A colourful array of sales confirm Basel as the world’s best art fair
Asked why Art Basel, the Swiss fair for modern and contemporary art, which closed on Sunday, is the best in the world, my answer would probably be Ernst Beyeler, who founded it in 1970. Widely regarded as the greatest dealer in modern art since the war, he was the magnet to which the art world was drawn.
Eight years after his death, Beyeler’s presence still pervades the fair. His museum, built by Renzo Piano in Riehen in 1997, to house his superb collection, which included Cézanne, Monet, Picasso, Warhol, Richter and Doig, acts as an inspiration to the several thousand collectors who make the pilgrimage to Basel every year.
At the moment, the Fondation Beyeler is hosting an impressive exhibition pairing two mid-20th century giants, Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon, and its shop was doing a roaring trade in Bacon prints – 70 sold in two days, priced from 4,000 to 12,500 Swiss francs (£3,000 to £9,500) each.
The interaction of museums with the art market has grown even closer than this, though. At Basel, it was notable how an exhibition at the city’s Kunstmuseum was devoted to one of the hottest artists at the fair – Sam Gilliam, the octogenarian Africanamerican abstract painter.
Until 2005, no painting by Gilliam had fetched more than $10,000 (£7,500). Since then, prices for his large, colour-drenched, sometimes free-floating canvases have grown, reaching $885,000 at auction this year. At Basel, at least three galleries were selling his work, and David Kordansky, his dealer, sold 12 pieces in five days, priced between $60,000 and $2million. Two of these, reportedly, were hanging in the Kunstmuseum show.
Even before Pdiddy spent $20million on a painting by Kerry James Marshall, the American artist, in May, the boom in African American (or British) art had piqued the interest of market commentators. At Basel, paintings by at least a dozen such artists were selling like hot cakes.
Also surging were female artists. Following the $16million auction record for Joan Mitchell, the American abstract expressionist, in May, for instance, Basel was awash with Mitchells selling for up to $14million – the top reported price.
Female artists who surpassed auction record levels included Carol Bove ($1.5 million), Alina Szapocznikow ($950,000), Cathy Wilkes (£120,000), Huma Bhabha ($150,000), and Tala Madani ($120,000). All have quite young markets, and auctioneers cruising the fair will have taken note.
The success of these women should not, however, be labelled a gender issue; they would be selling anyway. For Sheila Hicks, the textile artist, for example, it was a museum show at the Centre Pompidou this year that transformed her market, said dealers at the fair, where 10 of her works sold for up to $200,000 each (far above her auction record).
The same dynamic would apply to Bernard Frize, the French artist, who is about to have a major show at the Pompidou. During the first two days of the fair, 18 of his abstract paintings sold at prices from €30,000 to €150,000 – again surpassing his auction record.
Museums were also active buyers. A diptych by Atul Dodiya, the Indian artist, was bought by Kunsthaus Zurich for $25,000 from Chemould Prescott Road gallery. And a sculpture by Bruce Nauman, the American artist, not in the fair but exhibited by a dealer at Schaulager, a privately funded venue that was hosting a concurrent Nauman exhibition, sold to the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation (one of Nauman’s biggest supporters) for a seven-figure sum.
Private museums and foundations are very much on the mind of Gabriel Castello, executive vice-chairman of Art Basel’s sponsor, UBS Bank. He is building a circle for ultra-high net worth art collectors, many of whom have or are building private museums, so that they can compare notes and generate patronage together. There are 40 members, and Castello plans to resurrect the private museum owners’ conference that Philip Dodd organised temporarily in London. Staging it in Basel during the fair would seem a natural fit, and of interest not only to the market, but to UBS, which would add significant members to its client list. Ernst Beyeler’s presence, of course, would endure here too.