Trump beats Kim, sort of, at Art Basel on Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Dec 7: A painting of Donald Trump dressed as Wonder Woman and defeating “Rocket Man” — North Korea’s Kim Jong- Un — is a star attraction at international art festival Art Basel, which opens Thursday in Miami Beach.
Also on display at the fair — which has become the Americas’ main art dealing hub since its first event in 2002 — are various works by Roy Lichtenstein and a painting by Willem de Kooning valued at $ 35 million.
The painting featuring the US president, entitled “President Trump Becomes a Wonder Woman, Unifies the Country and Fights Rocket Man,” was one of the top works at a private viewing on Wednesday.
The parody piece by Peter Saul shows Trump in the iconic garb of the female superhero, punching caricatures of Kim Jong- Un.
A 1979 painting by the Netherlands’ de Kooning is likely the show’s most expensive, valued at $ 35 million, according to Paul Gray of the Richard Grey Gallery, where it is being shown.
Other attractions include a work by Ellsworth Kelly and a 1969 Lichtenstein that has not been displayed in years, said Noah Horowitz, director of the Americas for Art Basel.
Art Basel Miami Beach which runs December 10 — weeks after the PTI art market showed its strength at a New York auction, where a Leonardo Da Vinci painting sold for a record $ 450.3 million.
Tens of thousands of artists, gallery owners and art lovers also tour parallel exhibits, fairs and other events that fill the streets of Miami Beach for a week.
One of them is a night show in which 300 drones fly over the city and form different shapes, like sculptures, up in the sky.
— AFP