art basel 2006, issue 1

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ART BASEL DAILY EDITION TUESDAY 13 JUNE 2006
$95m Picasso sale
draws out top
works in Basel
BASEL. The sale of Picasso’s Dora
Maar au Chat for $95.2m at
Sotheby’s in New York last
month, the second highest price
ever paid for a work of art, is
drawing top works by the artist to
the market, a trend very much in
Art Basel director
to head Beyeler
Foundation
See page 5
evidence at the latest edition of
Art Basel which opens to the public tomorrow. Many of these have
never been seen publicly.
Dora Maar au Chat sold to an
unknown Russian buyer. He outbid four major collectors to secure
the purchase: Las Vegas casino
mogul, Steve Wynn, retail tycoon
Leslie Wexner, the Israeli shipping magnate Sammy Ofer, and
possibly Microsoft co-founder
Paul Allen. There are also
rumours that the Russian buyer of
Dora Maar is discussing the
acquisition of several more
Picasso paintings with a major
European dealer.
The number of major Western
collectors already prepared to pay
large sums for Picasso paintings
combined with the sudden influx
of new money from Russia is
turning the artist’s works into a
distinct asset class.
At Art Basel, Thomas Gibson
(J5) is today unveiling a large,
Photo: Katherine Hardy
Late paintings by the artist, which have
never been shown publicly, are at the fair
High rollers hit art fair
The carriages await. Chauffeurs line up in anticipation for the collectors arriving for the VIP
opening of the 37th edition of Art Basel tonight.
This year BMW vamps up its presence by adding
Rolls Royces to its Art Basel fleet to accommo-
1969 Homme à la Pipe which has
never been shown publicly
before; he bought it back recently
from the client to whom he originally sold it. “If you are a collector in your late 70s and you see
these huge prices, inevitably you
are going to be tempted to sell at
the moment,” says Mr Gibson.
Gmurzynska (V1) is also
unveiling an important late
Picasso today, which has never
been on the market; a reclining
nude from 1971.
Robert Landau (J2) has a Tête
date illustrious guests who include: the French
footballer Zinedine Zidane, Mick Jagger,
Miuccia Prada, Zaha Hadid, Francesca von
Habsburg, Eli Broad, Michael Ovitz and
François Pinault.
de Femme (Jacqueline), 1957,
which has never been published
(priced between $4m and $5m).
Richard Gray (S1) has a 1965
Femme Assise at $5m which has
sold at auction only once, in 1991,
while Helly Nahmad (Q3) has a
fine range of works including a
1922 Femme en Blanc at $25m
which has never sold publicly.
Jan Krugier (B4), who represents the estate of Marina Picasso,
is showing seven paintings, two
sculptures, and several drawings
by the artist. He says: “Prices
have gone crazy. I don’t understand it anymore. Because of this,
there are masses [of Picassos]
coming out at the moment.”
“It seems there is no satisfying
the appetite in today’s market for
Picasso’s work,” says art dealer
Nick Maclean.
The interest is nothing new.
Over the last nine years, more
money has been spent on Picasso
than on any other artist.
According to Artprice.com, the
total amount spent on his works at
CONTINUED ON P4
Revealed: Rosenquist’s monumental tribute to human rights
BASEL. Standing in front of his
monumental canvas at Art
Unlimited yesterday, James
Rosenquist said, “It’s the first
time I’ve seen it”, explaining
that he painted the 40-metre
work in sections and that this is
the first he’s seen all the pieces
come together.
In 1998 the artist was asked by
the French government to design a
ceiling for the Palais de Chaillot,
the 1937 buildings which face the
Eiffel Tower across the Seine. It
was to commemorate the 50th
anniversary of the signing of the
Declaration of Human Rights, and
Rosenquist conceived a gigantic,
eight-section panorama. He completed it in four months; but the
restoration of the Palais de
Chaillot is still unfinished and the
Celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Eleanor Roosevelt, 1998
painting has never been installed.
It is now on display thanks to
Acquavella Galleries who are
offering it for $9m.
The work was intended for the
ceiling of the Chaillot building
before the entrance to the theatre.
At the time, the New York dealer
Richard Feigen represented
Rosenquist, and he takes up the
tale: “I arranged the original commission, and I can’t tell you how
many trips I made to France. Each
time the minister or government
had changed, there was a brief
Ministry of Human Rights but
then that was abolished. And the
roof leaked.”
Prior to all this, Rosenquist had
received the decoration of
Chevalier des Arts from the then
Culture Minister, Jacques Lang,
but the French never followed
through on the deal. “Rosenquist
went to considerable expense, but
the French never paid for the
work,” says Mr Feigen.
“My whole career, most works
I was commissioned to make
didn’t go where they were meant
to,” says Rosenquist. When asked
where he would like to see his
huge canvas end up, Rosenquist
suggested the UN or a similar
organisation. G.A.
