The Australian Financial Review has art adviser Mark Hughes’s take on the most recent Art Basel Hong Kong. Hughes has attended the fair in all of its incarnations charting the growth of the collecting base’s knowledge and familiarity:
Participating galleries from the West also had to undergo a major re-boot – learning that their artists, famous in their respective regions, were in this region unknown. They had to learn to communicate more openly, and to provide information even on a basic level – with wall labels in English and Chinese and so on. All the “rules” of the standard art fair experience (sales to professional collectors early on, then quiet public weekends) were turned upside down. But the hard work by fair organisers and galleries has paid off and Renfrew’s prediction was right. In five years the fair has established a clear identity, and 2017 heralded the true arrival of Art Basel Hong Kong in all its glory.
Art Basel Hong Kong grows up (afr.com)
