Art Basel
236 West 30th Street, 6th Floor, New York, New York 10001
646-589-0920
About Auction House
Art Basel's world-leading shows in Basel, Hong Kong and Miami connect collectors, galleries, and artists, and are a driving force in supporting the role galleries play in nurturing the careers of artists. The recently launched Art Basel Cities initiative highlights local art scenes and facilitates international collaborations. The Art Basel publications The Art Market and the Art Market Principles and Best Practices are a commitment to increasing the transparency and accountability of the art market.Auction Previews & News
22 Results
Art IndustryArt Basel Confirms the Market’s Rosy Health
The 2022 edition of Art Basel posted record sales and splendid attendance. A return "to normal" welcomed by gallery owners. Number 341 (2022) by Leonardo Drew.Courtesy Leonardo Drew, Goodman Gallery and Galerie Lelong © Art Basel It’s a reliable gauge for the art market, and this year, Art Basel turned out to be a fine vintage with plentiful sales and records galore. Above all, it confirmed the rosy health of the sector, which, at $65.1B was back to pre-Covid levels. Some 70,000 visitors flocked to see 289 exhibitors in the Messeplatz in Basel between June 14 and 19, as the event returned to cruising speed after severe disruptions since the start of the pandemic. At this reunion with collectors and institutions—300 museums turned up—the main international galleries had a ball. They set the trend from the very first hours of the event, sealing record sales, as usual, during the "VIP previews". Hauser & Wirth, with sales of $75 M on the first day, set the bar high with a Spider by Louise Bourgeois selling for $40 M: a new record for the famous French-American sculptor. Million Dollar Sales and MoreWith David Zwirner, a work by Félix González-Torres went for $12.5 M, while Pace made a splash with Jeff Koons' "Moon" sculptures, along with their NFTs, at $2 M. For Thaddaeus Ropac, too, each day at Art Basel brought success. On June 14, the French gallery made a fine showing with six works by Georg Baselitz, including X-Ray Lila, which sold for $1.35 M. The following day, Robert Rauschenberg was the star with Street Contract/ROCI MEXICO, which sold for $3.5 M, and All Abordello Doze 2 (Japanese Recreational Claywork) at $1.5 M. On June 16, Alex Katz's works won over collectors: Loren and Halsey 1 each sold for $700,000, and Wildflowers 1 for $1.2 M. With 70,000 visitors welcomed by 289 exhibitors, the event found its cruising speed again. Korean Artists and BuyersDuring Art Basel, art from Asia, particularly Korea, was decidedly in demand—a trend confirmed by Bo Young Song, vice president of the Kukje Gallery in Seoul: "The recent boom in the Korean art market, due to the rise of the younger generation of collectors, has led to an unprecedented…
Art WorldArt Basel Report Confirms Art Market Recovery at $65.1M!
The global art market bounced back in 2021, returning to its 2019 level and even slightly exceeding it. A real feat, while fairs and other market events are still a long way from reaching their pre-pandemic levels. Art Basel in Miami Beach. © Art Basel The latest report by the famous Clare McAndrew is out. Produced every year by UBS and Art Basel, this time it focused on the post-Covid art market. In nearly 280 pages, it provides a comprehensive overview of the market on an international scale, using data from numerous suppliers: Artory and Artron for auctions, ATG for auction platforms, NonFungible.com for NFTs and direct surveys of galleries and collectors with the help from its two partners. Perhaps the most startling discovery was the total disappearance of the Covid factor and a virtual return to "normal" in terms of turnover. With a total of $65.1 B, the global art market was back to its 2019 level ($64.4 B) and even a little higher. Over the last 13 years, the 2021 figure has only been exceeded, slightly, in 2014 ($68.2 B) and 2018 ($67.7 B). This is undeniably an excellent start, especially since the figure announced does not factor in $2.6 B in NFT artworks: a figure that rises to $11 B if collectible NFT are added. If this new segment is included, 2021 was the best year ever for the art market. This bodes well for the next few years, as fairs can reasonably be expected to pick up in the coming months. The geographic distribution of art market hubs changed only marginally: the USA (43%), China (20%) and the UK (17%) still accounted for 80% between them. France gained 1% market share at 7%, or $4.7 B (+50%), 5% above its 2019 level and its best score of the decade. "The pandemic did not radically change the geographic distribution of the market, with the three main centers still dominating values, although the UK had a particularly difficult time because of Brexit and the pandemic. Its share fell to 17%, its lowest level in over a decade, with the upper market increasingly moving to New York and Hong Kong. "This…