❏ For other projects at Art Unlimited, see p8
2
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
Gossip
■ Football comes first
There was a time when art was
safe from football fever—but no
longer. Art Basel’s organisers had
so many calls from worried
exhibitors afraid of missing crucial World Cup matches that
screens have been installed
throughout the fair including in
the VIP lounge and on the second
floor of Art Unlimited. In 2008
Art Basel goes a step further: the
fair dates have been moved forward to avoid a clash with the
European Championships. Still,
one London dealer, apparently
oblivious to the current festivities
surrounding the beautiful game,
marvelled at the airport queues:
“What on earth is going on in
Germany?”
■ Smart dealers caught
in shorts
Should any Manhattan or London
scenesters seem sartorially challenged at the Art Basel vernissage
tonight, blame BA. For the crucial
Sunday morning Heathrow-Basel
flight was packed with fair regulars, including Marian Goodman
(oddly not in first class), Maurice
Tuchman, Clarissa Dalrymple,
Andrew Ong and David Juda. So
there were gasps of horror when
the pilot announced: “On a seri-
ous note we seem to be having
some trouble with the luggage...”
The whole contingent was stranded in their travelling clothes: the
cases were still missing on
Monday evening. Charles Govett
of Paragon Press was stuck in his
black shorts and vest and
Goodman’s trademark Miyake
was starting to look rumpled.
Kadee Robbins bemoaned her
“horrible plane outfit” while her
fellow Michael Werner worker
Gordon VeneKlasen admitted:
“I’ve had to start bulk buying
underwear. I’m supporting Hanro
as they’re the family of Peter
Handschin, one of our collectors
and a sponsor of Liste.”
Britto does
Beyeler
Who is collector Ernst Beyeler’s
favourite living artist? Apparently
it is the Brazilian Romero Britto.
The unlikely pair are teaming up
this week to publicise a portrait by
Britto of the legendary Basel collector, signed by both parties. The
work is on silent auction until 13
October, with bidding currently
standing at $40,000. The final bid
and the proceeds from a set of limited edition prints will go to
Fondation Beyeler—although
strangely the prints were removed
from display at the foundation last
week. Beyeler, at 82, is twice the
age of Britto but the bond is
strong, according to the artist.
“Mr Beyeler is a god of modern
art,” he says. Beyeler, the fabled
founder of Art Basel, seems equally enamoured: “It was fascinating
to work with Britto, who has a
style of his own.” The fundraising
drive has been organised by
Britto’s Basel dealer, Rita Ficher
Rohr, who says these days all art
foundations, including the Beyeler,
need to find cash.
■ Selling before a slide
Glamour in Basel is as dependent
on where you flew from as what
form of jet you took. New York
dealer-collector Tim Nye set the
bar high by flying directly to the
fair from—Disneyworld. “I was
in Disneyworld which was really
great. I must be the only person to
sell a Robert Irwin sculpture from
the top of the ‘Waterslide’ at
Disney,” he says. The subtle, minimal and un-Disneylike Irwin disc
from 1966 sold to a West Coast
American collector at around the
recent Christie’s auction price of
$440,000. “I did the deal and then
flew straight to Zurich. I suppose
I should add that I was there with
my five-year-old daughter,” says
Mr Nye.
■ The princess
and the pillowcase
By contrast Chicago collector (and
Museum of Contemporary Art
Chicago Trustee) Sara Albrecht
travels in style as befits the owner
of that city’s fashion emporium
Ultimo. “I always bring my own
bed linen with me to Basel, several sheets and a pair of pillowcases,
from Frette of course. Otherwise
it’s just impossible to sleep.”
■ Homage
to Sam Keller
■ Dealers under starters’
The debonair director of Art
Basel is known to inspire admiration and envy throughout the
art world. So it is no surprise
that one of his devotees, a major
European art adviser, has been
seen hanging around Art Basel
sporting a flesh-coloured skull
cap to achieve the smooth pate
of his hero, along with heavy
make up and thick glasses. The
result? The adviser in question
is being hailed as the capo di
tutti i capi by all those whose
path he crosses. As they say,
imitation is the sincerest form
of flattery.
Some dealers are hot off the
blocks at Art Basel: on Monday
morning at 10am, dealer Sean
Kelly had already started collecting, snapping up works by Marcel
Duchamp, Man Ray and Richard
Long. When it was pointed out
the fair does not officially open
until Wednesday, Kelly quipped;
“The fair opens when I start buying! Mind you, I hope we have a
good fair, otherwise my wife will
kill me.”
orders from day one
■ Drowning by numbers
Finally, spare a thought for Art
Basel PR supremo Peter Vetsch,
famous for his skills handling
the press. In his quest to be
available to all journalists at all
times, at last year’s fair Mr
Vetsch had all his calls forwarded to his mobile phone when he
was out of the office. But unfortunately for all concerned, he
gave out the wrong number. And
so it was that an unsuspecting
banker in the Swiss Alps
received dozens of phone calls
from increasingly disgruntled
hacks in search of Mr Vetsch. A
hasty, all-expenses-paid, VIP
trip to Art Basel was arranged
but the banker politely declined
and took himself off on a hasty
holiday abroad. ■
Dispatches from the Danube
Thanks to Francesca von
Habsburg’s Thyssen Bornemisza
Art Contemporary Foundation
(TBA-21), Turkish artist Kutlug
Ataman’s 40-screen installation
Küba is currently floating up the
Danube on a customised ship. This
ambitious “biennale on a barge” is
visiting seven countries in seven
weeks on its 2,000km journey
from the Black Sea to the Black
Forest: arriving a fortnight ago in
Budapest, and this week in
Bratislava. But because of its per-
ART BASEL 2006 EDITION
sonal material Ataman has vowed
never to show his revealing mass
portrait of the inhabitants of this
Istanbul ghetto in his native country, where he has previously courted controversy with his gay feature
films. Specially commissioned
exhibitions have been left in the
cities it has passed through (far
right, Agár—the Hungarian
Greyhound Project in Budapest).
