-6pm
Adrian Paci
Until 22 August
Thomas Struth
Until 12 September
LUCERNE
Kunstmuseum Lucerne
Europaplatz 1
www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
Olaf Breuning: Yes? No?
Until 1 August
Stefan à Wengen: the Mission
Until 1 August
Reference and Affinity: 21st
Century Art from the Collection
Until 27 June
ST GALLEN
Kunsthalle St Gallen
Davidstrasse 40
www.k9000.ch
Hassan Khan
Until 8 August
Kunstmuseum St Gallen
Museumstrasse 32
www.kunstmuseumsg.ch
16 June, 10am-8pm
Press Art: Works from the
Collection of Annette and Peter
Nobel
Until 20 June
Ambigu: Contemporary Art
between Abstraction and
Narration
Until 12 September
WINTERTHUR
Kunstmuseum Winterthur
Museumstrasse 52
www.kmw.ch
15 June, noon-8pm
Rita McBride: Previously
Until 5 September
WEIL-AM-RHEIN
Vitra Design Museum
Charles-Eames-Strasse 1
www.design-museum.de
17-20 June, 9am-9pm
The Essence of Things: Design
and the Art of Reduction
Until 19 September
Today’s highlights
15/06/10
GlassLab: Design
Performances
Max Lamb, noon1.30pm; Atelier Oï, 2pm3.30pm; Nacho
Carbonell, 4pm-5.30pm
Vitra Design Museum,
Charles-Eames-Strasse 1,
Weil-am-Rhein
Design Talks: the Role
of Media in the Landscape of Contemporary
Architecture
5.30pm-6.30pm
Hall 5, Mezzanine Level,
Messe Basel, Messeplatz
A conversation between
Iraqi-born, UK-based
architect and designer
Zaha Hadid and UK
architect, designer and
critic Edwin Heathcote
Art Film: And this Is How
the Story Goes…
10pm-11pm, Stadtkino
Basel, Klostergasse 5
Film scholar Marc Glöde
has selected seven films
that ask the question
“What is narration?”
including Sean Snyder’s
“Afghanistan” (2009)
and “Casio, Seiko,
Sheraton, Toyota, Mars”
(2004/05), Michaela
Meise’s “Lettre to the
Eltern” (2010), Guy BenNer’s “If Only it Was
Easy to Banish Hunger
by Rubbing the Belly as
it Is to Masturbate”
(2009) and Mario
Pfeifer’s “Untitled (Two
Guys)” (2008)”.
Art Club
11pm-3am
Campari Bar, Kunsthalle
Basel, Steinenberg 7
Concerts and DJ
performances
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k_Xkn\Xi\efn
k_\nfic[n`[\i\gi\j\ekXk`m\
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18 East Seventy Ninth Street, New York, New York 10075, 212 734-6300, www.acquavellagalleries.com
Enoc Perez, Museum of Anthropology, History and Art, UPR, Rio Piedras, May 2010
Oil on canvas, 94 x 50 inches (127 x 239 cm)
The Collection
18 works of contemporary art
Galerie Marc de Puechredon
E-halle
11:00 am - 07:00 pm / June 17 - 20, 2010
Erlenmattstrasse 7-11, CH-4058, Basel
AMANDA ROSS-HO • ANNE HARDY
CLAIRE HEALY & SEAN CORDEIRO
DANWEN XING • ELLIOTT HUNDLEY
FEFE TALAVERA • FRANCESCA GABBIANI
FRANCESCO CUOMO • GULLAUME LEBLON
JONATHAN JONES • MODOU DIENG
MARCELLA VANZO • MUSTAFA HULUSI
SEHER SHAH • THUKRAL & TAGRA
TJORG DOUGLAS BEER • WILFRID ALMENDRA
Louise Bourgeois 1911–2010
5`OaaW\U Chen Yung-Hsien
JULY 24 2010 >/@/27A=
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL WATERMILL SUMMER BENEFIT
THE WATERMILL CENTER
[email protected] & watermillcenter.org/benefit
03<347B/C1B7=<
AUCTION HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
MARINA ABRAMOVIC, DAVID ADAMO, MONICA BONVICINI, CAROL BOVE
FRANCESCO CLEMENTE, MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN, ROSSON CROW
SHEPARD FAIREY, PIERRE HUYGHE, JOAN JONAS, ANISH KAPOOR
ANSELM KIEFER, MARILYN MINTER, YOUSSEF NABIL, SHIRIN NESHAT
OTTO PIENE, LOU REED, PIPILOTTI RIST, TARYN SIMON, ROBERT WILSON AND MORE.
