BASEL, Switzerland — The space age has arrived at Europe’s greatest modern and contemporary art fair, courtesy of the woven aluminum bands of Herzog & de Meuron’s huge new exhibition hall, which transform the look of the once quaint Messeplatz. Combine this with Tadashi Kawamata’s faux-favela shacks temporarily sited outside the main entrance, and Art Basel’s 44th edition seems to convey two quite different messages about the future at once. Luckily, the mood and tenor emanating from the 304 international exhibitors inside is decidedly more upbeat this year than last, thanks to a veritable river of commerce flowing through the great hall.
That flow began on Tuesday, courtesy the unhurried first influx of VIP collectors, curators, art advisors, and well-connected hangers-on. Important American collectors including Eli Broad, Ron Pizzuti, Marty Margulies, Peter Brant, Leon Black, Howard Rachofsky, and Don and Mera Rubell roamed the aisles, as did the Russian Roman Abramovich.
Commerce ignited instantly at Paris Galerie Kamel Mennour as “Overlapping Figures,” a pair of bronze, plaster, and wood sculptures from 2011-12 by Venice Biennale Silver Lion winner Camille Henrot sold at €18,000 ($23,900) each, as did six of the nine limited-edition videos of “Grosse Fatigue,” the work that won Art Basel's own emerging art prize, selling at prices ranging from €30-50,000 ($39,800-66,400).
The scent of Venice was also in the air at London’s Victoria Miro, where Sarah Sze’s 48-inch-high “Standing Pile (Cairn)” (2013), a deceptively light sculpture in mixed media and concrete block, sold for $32,000. It is close in spirit to the sculptures she made for the American Pavilion.
Bigger transactions were also registered quickly at Milan/London’s Massimo de Carlo, where a suite of five small canvases by Rudolf Stingel, “Untitled (Bolego)” (2006) — which features the artist with his head bowed, presumably blowing out birthday candles whose light is suggested at the bottom edge of the canvases — sold to an American collector for approximately $2 million. Moments later, New York private dealer Philippe Segalot entered the stand, heard the Stingels had sold and threw up his hands, exclaiming, “Shit, I can leave now.”
Stingel’s stature was further burnished at London’s Sadie Coles which was displaying his huge “Untitled” self-portrait from 2012 — also sold for approximately $2 million.
A lot of art prospecting was also going on at New York’s 303 Gallery as two large untitled silver paintings from 2013 by Jacob Kassay — a new addition to the gallery’s artist roster — sold at $150,000 apiece. Swiss artist Valentin Carron’s “David,” a Robert Gober-esque floor piece of entwined feet in acrylic, lacquer, and dichroitic glass in two parts, sold for CH35,000 ($37,700). Another Carron work, an impressively scaled painting resembling a stained glass window and bearing a long title, “Ein auto, ein Schiff, ubelriechernder schmerz Weiss und gedampft” (2013), also went for the same price.
At Antwerp’s Zeno X, “Unfired Clay Figures” by Mark Manders (another Biennale participant, representing the Netherlands), sold for €140,000 ($185,900), while a small figurative painting by Michael Borremans, “The Well” (2013), sold for €150,000 ($199,200).
Los Angeles-based Blum & Poe, slated to open a New York satellite in the near future, sold many works in the opening hours of the VIP view, including Yoshitomo Nara’s smiling oil-on-canvas “Cloudy” (2006), for $250,000, as well as lesser-known works by several other Japanese artists connected with the avant-garde Mono-Ha group from the 1970s. These included Nobuo Sekine’s “Part of Nothingness” (1970/1994), a wall relief comprised of cloth, stone, and rope for $150,000, and two works by Kishio Suga — “Fragments of Space” (1973), in wood, glass and ink, and the felt “Entirety of Corner” (1975) — which went for approximately $60,000 apiece.
The gallery also sold two newly cast, incised abstract bronze sculptures by Mark Grotjahn — “Untitled (Sun, out of the shell standing flat SF2.a)” and “Untitled (Two Noses out of the shell standing flat SF.a)” — for $175,000 each. “It’s the unfolding of a new era — not frantic, but super-steady and thoughtful,” philosophized Blum about the state of the art market. “People know their stuff and recognize quality.”
As for what to expect from the remaining days at the fair, Blum added, “Some bigger things are also on reserve and I’m waiting for the more thoughtful people to come back.”