Fairgoers can get a flavour of the
Bulgarian leg of the journey at
Nedko Solakov’s A BG Bar, a
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The Art Newspaper
ArtBasel Fair Daily edition
Group Editorial Director:
Anna Somers Cocks
Managing Director: James Knox
Editor: Cristina Ruiz
Managing Editor: Jane Morris
Assistant Editor: Gareth Harris
Art Market Editor: Georgina Adam
Correspondents: Marc Spiegler, Adrian Dannatt,
Ossian Ward, Helen Stoilas
Picture editor: William Oliver
Production Manager: Eyal Lavi
Photographer: Katherine Hardy
Researcher: Elizabeth Williams
Project Manager: Patrick Kelly
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©2006 The Art Newspaper Ltd. All rights
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4
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
$95m Picasso sale draws out top works in Basel
“Prices have gone crazy”
CONTINUED FROM PAGE
1
auction last year was $148m.
“Picasso is a dream,” says
Helly Nahmad whose family
company has been assiduously
stockpiling works by the artist for
decades. “He painted with incredible diversity, he was hugely prolific, every turn he took created
new waves in art history. And
there is great liquidity in his
work.” Indeed, every year over
1,500 Picassos change hands at
auction, and an unknown number
through dealers.
As well as the major paintings
priced in the tens of millions, there
is a rich offering of Picassos at
many price levels this year at Art
Basel, such as prints in the thousands of dollars with Cristea (L5).
“It is interesting how the focus
of collecting has shifted,” says
Matthias
Rastofer
of
Gmurzynska. “Twenty years ago,
cubist works were the most desirable. Then it was a Marie-Thérèse
or nothing else. Today either Blue
period or late works are heavily
sought after,” he says.
As well as being the ultimate
luxury brand, Picasso has also
proved to be a good investment:
according to Artprice.com, €100
invested in one of his works in
1997 had an average value of
€165 in April this year.
Georgina Adam
The $95.2m Picasso (left) and the
1969 Homme à la Pipe, which is
with Thomas Gibson (J5)
Baltic investigated over Chris Burden bridge
The Baltic Arts Centre in
Gateshead, North East England,
has faced an official enquiry over a
commission by Chris Burden, the
American artist whose cement
installation, Beehive Bunker, is currently on display in the Messeplatz
in Basel as part of the art fair.
We can reveal that the investigation was undertaken by the
National Audit Office, which
scrutinises public spending on
behalf of Parliament. It did not
publish its findings but these
were summarised in a letter last
month to Liberal Democrat MP
Alan Beith.
For the opening of Baltic in
July 2002, Burden made Tyne
Bridge, a 30-foot replica of the
The bridge of contention, and Burden’s Beehive Bunker, 2006, at the Messeplatz outside Art Basel
Gateshead-Newcastle bridge, at a
cost of £100,000. It is established
practice that when UK public
galleries commission works of
art, the gallery initially pays pro-
duction costs, and if the artist
then sells a work, the expenses
will be reimbursed.
In early 2004, Tyne Bridge was
bought for the Parisian headquar-
ters of Louis Vuitton, whose
chairman is the collector Bernard
Arnault, for a figure believed to
be £400,000. Serious efforts to
recover the £100,000 costs paid
by Baltic were not made until
recently, when letters were sent to
the artist and his gallery,
Gagosian. These included threats
of legal proceedings.
Last week a Baltic spokesperson said that “all matters between
Chris Burden and Baltic [were]
settled”, in April. The gallery was
unwilling to say whether a payment has been received and if it
covers the full £100,000.
The National Audit Office also
raised questions about a £175,000
commission by former Turner
Prize winner Antony Gormley,
who now serves as a Baltic
trustee. Martin Bailey
❏ For full story see:
www.theartnewspaper.com
5
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
Exclusive interview with Art Basel director Sam Keller
A
“Art Basel
is the world’s
most
important
fair... and it
will continue
to be after
I’ve left”
rt Basel director Samuel
Keller recently announced
that he will become head of
the Beyeler Foundation in 2008.
His departure from Art Basel,
which he has directed since 2000,
has became a widely discussed
topic in the art world. In an exclusive interview with The Art
Newspaper, Keller discusses his
decision, the transition and Art
Basel’s future.
TAN: Why are you leaving?
SK: There are opportunities in life
to which you can’t say no. Also, I
care deeply about Art Basel and
realised this would be the best
possible way to leave my job—I
am staying in the same city, and
have almost two years to find a
successor and properly introduce
him or her to the art world.