[email protected] & watermillcenter.org/auction
Cheim & Read
15
ART BASEL DAILY EDITION
Contributors:
Georgina Adam is The Art
Newspaper’s editor at large. She is
also art market correspondent for
the Financial Times
The last word…
Ab Fab at Art Basel
of grisly works on gold paper,
called “Oracle”, are to go on
show at Scope Basel (15-19
June) this week with the
Strychnin Gallery.
Charlotte Burns is The Art
Newspaper’s assistant editor (art
market). She previously worked for
Anthony d’Offay, Hauser & Wirth
and Bolton & Quinn
Katherine Hardy is The Art
Newspaper’s photographer. She
studied at the Royal College of Art
in London and has had a number of
solo shows
Gareth Harris is The Art
Newspaper’s editor at large. He
also writes for the Financial Times
and the Independent
Lindsay Pollock is a New Yorkbased writer who has been covering
the art market since 2000. Besides
The Art Newspaper, she writes
regularly for Bloomberg News
Cristina Ruiz is a former editor of
The Art Newspaper and is an arts
correspondent for The Sunday
Times
Anny Shaw is a freelance
journalist based in London. She
was a staff writer at Art World
magazine
Jean Wainwright is the presenter
of The Art Newspaper TV. An art
critic and art historian, she has
published extensively as well as
appearing on television and radio
Star quality
A hot opening night party
hosted by White Cube at cool
Basel eatery Acqua was graced
by an acoustic set from popsongstress Paloma Faith. She
had support from her young
charge Josh Weller, who she
refers to sweetly as an “ice
cream troll” on account of his
enormous, spiky up-cut shock
of hair. Headliner Faith, who
was born in Hackney in east
London, has an MA in theatre
design but found her voice
fronting a 50s cabaret/rock
cover band called Paloma and
the Penetrators. They’ve gone
on without her to become the
Fabulous Penetrators, while
she got “faith” and her own
record deal.
Dead Artists’ Society
Ossian Ward is the visual arts
editor of Time Out London and is a
former editor of Art Review
Anger management Messe-style
Spanish provocateur Dora Garcia’s performance in Art Public
yesterday, called Insulting the Audience, 2009, was not
nearly as agitating as advertised. She employed a firebrand
Brechtian who got up on to his tiny plywood plinth among the
throng of first-night, invite-only revellers, and (largely to deaf
ears) launched into his insults of “jerks, double-dealers,
money bags, chicken shits, fuck-off farts, phoney deadbeats
and stupid, dumb waxwork monkeys”. All of which may or
may not have been accurate, so little attention did he
receive—only the rapt audience of a journalist, one man and
his dog (and us). Another performance in the plaza garnered
much more respect. Painter Hanspeter Hofmann turned to a
local troupe of flag-wavers and a traditional Swiss band for
his mini-parade, Mit Fahnen und Trompeten, 2010,
highlighting the cruelty of experimenting on animals.
Editorial and production:
Editor: Jane Morris
Deputy editor: Javier Pes
Assistant editor: Emily Sharpe
Copy editors: James Hobbs,
Simon Stephens
Designer: Emma Goodman
Editorial researcher/picture editor:
William Oliver
Contributors: Robert Bound, Alex Coles,
Brook Mason, Iain Millar, András Szántó,
Linda Yablonsky
Editorial assitance: Katharine Albritton,
Rob Curran
Group editorial director:
Anna Somers Cocks
Managing director: James Knox
Associate publisher: Patrick Kelly
Advertising sales UK:
Ben Tomlinson, Louise Hamlin
Advertising 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
© 2010 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
Art world zombies hit Basel
this year with messages from
beyond the grave provided by
famous artists via a series of 45
cryptic “frottages” (14,175
Swiss francs each) ghoulishly
made up of letters found on
their tombstones. The
technique, pioneered by the
duo Boris+Natascha, is dubbed
“Grave Rubbery” because of
Manhattan dealer Edward Tyler
Nahem (F15) will not, alas, be
brandishing a Tony award on
his Art Basel stand this week
after his Broadway musical
“Fela!”, which he co-produced,
just failed to clinch the Best
Musical category. The New
York gallerist, a first-timer at
the fair, joked that he hoped to
bring a gong to Switzerland to
show off on his booth. “Fela!”
did, however, pick up Tony
awards for choreography,
costume design and sound
design at the prize ceremony,
which was held in New York
on Sunday night. The NY art
veteran valiantly jumped on a
jet at 2.30am yesterday
morning, hot-footing it from
the ceremony, to get to Basel
on time.
