A Bad at Sports Basel Art Fair Overdose!
The intro and outro are extra creepy this week. Highlights(?) include Duncan talking about some fantasy involving wearing tight short shorts and Teena McClelland!!! Tom Burtonwood interrupts the recording by shooting rubber bands. Chaos!
After Richard and Duncan are done making a mess of things, the real pros come in and present a fantastic report from Basel.
Lamis El Farra, emerging artist, and the EuroShark Mark Staff Brandl, seemingly perennially emerging black sheep artist, traverse and discuss the entirety of the King of Art Fairs, Art Basel. Yes: the Fair Itself, Art Statements, Art Unlimited, Scope, and the Solo Project. They only missed Liste and Print Basel. Sorry, but all the rest was already enough. Of course they were at the VIP opening (ahem) and managed to talk to more people than you can shake a stick at: artists, gallerists, museum directors, curators, critics, art magazine editors, fair organizers, all the hangers-on, ...er..., important elements of the international artworld.
Link to the podcast on BaS.
Name drops soon!
I had the privilege of attending Art Basel 39 which wrapped up yesterday and I can honestly say I was overwhelmed. While I've spent a considerable amount of time at New York's MoMA and London's Tate Modern (most of it spent daydreaming of how my favorite pieces would look in my humble abode), I don't think the average museum experience prepares you for the sheer magnitude of an event like Art Basel. The fair is dedicated to contemporary art in all its forms - paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.
While I understand that some reviewers were critical of the quality of the art on display, most notably the New York Times, I can't say I noticed. Since I'm neither a museum curator, a Russian oligarch or the ruler of a small oil-rich nation, I personally saw enough stunning works to more than satisfy my yearning.
Contemporary art boom brings opportunities, and challenges, for insurers
By Nazanin Lankarani
Published: May 30, 2008
PARIS: When Art Basel, the contemporary art fair that takes place every year in Basel, Switzerland, opens its doors Tuesday morning for the VIP preview, among the privileged guests will be a group of international collectors and art lovers invited by the specialist fine art and collectible insurer, AXA Art Insurance.
AXA Art, based in Cologne, is a sponsor and partner of both Art Basel and its U.S. counterpart, Art Basel Miami Beach, and also sponsors Tefaf Maastricht, the European fine art fair in the Dutch city of Maastricht, and several more local fairs like FIAC, the Paris contemporary art show, and Art Chicago.
"Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach continue to attract record numbers of visitors," said Ulrich Guntram, the insurer's chief executive. "Our partnership with the art fairs allows us to interact with existing and potential clients, to showcase our in-house competencies to an international audience."
As part of its partnership deal, AXA Art will extend 3,000 invitations to handpicked guests whose interest in art, and purchasing power, have been carefully pre-screened.
"The AXA Art brand is present and visible, but we look for a real partnership with the art fairs, not just the right to display its logo," Guntram said.
n addition to the VIP passes, AXA Art provides guided tours of the fair by its in-house specialists.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/30/arts/rcartaxa.php
From the Wall Street Journal
The world's oldest contemporary art fair, usually brimming with American collectors, kicked off Tuesday with a VIP opening at the convention center in this small industrial city in northwestern Switzerland. But this year, the scarcity of U.S. buyers in the fair's warren of gallery booths, as well as its courtyard cafe offering bratwurst and beer, has been palpable, with Europeans dominating the overall buying, dealers say. Sales remain solid, if less frenzied, than in recent seasons, dealers add. The fair closed Sunday.
I feel whole heartedly that blogging and the internet in general is helping artist connect to the world without a gallery interpreter. Without art fairs. I hate all art fairs. Yet I enjoyed this pod cast.