In terms of my successor, the
first step is not to look at the person, but rather to look at the longterm structure. Then we’ll look
internationally; this position is too
important to limit the search to
Swiss passport holders only.
TAN: Would you consider
having two directors, one
for Art Basel and one
for Art Basel/Miami Beach?
SK: I don’t want to speculate,
but different models are possible. Obviously, it doesn’t have
to be the same person, but that’s
something to discuss with the
fair organisers.
TAN: For years you’ve been an
icon of the art world’s internationalisation. Why stay in Basel?
SK: It’s a great place for art, and
being here allows me to be a
hometown person while working
internationally—look at the
example of architects Herzog &
de Meuron. Also, I’m from the
Riehen area, where the Beyeler
Fondation is located. As a child I
used to run around in the park
that surrounds that museum. So
it’s an emotional thing, too.
But the main reason for the
decision was Beyeler, because the
Beyelers are among those most
responsible for Basel being an art
city, which inspired people like
me, with no family art background. Beyeler founded the fair
and he recommended me as the
director. I wouldn’t be where I am
without him, nor would the fair.
TAN: Was directing a museum
always an ambition for you?
SK: I never had a career plan, I
only knew that I wanted a role
that brought me closer to art.
One of the few problems with
my current job is that the art is
only in our halls twice a year. So
I envy gallerists their day-to-day
relationship with art and admired
the way someone like Beyeler
takes a painting in his hands and
holds it in his lap like a child and
praises it.
TAN: Two years is a long time
to be on the way out.
SK: I wanted to leave Art Basel
in the right way, which means
realising all the ideas in the
pipeline. In America it’s normal
for people to announce their
departure and leave immediately.
In Switzerland we think long-
term. Also, art fairs work in yearlong cycles. Continuity is very
important and this time frame
makes it possible.
TAN: There’s a real fear in the
art world that the fair will suffer once you’re gone.
SK: Art Basel is built upon a
wide organisation. It was the
world’s most important fair before
I came, it is now, and it will continue to be after I’ve left. I’m
totally confident that the services
and organisational skills that
make Basel outstanding are in
good hands. And I’m not disappearing, since I will stay involved
in a consulting role as chairman
of Art Basel, putting my experience and network to work for the
fair, just as Beyeler has.
TAN: People don’t associate
the Beyeler Foundation with
the type of contemporary work
that became more prominent
during your directorship
of the fair.
SK: I’ll only discuss the future
of the Beyeler Foundation once
I’m there, but Ernst Beyeler
asked me to take care of his
foundation, not to flip it upside
down and change everything.
Also, my interest in art has
always been very broad, not limited by dates. For me, modern
and contemporary are parts of the
same body; the two belong
together. That’s been my
approach personally and with Art
Basel—and I don’t see why that
would change.
Marc Spiegler
6
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
Opening reviews
Collectors attracted
to a bit of rough
Despite the scruffiness, top collectors descend on Liste
BASEL. Despite its designation as
the “Young Art Fair”, Liste 06, in
its 11th year, is the oldest alternative event around. To keep the fair
fresh, the 59 exhibitors (a third
here for the first time) are only
allowed to attend for three or four
years, and only show artists aged
under 40.
Liste has been a seedbed for
upcoming galleries, and a third of
past Liste exhibitors are now
ensconced in Art Basel, including
London’s trendy Herald Street
Gallery and Hotel. Darren Flook
of Hotel, who is showing in Art
Statements, says he will miss the
informal, fun atmosphere of Liste:
“When we were accepted for Art
Basel I though “oh, that’s wrecked
everything, now I have to sit in the
conference centre instead of having beer in the sun at Liste!”
Others find the deliberate
scruffiness of the fair off-putting,
but it is thought to be the place to
discover emerging names–as long
as you don’t mind tripping over
some of the art or sifting through
a great deal of dross.
Nonetheless, a posse of major
collectors including Donald and
Mira Rubell, Sue and Michael
Hort, Michel Ringier, Miuccia
Prada and Ethan Westfrank had
clattered up the staircases and
segued around the labyrinthine
corridors yesterday, and business
was reported to be brisk.
This year Liste has built a tentannex to accommodate ten new
exhibitors, and add space for the
constantly increasing visitor numbers. Unfortunately the pillars supporting the black tent were distracting and the extra area is awkward, with no chance to stand back
from most of the works of art.
Among the newcomers to the
fair in this section is the Parisian
gallery Cosmic, showing work by
a young British artist, James
Hopkins. The gallery had pre-sold
James Hopkins, Decadence and Demise, 2006, with Cosmic Gallery
his original work, Decadence and
Demise, 2006, (€20,000), a mixed
media piece showing a skull with
a globe and disco ball for the
eyes, a line of beer bottles for
teeth and a pair of champagne
bottles for the nose. Also treating
the theme of death was Sinner and
Winner (2006, €8,500) a pearl
necklace in the shape of a skull on
top of a Bible.
Liste certainly offers an internationally diverse range of galleries:
another first-timer is Guangzhou’s
Vitamin Creative Space showing
Zheng Guogu’s Garden Project,
(2004-06) with plastic flowering
trees surrounding a large plinth
covered in melted wax ($20,000).