Art FairsFairs: A Race for the Good Slots
Given the resurgence of the pandemic and new variants of Covid-19, the art market is reorganizing its agenda for the first half of the year with intensified frequency. Clashes in store. Art Paris, one of the few fairs to have been staged in 2021, is scheduled this year for early April. Before Art Basel's arrival at the Grand Palais Ephémère in October, replacing the FIAC—the earthquake announced for the second half of the year—the art market calendar will once again be disrupted by the pandemic in the coming months. This is particularly the case in Europe. For the moment, on the other side of the world in the United States, events like Frieze Los Angeles in February and Expo Chicago in April are maintaining their dates and targeting more regional clients. Back in Europe, several fairs planned for the first quarter have decided to reschedule and await better days. Planned for the end of January, and normally the first of the season, the Brussels BRAFA has been postponed to June 19-26. In a contemporary register, Switzerland's Artgenève, which follows in its wake, also in late January, has moved this year's edition to March (from 3 to 6). At the gateway to Europe, the March edition of 1-54 Marrakesh has been canceled for this year, as Morocco's borders remain closed due to Covid. This contemporary African art "boutique fair" has been replaced by a smaller-scale event in April at Christie's, in Paris, after a trial run in January 2021. Strength in unity: it will be held there at the same time as Art Paris, scheduled for April 7-10, and PAD Paris, slated for April 5-10 in the Tuileries. While the tendency is to get winter out of the way, the contemporary art fair Arco Madrid is an isolated case in maintaining its "40+1" anniversary edition from February 23 to 27 in the Spanish capital. However, all is not unremittingly bleak in this sticky start to the year. "Fairs will actually be held in 2022, whereas in 2020, there was practically nothing except Art Paris in September," says dealer Franck Prazan, a specialist in the second…
Auction ResultState of the Market: NFTs, Art Basel’s Revamped Viewing Rooms, and the Slow Return to Live Events
2021’s first quarter yielded record-setting auction results, cautious optimism for in-person events, and the explosion of NFTs. These trends point to both gradual and sudden shifts in the art world, particularly as sellers adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic. Auction Daily checks on the state of the market after an eventful start to the year. World’s first large-scale digital art exhibition (“Virtual Niche — Have you ever seen memes in the mirror?”) at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing. Image courtesy of Sipa Asia/Shutterstock. Art Market Reports In late March, art analysts started to consider the state of the market. The Global Art Market Report, co-sponsored by Art Basel and UBS, revealed a pandemic-related decline in art sales through 2020. Clare McAndrew, the report’s author, found that international art revenue fell to 2009 recession levels. A dramatic rise in digital sales combatted the downward trend, passing retail revenue for the first time. “The fall in sales was inevitable,” McAndrew said in an interview. “But the crisis also provided the impetus for change and restructuring, the most fundamental shift being the rollout of digital strategies and online sales.” The Art Basel and UBS report found similar trends specifically in the auction industry. Public auction sales declined by 30% during 2020, finishing at USD 17.6 billion (excluding private transactions). Additionally, the Greater China auction market hub surpassed the United States in 2020. Recent auction results reflect this trend, particularly in Hong Kong. Online auction sales also doubled from 2019 to 2020, now making up 22% of fine art lots. Artnet also released its spring Intelligence Report in late March, focusing on digital trends affecting the state of the market. The authors found that the pandemic affected the art world unequally. The major auction houses emerged with stronger sales than smaller companies despite a major drop in supply. China’s art auction revenues declined by a modest 0.1% compared to a more dramatic 35% in the United States, contributing to the differing market sizes. Despite these numbers, some maintain hope for the 2021 art market. Writing in the Artnet report, Eileen Kinsella suggests that…
Art FairsArt Basel shifts Hong Kong fair from March to May 2021
