Miami- Even the most discerning art connoisseur must occasionally ask themselves an honest question: “Is this work good or just big?” Scale is the essence of the art market, and nowhere is it more evident than at art fairs, where monumental Sculptures and paintings distract from the bleak atmosphere of the trade show.
Monumentality is the guiding principle of the Meridian section of Art Basel Miami Beach, and on its opening day, Dec. 4, onlookers surrounded Portia Munson’s “Tethered” in an oddly hushed reverence. Bound Angel (2021) – I can confirm that this is an installation that is not only huge but also good. A long, oval table reminiscent of a church altar or votive candlestick is crammed with hundreds of old objects—ceramic angel figurines, kitschy lamps, soap dispensers—all in a ghostly alabaster white and finished with Tie up with rope or string. Tangled cables littered the floor, near traces of tablecloths made from repurposed wedding dresses.
“I was thinking about the messages that are being conveyed to us through these seemingly innocent objects that are ubiquitous throughout culture but almost hidden in plain sight,” Munson told me, standing next to her installation.
“They actually provide some guidance in a negative way on who you should be as a woman – beautiful angel, young, white, holy, but also sexy,” she added.
It’s a particularly resonant message at a political moment when “we’re going backwards” on women’s rights, Monson continued, and in a state where an amendment protecting abortion rights that would have required a 60 percent majority failed to pass by a slim majority. . vote.
On days when there is little respite, this work is like an oasis. From the moment I approached the Miami Beach Convention Center, I felt a wave of fear wash over me as I remembered that Miami-Dade County voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump in last month’s election, The county turned red for the first time since 1988. , I had to download the new AI-powered Art Basel app, which opened with a questionnaire that I couldn’t opt out of. It asks users to identify their “relationship to the art world”—dealers, artists, art lovers, “government” (?), etc.—as well as their “art style” and dining preferences. This is presumably to inform the app’s new Microsoft-powered chatbot, but it also struck me as an obvious data-gathering exercise, making my entry feel even more dystopian. (I contacted Art Basel for comment.)
The mood inside the show was unusually upbeat, with dealers reporting strong sales of blue-chip stocks. A painting by Carmen Herrera in Lisson’s booth sold for $500,000, and a painting by Sean Scully sold for $675,000. A large oil painting by Mary Lovelace O’Neill with an asking price of $1.8 million remained unsold as of Wednesday afternoon at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery booth, but it likely won’t be for long, a gallery staff member revealed. . Thaddeus Ropac Gallery sold a new Anthony Gormley sculpture for £500,000 (approximately $637,200) and sold it for $190,000 of a painting by Tom Sachs, whose studio workplace culture only came into the spotlight last year. (The gallery placed six works before the show began, including a $2 million painting by Georg Baselitz.) At the Rosetta Bakery cafe inside the show, I spent $30.59 on a bottle of water, drip coffee, orange juice and the world’s smallest shortbread.
But are things really as good as they seem? This year’s show features 34 first-time exhibitors, according to a press release, perhaps signaling a shift from Art Basel’s notoriously exclusive application process. On the other hand, I counted 50 galleries in the 2023 edition that are not in this year’s lineup, including market-savvy spaces such as Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Clearing and Simone Subal. Some of these shows have closed or downsized in the past 12 months (Cheim & Read, Helena Anrather, Mitchell Innes & Nash), while others have opted for smaller shows such as NADA (Mrs., 56 Henry). However, at least 10 galleries scheduled to participate this year have disappeared from the lineup, according to exhibitor lists released this summer. In response to a request for comment, an Art Basel spokesperson cited “minor changes” made to “ensure the best experience for exhibitors, artists, customers and visitors” and declined to comment further “due to Courtesy” to our exhibitors. “
Perhaps the high cost of attending Art Basel has something to do with it. Fees for this year’s Miami Beach edition range from $26,850 for the smallest booth to $191,360 for the largest, usually reserved for blue-chip galleries that can break even on a single sale. That’s just the tip of the iceberg—it costs $600 just to apply to the show, which does not guarantee admission, plus there are airfare, hotel, installation and production costs. The message is clear: Art Basel is probably worth a visit if you can afford it.
Henrique Faria, whose eponymous New York-based gallery focuses on Latin American avant-garde movements, admits that cost factors were taken into consideration when he decided to withdraw from this year’s Art Miami (he has published an article in Untitled Art ” and Art Basel). previous years). But it’s also a calculation based on current political events and the eternal questions of whether and how to address them in the context of an art fair.
“The art world is full of -isms, just like any other field. We need to avoid opportunism at all costs, this is the biggest -ism,” Faria told me. “While we agree with many of the topics the arts community is dealing with, I think we need to take them seriously.”
“To achieve the right turnaround, we need to rethink our performance and choose our battles correctly,” Faria added.
Jochan Meyer of Meyer Riegger Gallery in Berlin, Karlsruhe and Basel, which showed at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2023, said they abandoned the show this year due to prices and an uncertain cost-benefit analysis , especially considering their highly conceptual project. Part of the problem, he noted, is a lack of reliable information on sales from non-blue-chip exhibitors. “Everyone hears about the big sales, but it’s impossible to know how other galleries are doing,” Meyer told us I’m on the phone.
The past six months have seen various reports of varying veracity documenting a period of market “correction,” a euphemistic term that suggests a recession is the universe’s way of showing us the true value of things. Perhaps because of this instability, Steve Henry, senior partner at the Paula Cooper Gallery, told me he’s seeing a shift in interest in what he calls “the classics.” Ascending: such as Sol DeWitt and Claes Oldenburg and Mark di Suvero , his sculpture Untitled (Swing) (2008-2022) towered above us in the exhibition booth. “They were laughing like five-year-olds,” Henry said of visitors’ reaction to the truly unexpected artwork, which is both big and good. “About a million dollars” is being considered, he said.
You’ll find a lot of not-so-subtle things if you look for them. Roger Leifer, a collector who lives in Miami and Connecticut, was wearing an “ART BSL” T-shirt and had just participated in an hour of tequila shots in the VIP lounge During the tasting, he told me candidly that the art market is directly related to the art market. The stock market, by this standard, should be selling hot art. “The stock market is doing amazing. I mean, people are making a lot of money — including me,” Leifer said, adding that he prefers Art Miami to Art Basel, but there’s no doubt that the latter is better Fascinating – Just before speaking to me, he glimpsed a scene of shame. Casino tycoon Steve Wynn.
I write this article at the Sweet Liberty bar on 20th Street in Miami Beach. It’s a bar so beloved by locals that the elegant woman with slicked-back hair sitting next to me calls it a “Miami institution” and its first rule is “No names spoken, no talking to celebrities.” Make love,” which can be difficult to execute during art week. A baseball cap that read “Art is Dangerous” caught my eye; the kind man wearing the hat was Bruce Allen Carter, an art educator with a national Serving on the Arts Council, he made the hat himself. He wears it to events that require formal attire, and it always sparks a conversation.
There was an ominous feeling to seeing this message at the end of the day. Is art still in danger? I hope so, but probably outside of the art fair bubble. The energy of “Basel is Back” is disturbingly at odds with the tsunami of neo-fascism sweeping around us – or perhaps they are two sides of the same coin.