From Sweden, Natalia Goldin is
showing very pretty detailed paint-
ings on plexiglass by Anna
Camner. Three out of four were
sold before the fair.
Poland’s Raster Gallery sold
Zbigniew Rogalski’s Self Portrait,
2005, at the opening of the fair for
€21,500, but the gallery had other
Rogalski works available, as well
as paintings by the equally fashionable Polish artist Rafal Bujnowski.
Director Lukasz Gorczyca was
fielding a constant flow of collectors as the fair opened.
At the opening, the Oslo gallery
Standard sold two of the three-edition The Coffeetableisation of
Everything, 2006, a slab of a book
enshrined in a perspex box but bare
of any other ornament.
Georgina Adam
and Elizabeth Williams
Design Miami/Basel
kicks off in style
BASEL. The first edition of Design
Miami/Basel, which opened yesterday, has achieved a double
coup: it is showing some of the
best design pieces to be seen on
the market in the last three months
and has united 17 of the most
high-profile dealers in the auspicious setting of the neo-Gothic
Elisabethen Church, erected
between 1857 and 1865, located
behind the Kunsthalle.
The French art fair FIAC was
the first to combine design works
and contemporary art in 2004.
Then, Design 05 held last
December during Art Basel
Miami Beach was a huge hit.
Now, the Swiss event is hoping to
emulate the success of its Miami
counterpart by bringing together
the right buyers, the best works
and the most striking venue.
The new fair is certainly timely: Lounge Chair (1998) by the
Australian
designer
Marc
Newson recently sold at auction
at Phillips de Pury in New York
for a stunning $520,000. Jostling
for attention at the Basel event
are some of Paris’s top dealers,
including Patrick Seguin (T3)
who hopes to sell Serge Mouille’s
1956 Saturne Ceiling Lamp for
around €400,000.
Manhattan gallery Antik (C6)
has a 1933 Aktaeon mask by Axel
Salto at $85,000 while the
Shanghai gallery Contrasts (C4)
is exhibiting giant celadon skittles
by Peter Ting (the gallery
refused to disclose the price).
Gabrielle Ammann
gallery
from Cologne
(C2)
has
installed a lacquered bench (Iceberg,
2003) by the UK-based star
architect Zaha Hadid, one of an
edition of nine, on sale for around
€40,000.
Modernist works look more at
home in the concrete foyer theatre
underneath the church. The Vitra
museum, Weil am Rhein, is displaying Prouvé tables on the staircase leading down to the theatre.
The museum plans to hold a show
of works by the French designer
next year.
A Scala light fitting by Poul
Henningsen made for a cinema in
Aarhus in 1955 is on sale for
€38,000 at Dansk Moebelkunst
gallery (T2). The R20th-century
gallery from New York (C8) is
showing bespoke furniture by the
Brazilian Joaquim Tenreiro while
Vittorio Introini’s Judd-like aluminium bookcase on sale at
Philippe Denys’s stand (C7) contrasts with Galerie Downtown’s
(C5) Nuage coloured bookcase by
Charlotte Perriand (around
€150,000).
Look out for other star objects
such as a Martin Szekely table at
Kreo gallery (T7), on offer for
€38,000, or a 1968 ornament representing a drop of rain by Gino
Marotta on sale for €18,000 at La
Galerie Italienne (T9). The fair
continues until Friday at 2pm.
Valerie Duponchelle
Sought after: a desk version of
Saturne Ceiling Lamp by Mouille
Meanwhile in Zurich...
ZURICH. Art lovers travelling to
Switzerland from abroad to visit
Art Basel teemed around Zurich’s
active scene all of last weekend as
a warm up for the main event,
starting with the Friday launch of
Grieder Contemporary, the new
space opened by Damien Grieder,
which is housed inside his newly
renovated post-war modernist
house in Kusnacht, along the city’s
“Gold
Coast”.
Reflecting
Grieder’s days as co-founder of
Berlin’s now-closed Galerie
Grieder von Puttkamer, his guests
included the German capital’s
dealers Thilo Wermke and
Matthias Arndt and major collector
Stephan Landwehr, alongside
London collector Charles Asprey
and dealer Henry Alsop. The stun-
ning view of Lake Zurich and a
long-awaited warm evening clearly invigorated his guests. “I
thought I threw the last ones out at
4.30 in the morning,” Grieder says.
“But in the morning I discovered
more of them in the house.”
The next night, the Zurich
Kunsthalle and de Pury
Luxembourg gallery threw
adjoining openings followed by
competing parties. The dinner in
the Zurich Kunsthalle was
framed by a major retrospective
of Los Angeles painter Laura
Owens, and animated by artist
Annelise Coste’s DJing, while
next door newly appointed
Baltic programme director
Jérôme Sans did double duty: he
had co-curated the show, which
Koons, Warhol, and Hirst—as seen by Pat York
included bad-boy artists such as
Kendell Geers and Kader Attia
(see p8), alongside a live tattooing booth featuring designs from
Wim Delvoye; after dinner, his
band Liquid Architecture enter-
tained the guests.