Art Basel in Hong Kong 2019 © Art Basel. HONG KONG.-Art Basel postponed its Hong Kong fair, which was scheduled to take place in March 2021, to May 2021 in response to the ongoing impact of the global pandemic including travel restrictions. The 2021 edition of Art Basel Hong Kong will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from May 21 to May 23, 2021, with preview days on May 19 and May 20, 2021. This decision was taken in close consultation with gallerists, collectors, partners, and external experts, with the goal of ensuring that the fair will be attended by the largest possible number of collectors, curators, and arts professionals from Art Basel's global network, while protecting the health and safety of everyone concerned. Adeline Ooi, Director Asia, Art Basel said: ‘We believe shifting the fair to May is the right decision given the current development of the pandemic and its impact on international travel restrictions. By taking the decision early, our aim is to support our galleries in advance planning for their 2021 programs. We very much look forward to hosting our show in May next year and to welcoming gallerists, collectors, and art lovers back to Hong Kong at that time.’ Further details on the fair as well as the names of participating galleries will be announced this year. Founded in 1970 by gallerists from Basel, Art Basel today stages the world's premier art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong. Defined by its host city and region, each show is unique, which is reflected in its participating galleries, artworks presented, and the content of parallel programming produced in collaboration with local institutions for each edition. Art Basel’s engagement has expanded beyond art fairs through new digital platforms such as Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms and new initiatives such as The Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report and The BMW Art Journey.
Art FairsAs another fair goes virtual, Art Basel finds its footing
Agostino Bonalumi, BLU, 1972. Vinyl-based tempera on shaped canvas, 180 x 160 cm (70,86 x 62,99 in.) Signed and dated on the reverse: Bonalumi / 72.by Ted Loos MIAMI(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- At the beginning of 2020, the organizers of Art Basel, the art fair powerhouse, were preparing to celebrate this influential event’s 50th birthday with fanfare at its three far-flung iterations: in Hong Kong; Basel, Switzerland; and Miami Beach. “Suffice it to say, things did not turn out as planned,” said Marc Spiegler, the fair’s global director. The coronavirus pandemic upended everything; all three fairs were canceled and replaced by digital versions, which Art Basel refers to as online viewing rooms, or OVRs. (It also added two new virtual fairs.) Its final event of the year, Art Basel OVR: Miami Beach, runs from Friday through Sunday (with VIP access Wednesday and Thursday). At the same time, another change is underway, in the fair’s ownership. Lupa Systems, a private investment firm run by James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, is taking a substantial stake in the fair’s Swiss parent company, MCH Group, and will have three board seats. Spiegler said the investment would provide “the kind of knowledge and network that will allow Art Basel to expand and thrive.” All in all, he added, it has been “a tumultuous year.” But art is resilient and could even be said to thrive on turbulence. There is plenty to see in the rooms created by the 255 galleries from 30 countries and territories that are taking part in OVR: Miami Beach. All are presenting six to 10 works, depending on the sector. Some galleries have chosen the Whitman’s Sampler approach, with a varied selection by their artists. Pace Gallery’s slate, for example, includes Lynda Benglis’ 1993 “Stacked Forced Bunch,” a ceramic sculpture, and Mary Corse’s 2019 “Untitled (White, Black, Blue, Beveled),” consisting of glass microspheres in acrylic on canvas. Anthony Meier Fine Arts of San Francisco is choosing to focus on one artist, reclusive quiltmaker Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936-2006), who was born Effie Mae Martin. Meier, who has been taking part in…
Art FairsOutsider Art Fair announces new Director, and hybrid online-physical Paris edition