Kusama’s honey trap
the guerilla techniques
involved in surreptitiously
creating an imprint from the
graves. The artists have then
cheekily rearranged the
tombstone letters to spell out
enigmatic new messages.
Vincent Van Gogh, buried in
Cimetière d’Auvers-sur-Oise,
has become “Ache Into”, while
German-born artist Hans
Bellmer, at rest in PèreLachaise, Paris, has morphed
into “Be Her Man”. The series
Just as the fair’s doors opened
to those lucky VIP card-holders
at 4pm yesterday, some
collectors were spotted hot-offthe-mark rushing to stands in
Art Unlimited. One dealer at
Gagosian, showing off Yayoi
Kusama’s immersive Aftermath
of Obliteration of Eternity,
2008 (U56), had apparently
locked Greek collector Dakis
Joannou into its mirrored space
and was not going to let him
out until he’d bought one of the
€50,000 editions. Joannou
came out happy, but wanted to
know why there was water on
the floor, not mirrors. Luckily,
no leak had occurred, but each
owner will be responsible for
the weekly upkeep of the
installation, necessitating
regular rehydration and
refreshment.
Keep London clean
Swish Scandinavians Elmgreen
& Dragset announced
yesterday that they had to leave
the glamorous environs of the
fair early to attend the opening
in the less-than-salubrious
surroundings of the men’s toilet
at the Hayward Gallery in
London. Their work is
ostensibly one of the 180
exhibits in gallery director
Ralph Rugoff’s latest group
show “The New Décor”.
Marriage, a 2004 piece, will
become a permanent fixture,
plumbed-in to the gallery’s
drains. Despite its title, this
bathroom betrothal will also be
a strictly men-only affair.
Confessions of an art dealer
Casey Kaplan, the
director of Casey
Kaplan, New York,
(N19)
My biggest mistake…
buying only one Alighiero
Boetti woven text painting
instead of the entire wall
of them (as Sean Kelly had
suggested at the time)
nine years ago from an
Italian dealer at Art Basel
during the set up.
My secret passion…
frites with Dijon mustard.
The museum I’d like to
lead…
Castello di Rivoli.
Fondation Beyeler F1, Hall 2.0
www.fondationbeyeler.ch/acanthes
www.nationalesuisse.ch/artas
The artist I should have
signed…
Haim Steinbach.
Things that keep me
awake at 3am…
my daughter Swann, the
Yankees, and the wine that
I drank too much of that
evening.
I last cooked for…
no one, I do not cook, but I
make a mean margarita or
a sake martini.
I should have been…
absolutely nothing else, I
cannot do anything else
as well.
I enjoy the company of…
my family.
Dealers are misunderstood because…
they are passionate.
Fairs are important…
because something unexpected always happens.
Small talk is…
predictable.
A recurring nightmare
involves…
missing a page on a final
exam during my senior
year at university.
I was happiest when…
the doctor informed my
wife and I that we were
having a baby girl.
My greatest achievement
is…
being in business in New
York now for 15 years.
The most under-rated art
movement is ....
the Arts & Crafts movement of the 1850s.
The next big thing…
My Art Basel dream
Austrian rosé.
is to…
I wish I had met…
have a stand at Art
Woodrow Wilson.
Basel forever.
Travel broadens the
Interviewed by
mind…
Gareth Harris
especially in Mexico.
The Gulf rather than
Europe (or vice versa)
because…
Europe, as I have
never been to the
Gulf.
Life’s too short to…
be lazy.
My favourite person in the art
Casey
world is…
Kaplan
all of the artists of
my gallery who
trust me with
their livelihood.
Art awakens new ways of seeing the world. At UBS, we are proud to be in our
17th year as the main sponsor of Art Basel, the world’s leading international
art show. Sharing new perspectives with people is one of the purposes of art.
We believe in making that possible through the sponsorship of important events.
www.ubs.com/sponsorship
© UBS 2010. All rights reserved. Quote: The purpose of art is to make visible the invisible. Artist: Franco Fontana. Some of his works are represented in The UBS Art Collection.