Sunday was more civil. A
packed brunch at Galerie
Gmurzynska featured work by
Greek artists alongside photographs of famous artists such as
Jeff Koons, David Hockney and
John Baldessari snapped by Pat
York (wife of actor/collector
Michael York). “We’re going to
be doing a major book of the
photos,” says the gallery’s
Matthias Rastorfer. Meanwhile,
the
Kunsthalle-organised
Contemporary Art Day Zurich
took American collectors such as
David Teiger and the Rubells
around Zurich’s best corporate
and private collections before
escorting
them
to
the
Limattstrasse 270 complex of
galleries and museums, finally
depositing them at the home of
powerhouse local collector Maja
Hoffman for a dinner described
by one attendee as “mind-blowingly stylish.” Marc Spiegler
8
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
Art Unlimited
David Claerbout’s violent
assault on the eyes
Photo: Katherine Hardy
■ The Belgian artist David Claerbout is best known for his photolightboxes of Venice installed in blacked-out galleries, which slowly reveal
themselves to be eerie, glowing landscapes once the viewer’s eyes adjust to
the darkness. His latest video projection, White House at Galerie Micheline
Szwajcer (D4) seems, on first viewing, to be a ten-minute Francophone
Shakespearean gangster flick, with the two protagonists embroiled in a
bitter duel to the death. A series of violent assaults—a shooting, a beating
and a brutal head-crushing scene—are played out theatrically in front of a
gleaming white neo-classical façade. His strange tale might even be
mistaken for a political comment on African immigration. But it becomes
apparent on repeat viewings that the piece is a meditation on changing light
phenomena at different times of the day. Seventy near-identical takes of the
same surreal scene were shot over 24 hours as the intensity of light changes
gradually from sunrise to sunset. Ossian Ward
■ Spectacle is everything in the
hangar-like hall of Art Unlimited
where artists are given carte
blanche to show head-spinning
outsize, single works. This seventh
edition consists of 74 “extravagant,
ambitious or special projects” says
the curator Simon Lamunière.
The bigger, the better for
German artist Carsten Höller who
likes making works for colossal
spaces. His Mirror Carousel, a
full-size working fairground ride
is on sale for $400,000 with
Gagosian (F10). Höller goes out
of his way to disorient viewers
with his “confusion machines”.
The chairs of the silently rotating
ride, a mass of mirrors and lightbulbs, move in the opposite direction to the central column.
Höller told The Art Newspaper
that visitors to the fair should “not
really” ride on the attraction, “for
safety reasons, but it is constructed
to do so”. This ruling did not however stop viewers from taking a
spin on the metallic merry-goround at the opening. A second
“outdoor version” of the carousel
(Carousel Mirror, 2006) goes on
show next month at Sudeley Castle
in central England in a group exhibition organised by Gagosian
director Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst
(1 July-31 October).
Höller is also taking up the
challenge of filling another gargantuan arena, the Turbine Hall of
London’s Tate Modern, in
October. Gareth Harris
That sinking feeling: Attia closes in on visitors
narrow mirrored room with giant
drills burrowing down from ceiling to floor. The drills’ slow rotation and the mirrors’ repeating
images create a feeling of both
free-falling through space and
Photo: Katherine Hardy
■ Paris-based artist Kader Attia
loves to unsettle his audience. His
new installation at Art Unlimited
this year, Infinities (F4), has a
sign outside warning visitors to
enter at their own risk. Inside is a
being squeezed by the walls.
Attia suggests that it would be
interesting to have a claustrophobic person enter the room and
address their fears. By using art as
a psychoanalytic tool, Attia says:
“I believe I am following the tradition of art therapy of the 1970s
with this work”. He adds that if
this installation were to be shown
in a museum, visitors should enter
alone so that they have no other
point of reference. Priced at
€160,000, the work has already
excited the interest of, among others, a Swiss and a US collector.
This new piece is less political
than Attia’s previous installations, which include last year’s
Loop, a large tent at Art
Unlimited which contained a
whirling dervish and spinning
breakdancers, and referred to the
clash between traditional Islamic
culture and the interests of contemporary Islamic youth. It was
bought by Simon de Pury for
around €80,000. The artist is also
showing a series of drawings
examining Jewish and Islamic
lifestyles in Paris with his
Swedish
gallery
AndréhnSchiptjenko in the main fair (K3).
His work is also part of a group
exhibition at the gallery Caratsch
de Pury & Luxembourg in Zurich
until 29 July (see p6).
Helen Stoilas
Julius Popp: making a splash
■ Visitors to Art Unlimited walk straight into a mesmerising piece at the
entrance: a waterfall by the German artist Julius Popp that spells out words
and figures (C10). This 2006 work, entitled Bit.fall, consists of 360 nozzles
which project a “curtain” of watery text across eight metres made up of
current buzzwords selected from internet news websites. The words and
numbers depicted appear randomly before falling into a tank where the
water is then recycled. An earlier version of this work from 2005 is in the
Saatchi collection. Bit.fall is priced at just under €100,000 but it is already
reserved by a “major European collector”, possibly French billionaire
François Pinault, although the Parisian gallery Jocelyn Wolff would not
reveal the buyer’s identity. Wolff also has a stand in Statements (A22), with
work on show by Leipzig artist Clemens von Wedemeyer. Georgina Adam
Photo: Katherine Hardy
Carsten
Höller’s fair
(ground)
attraction
THIS PAGE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY UBS
The UBS Art Collection
Art is a reflection of who we are,
as individuals and as a corporation. It reminds us of our common past and points to the
future. This is also true for UBS.