Carlo Zinelli, Quattro uomini verdi e uccelli su sfondo giallo (Four green men and birds on yellow background), 1963, tempera on paper, 20 x 27.5 inches, Collection of Oliana and Alessandro Zinelli. PARIS.-Outsider Art Fair, the premier fair dedicated to Self-Taught Art, Art Brut and Outsider Art, announced Nikki Iacovella as its new Director. The 8th Paris edition of OAF is scheduled to take place from October 21-30, 2020, and for the first time will include a hybrid of online and in-person components. Since 2018, Iacovella has served as the Managing Director at Peter Freeman Inc. in New York. Prior to that she was a Gallery and Project Manager for Art Basel. Originally from Brisbane, she managed a Melbourne-based gallery specializing in indigenous Australian art before moving to New York. “Nikki has the perfect combination of top echelon fair and gallery experience. We look forward to the addition of her strong voice as we head towards our thirtieth year in business,” said fair owner Andrew Edlin. "With its devout following and strong community of passionate galleries, I’m not only excited, but honored to direct OAF during this time of unprecedented interest in Self-Taught art,'' commented Iacovella. Following the success of Art Brut Global, the fair’s first ever online exhibition which launched this past summer with formidable sales and over 5,000 virtual visitors, the eighth edition of OAF Paris will expand this model further, providing each exhibitor with a dedicated online viewing room (OVR) accessible via a new platform designed and powered by Artlogic. Using industry-leading technology, the platform will include features like “View on the Wall” and enhanced search capabilities of up to two dozen artworks per exhibitor, along with in-depth artist biographies, and links to gallery websites and social media. Participants for the Paris fair will include accomplished dealers like American Primitive, James Barron Art, Cavin-Morris Gallery, Creative Growth, Andrew Edlin Gallery, Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, galerie gugging, Carl Hammer, Yukiko Koide Presents, Galerie Pol Lémetais, Maroncelli 12, Ricco/Maresca Gallery, RIZOMI, J.P. Ritsch-Fisch, and SHRINE, with the full exhibitor list to be announced at a later date. At the same time,…
Art WorldState of the Market: Art Basel Miami, Millennial Collectors, and the Impacts of COVID-19
Days after Art Basel announced the cancellation of the Miami Beach fair this December, the company released a new report examining the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the art market. The results were not encouraging for art enthusiasts but offered a glance into a post-pandemic world based on online sales and virtual exhibitions. The Miami Beach Convention Center, home of the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. Image from The New York Times. Art Basel and UBS released the market analysis report in the wake of the latest art fair cancellation. Art Basel Miami Beach, formerly slated for December 3 - 6, typically brings in tens of thousands of visitors. A 2014 analysis from The New York Times pointed to the revenue that the fair typically brings to the region, a figure that crosses USD 13 million per year. The Miami Beach Convention Center, where the fair is usually held, has been converted into a reserve field hospital and testing site. Rising coronavirus case numbers in Miami-Dade County have also contributed to the cancellation. The Miami Beach mayor agrees with the decision, citing the difficulty in planning cultural events during a public health crisis. “I have always believed that we’re not going to get our economy back — including our cultural economy — until we get the virus under control… [until then,] members of the public won’t have confidence in group events and traveling.” Participating galleries will not be charged booth fees, but have the option to offer works in Art Basel’s Online Viewing Rooms. The digital exhibition concept, which experienced mild initial success at the start of the pandemic, was designed to balance the financial losses that Art Basel has suffered this year. Art Basel Miami Beach in 2017. Image from Fortune. Art Basel’s recent analysis emphasizes the financial woes now plaguing the market after months of shutdowns and cancellations. Prepared by Arts Economics’ Dr. Clare McAndrew, the report surveyed over 350 gallerists and collectors in the US, the UK, and Hong Kong. Among the findings were ongoing layoffs and furloughs, declining sales in small galleries, and an accelerated…
Auction ResultHong Kong Auction Results Remain Strong Despite Political Changes
This year has posed numerous challenges to the global art market, from shifting political landscapes to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hong Kong has recently navigated both. Despite concerns about the city’s reopening and changing national security laws, art auctions in June and July brought strong results to many major auction houses. “Artworks have an inherent value within a global marketplace, which should not be impacted by short-term political events in any one region,” said Jonathan Crockett of Phillips to Artnet News. “In the long term, art has consistently proven to be a safe investment.” Bidding for Sanyu’s Quatre Nus in Sotheby’s Hong Kong’s Modern Art Evening Sale. Image from Sotheby’s. Recent auction