Fw: Large Works and Big Changes at Art Basel - NYTimes.com
I'm mentioned in the NY Times! See pg 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/arts/design/large-works-and-big-changes-at-art-basel.html?pagewanted=2
Large Works and Big Changes at Art Basel
Throughout the fair there are many works by artists who brought top prices at last month's big New York auctions. Gerhard Richter is one. At the Pace Gallery, Mr. Richter's "A. B. Courbet," an abstract canvas from 1986, sold to an unidentified American collector on Wednesday, gallery officials reported. The asking price was $25 million.
The fair is also filled with works by artists who have recently had a big retrospective — John Chamberlain and Cindy Sherman — or are about to, like Wade Guyton, whose show at the Whitney Museum of American Art opens in October.
There have been a few less predictable touches. Almine Rech, a Paris dealer, asked Nicolas Trembley, a curator and art critic, to organize her booth as though it were a small museum or gallery exhibition, around the notion of the artist's process and appropriation. Called "Telephone Paintings," the installation was inspired by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's "Konstruction in Emaille," in which he challenged the notion of man-made art by asking an enamel plaque factory to commission three pieces composed of abstract lines in primary colors.
"The space feels like a salon for selling art," Ms. Rech said. White wallpaper decorated with small gold Aladdin's lamps designed by the Swiss artist John M. Armleder covers her booth, and the selection of art on view is unusual and varied. There is a "Joke" painting by Richard Prince, 1963 race riot prints by Andy Warhol and a collage by Kurt Schwitters, along with examples by younger artists like Mr. Guyton, Erik Lindman, Tom Burr, Alex Israel and Jonathan Binet. By the end of Tuesday, Ms. Rech said, she had sold a number of the smaller works by artists like Mr. Israel and Mr. Lindman. Some seasoned collectors and art advisers were grumbling that many works had gone before they even walked through the fair doors. "With dealers sending clients JPEGs ahead of time the game has changed," said Philippe Segalot, a New York dealer whose antics in years past, like hiring of a Hollywood makeup artist to disguise him so he could sneak into the fair before everyone and snap up the best works, have become Art Basel legend.
So why do so many important collectors still bother to come all the way to Basel? "They're afraid of missing something," Mr. Segalot replied.
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Subject: Large Works and Big Changes at Art Basel - NYTimes.com
I'm mentioned in the NY Times! See pg 2 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/15/arts/design/large-works-and-big-changes-at-art-basel.html?pagewanted=2
Large Works and Big Changes at Art Basel
Throughout the fair there are many works by artists who brought top prices at last month's big New York auctions. Gerhard Richter is one. At the Pace Gallery, Mr. Richter's "A. B. Courbet," an abstract canvas from 1986, sold to an unidentified American collector on Wednesday, gallery officials reported. The asking price was $25 million.
The fair is also filled with works by artists who have recently had a big retrospective — John Chamberlain and Cindy Sherman — or are about to, like Wade Guyton, whose show at the Whitney Museum of American Art opens in October.
There have been a few less predictable touches. Almine Rech, a Paris dealer, asked Nicolas Trembley, a curator and art critic, to organize her booth as though it were a small museum or gallery exhibition, around the notion of the artist's process and appropriation. Called "Telephone Paintings," the installation was inspired by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy's "Konstruction in Emaille," in which he challenged the notion of man-made art by asking an enamel plaque factory to commission three pieces composed of abstract lines in primary colors.
"The space feels like a salon for selling art," Ms. Rech said. White wallpaper decorated with small gold Aladdin's lamps designed by the Swiss artist John M. Armleder covers her booth, and the selection of art on view is unusual and varied. There is a "Joke" painting by Richard Prince, 1963 race riot prints by Andy Warhol and a collage by Kurt Schwitters, along with examples by younger artists like Mr. Guyton, Erik Lindman, Tom Burr, Alex Israel and Jonathan Binet. By the end of Tuesday, Ms. Rech said, she had sold a number of the smaller works by artists like Mr. Israel and Mr. Lindman. Some seasoned collectors and art advisers were grumbling that many works had gone before they even walked through the fair doors. "With dealers sending clients JPEGs ahead of time the game has changed," said Philippe Segalot, a New York dealer whose antics in years past, like hiring of a Hollywood makeup artist to disguise him so he could sneak into the fair before everyone and snap up the best works, have become Art Basel legend.
So why do so many important collectors still bother to come all the way to Basel? "They're afraid of missing something," Mr. Segalot replied.