The UBS Art Collection reflects
the ground that UBS has covered
in becoming one of the largest
financial institutions in the world.
It contains the most important
works from our previous collections in the US and Europe while
simultaneously making reference
to the business areas that have
been integrated into the company.
Each of the companies that have
become part of the UBS Group in
the last few decades has a long history. Union Bank of Switzerland
and Swiss Bank Corporation, the
two forerunners of UBS, and
PaineWebber were founded in the
19th century, while SG Warburg
was established at the beginning of
the 20th century. And all of these
companies shared the same conviction: creative thinking and prudent risk tolerance lead to allaround success.
The main part of the collection
stems from the merger of UBS
and PaineWebber in 2000.
Donald B. Marron, who is himself a first-rate collector and former CEO of PaineWebber, built
one of the most important collections of contemporary art in the
US over the course of thirty years.
His first acquisitions were prints,
followed later by drawings and
paintings. They included works by
Jasper Johns, Robert
Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein,
Frank Stella and Ed Ruscha, who
at the time were still in the early
stages of their careers.
Although the collection includes a
variety of styles, it never claimed
to offer a comprehensive overview
of contemporary art. Quality is a
much more important consideration when selecting works of art.
Indeed, although the collection
includes the works of internationally established artists such as
Chuck Close, Lucian Freud,
Jasper Johns, Anselm Kiefer, Roy
Lichtenstein, Elizabeth Murray,
Susan Rothenberg and Frank
Stella, special attention was also
paid to younger artists such as
Carroll Dunham, Günther Förg
and Kiki Smith.
The UBS Art Collection brings
together the works of
PaineWebber with those of the
two forerunners of UBS, Union
Bank of Switzerland (UBS) and
Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC),
each of which followed different
approaches in acquiring their col-
lections. SBC specialized in Swiss
artists, while UBS focused on
young international artists and
made the promotion of young talent one of the most important
objectives of the collection. The
present-day UBS, which was created from the merger of the two
banks in 1998, decided to combine both of these emphases.
With the introduction of a unified brand in 2003, the question
for UBS was whether the works of
art, which were held all over the
world, should be consolidated or
even sold. UBS decided to keep
them and assemble an art collection which is now highly regarded
around the world. In 2004, independent experts reviewed the
entire collection worldwide and
selected those works that are
museum-quality. The result of this
review is The UBS Art Collection,
which was officially presented to
the public in December 2004.
The UBS website
(www.ubs.com/artcollection) also
offers an online museum that
allows visitors from around the
world to see the collection as part
of a virtual exhibition.
With more than 900 paintings,
photographs, drawings and sculptures created over the last half century by some of the world’s most
important artists, The UBS Art
Collection is considered to be one
of the most significant corporate
collections of contemporary art in
the world today. Most of the artwork in the collection is used to
decorate offices and other spaces
in UBS branches around the
world. As a result, the size of the
collection, and to a certain degree
the size of the works of art, is limited. In some respects, however,
the collection veers away from traditional ideas. Corporate collections are often characterized by a
certain neutrality and an emphasis
on “harmless” genre paintings –
preferably landscapes and still
lifes. These criteria do not apply
to The UBS Art Collection, which
is consequently not restricted to
particular schools or styles.
Another unique feature of The
UBS Art Collection that distinguishes it from most other corporate collections is its vitality and
quality. To maintain this high
standard, the pieces in the collection are regularly reappraised and
revalued. Furthermore, in conjunction with independent experts
(curators and members of the
advisory board), UBS assesses
whether top-quality pieces should
be purchased for the collection. It
© Chuck Close, courtesy of PaceWildenstein, New York
Reflection of a company, reflection of our time
Close, Chuck, Self-Portrait,
1991, part of The UBS Art
Collection
makes no difference whether the
works are by an established artist
or an up-and-coming talent. Nor
are the works to be kept solely in
the Bank’s offices. They will in
future be shown in numerous
museums around the world as a
separate collection.
One of the first exhibitions of The
UBS Art Collection took place in
spring 2005 in prestigious surroundings: the great museum for
contemporary art, the Museum of
Modern Art in New York, which
opened the exhibition
Contemporary Voices: Works from
The UBS Art Collection, comprising
seventy works in a variety of artistic
forms, including painting, sculpture and photography, by European
and American artists active over the
past fifty years. Most of the works
were shown at the Museum of
Modern Art for the first time. In
the following winter of 2005/2006,
some exhibits from The UBS Art
Collection were presented to a
European audience for the first
time at the Fondation Beyeler in
Basel.
The UBS Art Collection’s journey
continues. Since the end of May
this year, over 50 photographs
from The UBS Art Collection
have been on display in London
to mark the complete re-hang of
Tate Modern’s permanent
Collection
(http://www.tate.org.uk/), which
is supported by UBS. The UBS
Art Collection thus remains true
to its dynamic vision.