Paris’s Galerie Crousel offered a copper fragment from Danh Vo’s remarkable project, “We the People (Detail)” (2011-13), the artist's recreation of the original panels from the Statue of Liberty. Weighing in at 195 kilograms, this amazing work sold for €65,000.
Hall 2.1, situated on the second floor of the exhibition space, had more primary market material than the more established fare found in Hall 2.0, on the ground floor, where one finds the more blue-chip salons of Acquavella Galleries and Pace. This year, Galerie Bischofberger and Krugier, two major Swiss galleries long associated with Art Basel, didn’t participate, leaving big chunks of sought-after space and some rare chances for galleries to move downstairs. Among those making the move were Metro Pictures and White Cube.
New York’s Cheim & Read also benefitted, moving to more central space, nestled between powerhouses Hauser & Wirth and White Cube. “We used to be by the bathroom,” said John Cheim about his former location, “and now we have better neighbors.”
The gallery has already sold two Joan Mitchell AbEx-era paintings. “Untitled” (1956), for $6 million, went to a French couple, while “Untitled” (1965), was snapped up by a Polish foundation for $2 million. The gallery also sold Sean Scully’s handsome large-scale abstraction “Wall of Light Pink Orange” (2012), featuring rectangle- and square-shaped wedges of color, for $700,000, and Gada Amer’s “Black-RFGA” (2013), for $250,000, to a Mexican collector. Scully’s huge painting, featured nearby at Art Unlimited and priced at $1.5 million, had two museum reserves, according to Cheim.
There was also plenty of action at White Cube, where a £4-million ($5.3-million) Damien Hirst, “Love Remembered” (2007) was one of the more expensive offerings still available. Mark Bradford’s huge, multi-layered “Dusty Knees” (2013), in mixed media on canvas, had already sold for approximately $725,000. Three works by the fast-rising Chicago-bred artist Theaster Gates also found buyers, including the menacing “Shine Study 1” (2013) in wood, roofing paper, tar, and metal, which went for $135,000.
At a certain point, New York private dealer Alberto Mugrabi walked into the stand, encountering the already sold Gates. After beckoning White Cube’s Jay Jopling, he soon bought a larger one off the dealer’s iPad for approximately $240,000.
One might wonder what accounts for all of this spirited commerce after such a long season of fairs and auctions. “A million and a half to two million dollars doesn’t buy you very much anymore,” reasoned Oliver Barker, a top Sotheby’s contemporary specialist based in London and one of a horde of auction types trolling the fair looking for action (or at least market intelligence). “There’s a lot of unspent money from the May sales,” he continued, “and the mood seems very positive.” It certainly felt that way here, almost anywhere you looked.
New York newcomer Dominique Levy, at last a stand-alone gallerist after years as a partner with Robert Mnuchin in L&M Arts, instantaneously proved her mettle here. Her strong stand was full of delights: Robert Ryman’s “Untitled” painting from 1966, which sold “for north of $7 million,” according to Levy; a stunning Frank Stella suite of six 12-by-12-inch paintings from 1961, collectively titled “Six Benjamin Moore Paintings,” which went for north of $6 million; and a 2013 painting by newly represented gallery artist Pierre Soulages, sparkling with horizontal ridges of glistening jet black, which drew approximately €500,000 ($664,100).
At New York/London’s Helly Nahmad, the atmosphere was much better than recent headlines might lead you to assume. A small, impressive room off the main stand was decorated in thick white carpet and held a pair of white leather Modernist chairs, matching seven white Lucio Fontana“Concetto Spaziale” paintings from 1966 (the year the legendary Italian won the top prize at Venice for his “Manifesto Blanco” installation). So far, three Fontana paintings had sold for between $2 million and $6 million, according to Joe Nahmad, who came up with the idea for the Fontana homage.
The gallery also sold Alexander Calder’s beautiful and massive “Sumac” (1961), a hanging mobile in painted sheet metal and wire, for approximately $10 million.
Nearby, David Nahmad casually surveyed the action. When asked about the sales, however, he feigned ignorance, offering a seasoned observation from the buy-and-hold school of dealing: “I hope they [the gallery] sell the minimum because when you sell, you lose.”
To see images from Art Basel in Basel, click on the slideshow.