results support this trend. Many Hong Kong auctions that were slated for earlier in the year are now running smoothly, both live and online. Christie’s reports sales results of HKD 1.84 billion (USD 239 million) across their first few Hong Kong auctions of July. Especially successful was the auction house’s Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, which achieved HKD 821,327,500 (USD 106,488,778) and included sold-out selections from Western artists. Sales at Sotheby’s Hong Kong have also had positive showings, particularly at the July 8th Modern Art Evening Sale. Leading the lots was Quatre Nus, a 1950s oil on masonite piece by Sanyu. This painting by the “Chinese Matisse” sold for HKD 258,341,000 (USD 33,327,000) after a competitive four-way bidding battle. Supporting many of these Hong Kong auctions is a new generation of collectors. A 2019 Art Basel report cites rising rates of millennial auction bidders around the world, particularly in Asia. Approximately 39% of Hong Kong collectors now belong to the group. “[The market is seeing] new clients who have money and don't feel intimidated by starting to collect on the internet, which -- with no art fairs or live auctions up to now -- is where all the sales activity has had to turn,” says Wendy Goldsmith, a London-based art advisor. Internet bidding has sustained the Hong Kong art market over the last several months of lockdown and is expected to remain important. Sanyu, Quatre Nus, 1950s. Image…
Auction IndustryPhillips New Now Sale to include works by Eddie Martinez, Oscar Murillo, Anish Kapoor, and Amoako Boafo
Karel Appel, Untitled. Executed in 1963. Paper collage, acrylic and oil stick on paper, 70.2 x 100.7 cm (27 5/8 x 39 5/8 in.) Estimate £10.000-15,000. Image courtesy of Phillips. LONDON.-Phillips announced highlights ahead of the New Now auction in London on 15 July 2020. Featuring 235 lots, New Now will offer works by established artists including leading highlights by Eddie Martinez, Oscar Murillo, and Anish Kapoor. The sale also presents a strong selection of works by young and emerging artists including Amoako Boafo and Nina Chanel Abney, among others. Further New Now highlights include property two important private Belgian collections; the Estate of the Family Geirlandt and the Estate of Jan Hoet. Collectors will be able to view the highlights at Phillips’ Berkeley Square galleries and online via the virtual exhibition from 9 July until the auction which will take place on 15 July at 2pm. Simon Tovey, Head of New Now, said: “Following the success of our New York New Now sale in March which, at $7.9 million, realized the highest total for a Spring midseason auction, we are excited to present our London New Now sale. During this period of change and reflection we have seen consistent results achieved in our online sales, the depth of bidding has shown that collectors are enthusiastic about our offering and feel supported by our ever-increasing digital capabilities which fast accelerated during the lockdown. Collectors’ confidence in the middle market is stronger than ever and we look forward to presenting collectors with the London New Now sale and continuing the momentum in the season ahead. We are delighted that our Berkeley Square galleries are now open and we are able to offer clients the opportunity to view the sale in person and via the virtual exhibition online.” Leading the sale is You Come Up Short, painted in 2016 by Eddie Martinez, which comes to auction this July following the record Phillips set in April during the online-only auction, Desktop, where Martinez’s Bay Area became the highest achieving work to sell in a London online sale. You Come Up Short is emblematic of…
GalleriesBlack gallerists press forward despite a market that holds them back
Lewis Long, of the Long Gallery in Harlem, at his apartment in New York, June 17, 2020. As Art Basel opens online, African-American galleries are glaringly absent. Demetrius Freeman/The New York Times. NEW YORK(NYT NEWS SERVICE).- Art Basel’s online viewing rooms went live Thursday, presenting 281 of the world’s leading modern and contemporary art galleries. Not one of them is owned by an African American. Despite the increasing attention being paid to Black artists — many of whom have been snatched up by megadealers and seen the prices for their work surge at auction — the number of Black-owned galleries representing artists in the United States remains strikingly, stubbornly low. There is only one African American gallerist in the 176-member Art Dealers Association of America, a professional group. Now, as the country focuses on systemic racism amid the George Floyd protests, some Black dealers say the mostly white art market is long overdue for a radical transformation. “Until we have a seat at the