UBS Openings: Tate Modern
Collection 2006 is at Tate
10
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL DAILY EDITION 13 JUNE 2006
Exhibitions in Basel
■ Matisse:
Figure, Colour, Space
With 160 paintings, 25 sculptures,
80 drawings and prints by
Matisse, this large-scale survey,
organised in collaboration with
K20 Kunstsammlung NordrheinWestfalen in Düsseldorf, covers
the artist’s entire career.
Fondation Beyeler, Baselstrasse,
101, ☎ 061 645 97 00, Thu-Tue:
10am-6pm, Wed: 10am-8pm.
Over 100 drawings and 40 paintings are on view, some from the
Kunstmuseum’s permanent collection and others on loan from
the private collection of the
Prince of Lichtenstein. The show
traces Holbein’s career from a
painter of religious subjects to a
court artist of international fame.
Kunstmuseum Basel, St AlbanGraben 16, ☎ 061 206 62 62, TueSun: 10am-5pm, Wed 10am-8pm,
closed Mon.
and Francis Alÿs
Strasse 170, ☎ 061 312 83 88, ThuTue: 11am-5pm; Wed: 2pm-8pm.
English artist Tacita Dean and
Belgian artist Francis Alÿs both
refer to walking, travelling and
ephemeral objects or events in
their work. On view are 17 film
installations, drawings and photographs by Tacita Dean and the
Sign Painting Project, a single,
extensive work by Francis Alÿs.
Schaulager, Ruchfeldstrasse 19,
☎ 061 335 32 32, Tue, Wed, Fri:
noon-6pm, Thu: noon-7pm, SatSun: 10am-5pm.
■ Joe Colombo
Furniture designs and sketches,
photography, films, plans and
architectural models by the classic 60s designer, who created the
Elda armchair, the Universale
chair and the Alogena lamp.
Vitra Design Museum, CharlesEames-Strasse, Weil-am-Rhein,
☎ +49 7621 702 32 00, Tue-Sun:
11am-6pm. From the Badischer
Bahnhof, take bus number 55.
■ Tacita Dean
■
■ Lee Lozano
This first extensive solo show of
American artist Lee Lozano in
Europe includes figurative paintings and sketches from the 60s,
conceptual art and drawings. His
“Wave” series is included.
Kunsthalle Basel, Steinenberg 7,
☎ 061 206 99 00, Tue, Wed, Fri:
11am-6pm, Thu: 11am-8.30pm,
Sat-Sun: 11am-5pm.
Starting out as a mainly abstract
painter, the German artist Daniel
Richter has shifted towards figuration in recent years, and this
show present a selection of his
paintings from the last five years.
Also on view is a selection of
works by national and international artists collected by the
Emanuel
Hoffmann-Stiftung,
including paintings, video installations and photography.
Museum für Gegenwartskunst,
St Alban-Rheinweg 60, ☎ 061 206
62 62, Tue-Sun: 10am-5pm,
closed Mon.
■ Edgar Varese
Jointly organised by the Paul
Sacher Foundation and the
Museum Tinguely, this show is
dedicated to the great 20th-century composer who influenced
modern and contemporary artists
such as Calder, Duchamp, Miró,
Le Corbusier, and Man Ray. On
view are scripts, photographs and
objects from Varese’s life, as
well as sound installations of
his music.
Museum Jean Tinguely, Paul
Sacher-Anlage 1, ☎ 061 681 93 20,
Tue-Sun: 11am-7pm, closed Mon.
■ Hans Holbein the Younger:
the Basel Years, 1515-32
Daniel Richter and
Emanuel Hoffmann-Stiftung
■ Jan Christensen,
Martin Walde,
and Andreas Hagenbach
Jan Christensen has created the
large-scale outdoor installation
Exit Basel specifically for the
Kunsthaus Baselland, which is
also showing an exhibition of his
prints and paintings. Also on view
is the first solo show in
Switzerland of the Australian
installation artist Martin Walde,
and a new series of photographs
by Andreas Hagenbach.
Kunsthaus Baselland, St Jakob-
■ Today’s events
Breakfast
Art Film
8.30am-11am, the Belle Epoque
room, Hotel Les Trois Rois
(Drie Könige), Blumenrain 2
With Benedikt and Lauren
Taschen.
10pm-midnight, Stadtikino
Basel, Steinenberg 7
A programme of films by artists,
curated by Benjamin Weil of
SFMOMA.Tonight’s offerings
include Yasumasa Morimura’s
“Me Holding a Gun: for Andy
Warhol” (1998) and Kendell
Geers and S-338’s, “The Story
of the Eye” (2002).
Design Miami/Basel
9am-2pm, Elisabethenkirche
and Foyer Theatre,
Elisabethenstrasse 10 and 16
The first Basel edition of this
fair presents modern and
contemporary design and decorative arts from 17 international
design galleries (see p6).
Art Club
11pm-3am, Campari Bar,
Kunsthalle Basel, Steinenberg 7
With DJ Iñaki and Blami.