table, this is going to continue to be an exclusive club,” said Karen Jenkins-Johnson of Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco and New York City. “We are not playing on a level playing field.” To speak to more than a dozen Black gallerists in this country — including dealers who work at white-owned galleries — is to hear weariness at having to explain why there still are not more of them. The answers remain the same, namely, less access to capital and exclusion from a rarefied network of connections that includes collectors, dealers, curators, critics and auction houses. “The art world is still very segregated,” said Myrtis Bedolla, founding director of Galerie Myrtis in Baltimore. “Galleries are primarily owned by white men.” It is expensive to run a gallery and participate in the art fairs, which are where galleries did nearly half their sales in 2019. As with many Black-owned businesses in America, Black dealers often struggle to get bank loans, and they lack patron support. “Let’s not pretend lending is equal in this country,” said Harry Jones, of Stella Jones Gallery in New Orleans, which was…
ExhibitionsMassimo De Carlo announces the exclusive representation of Dennis Kardon
Dennis Kardon, The Procedure, 2007. Oil on linen, 50.8 × 61 cm / 20 × 24 inches. Photo by Pierre Le Hors. Courtesy Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong. MILAN.-Massimo De Carlo announced that the gallery is now exclusively representing the artist. Dennis Kardon (USA, 1950 – lives and works in New York) is a graduate of Yale University, took part in the Whitney Independent Study Program, and was a student of Chuck Close and Al Held. For several decades, Dennis Kardon has been experimenting with painting’s ability to encompass the spectrum between abstraction and hyperreal representation. With an almost hallucinatory power, Kardon treats the surface of his canvases as a field with various properties of reflection or distortion, resulting in a narrative that seems to have been disrupted by an unexpected event. Kardon’s examination of the human figure digs into the psyche contradicting stereotypes and preformed ideas. The artist’s whimsical tone serves to pervade his paintings with a discomforting feeling of familiarity: whatever you recognize is never exactly as you remember it to be. Critical comparisons have been made to David Lynch, for the ability to find the gothic in the every day, and to John Currin (who had a neighboring studio in the mid 90s). Pervaded with a sense of untouchable intimacy, Kardon’s canvases are “generously painterly, voluptuously creepy narrative pictures of familial conflict, sexual angst and infantile yearning”, as Ken Johnson wrote in the New York Times in 2004. Moreover the endless intellectual challenge of Kardon’s practice has led him to counterbalance his painting with powerful writing and critical skills allowing him to become a highly respected contributor to several art publications. Dennis Kardon has widely exhibited in the United States and beyond, and his work is part of public collection such as, among others, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the New Museum, the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Future upcoming projects include "Painting is Painting’s Favorite Food," a collective exhibition…
Auction IndustryPowerful portraits by Amoako Boafo offered at Bonhams Modern & Contemporary Art sale
Amoako Boafo (B. 1984), Portrait of a Young Lady, 2018. 30.5 x 30.2 cm. Estimate: £6,000 - 9,000. Photo: Bonhams. LONDON.- Two works by the rising star and much-admired artist of Art Basel Miami 2019, Amoako Boafo, Portrait of a Young Lady, and Portrait of a Young Man, will feature in Bonhams Modern & Contemporary Art sale on 23 June in London. Each work has an estimate of £6,000-9,000. Born in Accra, Ghana in 1984 and based in Vienna, Austria, Amoako Boafo is a fast emerging artist. Having studied at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Ghana, he followed curator and fellow artist, Sunanda Mesquita, now his wife, to Vienna in 2014, to pursue an MFA at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. He was awarded the Walter Koschatzky Art Award in 2017, for works on paper by an artist under the age of 35, and the STRABAG Artaward International in 2019 for works by an artist under the age of 40. Last year, Boafo made his Art Basel Miami debut with Chicago’s Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, where the entire booth sold out, and he was firmly established as one to watch. Specialist in Post-war & Contemporary Art and Head of the Sale, Cassi Young, commented: “Amoako Boafo is one of the most exciting and important artists around right now. His striking portraits, with their incredible texture which is worked through the use of his fingers, and the piercing gaze of his figures, confront and captivate the viewer in equal measure. Portrait of a Young Lady, and Portrait of a Young Man are powerful and exceptional examples of Boafo’s practice and his desire to celebrate Black identity. Fresh from his work’s impressive auction debut in February, we are very excited to be able to offer these wonderful works in our sale.” Despite Boafo’s mixed melody of influences, his style has often been compared to that of the famed Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Speaking of this influence on his work, Boafo commented “I just want my paintings to be as free as possible, and Schiele gave me that vibe — the strokes,…
Art FairsArt Basel Cancels Upcoming Basel Show in September
After extensive analysis of the current global situation, Art Basel has decided not to hold its Basel show. The fair was scheduled to take place at Messe Basel from September 17 to September 20, 2020, after having previously been postponed from June. Art Basel in BaselCourtesy Art Basel The decision to cancel the show was made after thorough consultation with many Art Basel gallerists, collectors, partners, as well as external experts. The primary considerations were the fundamental health and safety risks related to the pandemic, the financial risks for exhibitors and partners, the ongoing impediments to international travel, and the fact that the regulatory environment around large-scale events has yet to be finalized by the Swiss Federal Council. Marc Spiegler, Global Director, Art Basel said: ‘We are acutely aware that our galleries are facing unprecedented challenges and economic difficulties, and we had fervently hoped to support the art market’s recovery with a successful fair in September. Unfortunately, the uncertainties that we face remain too high. The best way forward for our Basel show is therefore to focus on delivering a fair of the same exceptional international quality that the artworld expects from us next June, as we continue to support our galleries by further developing our digital platforms and by delivering our upcoming shows in Miami Beach and Hong Kong.’ The Online Viewing Rooms for Art Basel in Basel's exhibitors will be live from June 19 to June 26, 2020, with preview days from June 17 to June 19, 2020. The next edition of Art Basel in Basel will take place from June 17 to June 20, 2021, with preview days on June 15 and June 16, 2021.
Art FairsCHART Art Fair announces presentation of 100% women artists for its 2020 edition
Nina Beier, Empire, 2019. Empire‘ Porcelain dinnerware by B&G/Royal Copenhagen and metal wire bird cage, photo by Kunst-dokumentation.com. Courtesy Croy Nielsen, Vienna. COPENHAGEN.-CHART Art Fair will show 100% women artists for its 2020 edition, in a new de-centred art fair format across the five Nordic capitals from 28 - 30 August 2020. By exhibiting 100% women artists, CHART aims to highlight a major structural challenge in the art market. Normally held in Copenhagen and bringing together galleries from across the Nordic region, for this year’s exceptional edition CHART will transform into CHART Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Reykjavik, and Stockholm in a re-thinking of the traditional art fair format in response to the current global health crisis. This new format will combine physical exhibitions and events with online activities, with an ambition to re start the art scene in the Nordics and re-connect both local and international communities. “The past few months have turned everything upside down. Not just for us but for everyone. Adapting to a new reality is not only necessary, it is the only responsible thing to do. Due to government restrictions we are unable to gather a vast audience at our usual fantastic venue Kunsthal Charlottenborg in central Copenhagen. Meanwhile we are painfully aware of the difficult situation the art scene finds itself in. That’s why we’ve developed a new way to build on our strong network of participating galleries, artists, loyal collectors, museums, and institutions,” says CHART Director, Nanna Hjortenberg. Presenting only women artistsSupported by its participating galleries, CHART 2020 will present 100% women artists in the art fair, a first for the international art community. The aim for this year’s women-focused art fair is to highlight the structural barriers in the Nordic and international art market, and to drive a positive change in the arts community through collaboration. Statistics from the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report 2019 confirm that the representation of male and female artists at art fairs globally is approximately 76% men to 24% women. With no significant change to this imbalance over the past five years, it seems evident that a…
