Some late details from Katya Kazakina’s story on Hydra and Athens as the new stopover between ArtBasel and the London sales:

♦  George Economou said he bought a canvas by postwar Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga, known for painting with his bare feet, at the fair in Basel. It was priced at $2.85 million at Dominique Levy.

♦  Economou also showed 2012 Rashid Johnson steel sculpture of a target lens, “Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos,”  

♦  An earlier version of the work sold at Richard Gray Gallery at Art Basel last week for $135,000, the gallery said.

Greek Tycoons Host Fetes Where Art Markets Are Built – Businessweek.

Scott Reyburn hits the ground running for the International New York Times:

♦  Skarstedt Gallery found an unnamed private American buyer for a large 1986 Warhol “fright wig” silkscreen painting ($30m)

♦  a 1997 Gerhard Richter abstract, offered by the New York dealer Dominique Levy at $6 million

♦ WS, Dior,” a 2014 collage- and oil-on-canvas by Paul McCarthy, marked at $950,000 at the booth of Hauser & Wirth.

An ’80s Warhol Brings $30 Million at Art Basel (NYTimes.com)

Georgina Adam had these sales in the FT:

♦  Sprüth Magers: sold an Andreas Gursky ink-jet print at €500,000

♦  Cheim & Read: sold a Lynda Benglis’s gold-leafed wall sculpture “Indio” (1978) for $350,000.

Brisk business at the Basel fair (FT.com)

An attendee at the fair reports that Sadie Coles has sold out her booth of Urs Fischer’s new paintings with $600,000 price tags.

Carol Vogel reported these sales in her column:

♦ Almine Rech: two Jeff Koons “Gazing Ball” sculptures made this year, one priced at $2 million and the other at $1.6 million. Both sold to European collectors, she said.

At Art Basel, Works With a Museum Presence (NYTimes.com)

Katya Kazakina gathered more dealer reports including this picture of the Ad Reinhardt she says Steven Cohen showed up a few minutes too late to buy. It went to another buyer (details further down):

♦ David Zwirner: a $5 million sculpture of an inflatable dolphin by Jeff Koons and a pair of stacked wax heads by Bruce Nauman for $3.2 million.

♦ Skarstedt gallery found buyers for a large 1982 painting by Georg Baselitz, “Edward in front of the mirror Munch,” priced at $3 million, and Richard Prince’s 1987 painting, “You No Tell — I No Tell,” offered at $2.2 million.

♦ Simon Lee Gallery: An abstract painting by Jeff Elrod sold for $95,000  Sherrie Levine’s cast-bronze sculpture of an alligator’s head went for $300,000.

♦ A Miro-like abstraction by young Brazilian-born artist Christian Rosa sold for 25,000 euros ($33,870) at Berlin’s Contemporary Fine Arts gallery.

♦ Galerie Eva Presenhuber: Ugo Rondinone’s three new cloud-shaped paintings sold for 180,000 Swiss francs ($200,200) each. Joe Bradley’s sprawling painting consisting of several white canvases and one pink canvas, sold for $300,000.

In a second story, Kazakina added these sales to her previous report:

♦ Collectors from Kazakhstan bought a Murano-glass sculpture resembling an outsized necklace by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel priced at 290,000 euros on the booth of Paris- and New York-based Galerie Perrotin.

“It’s crazy but why not?” said Othoniel, who attended the fair along with dozens of other artists. “There are new collectors all over the world.”

♦ A massive black painting by Glenn Ligon sold for $700,000 to a private collector, according to London-based Thomas Dane gallery. 

♦ Michael Werner gallery: a Sigmar Polke painting once owned by Charles Saatchi depicting purple monkeys, an alligator and a penis was snapped up for $4.5 million.

Kazakina wasn’t satisfied with two reports, she came back with a third:

♦ Matthew Marks: a 1981 drawing by Willem de Kooning for $450,000 to Alberto Mugrabi

♦ Cheim &Read: a 1960s painting by Joan Mitchell for $1.5 million to Alberto Mugrabi

♦ $4 million for a David Hockney landscape

♦ $3 million for a Fernand Leger painting

♦ $250,000 for a towering sculpture by Thomas Houseago.

Warhol Sells for $32 Million at Art Basel’s Bull Run (Bloomberg)

Dolphin Balloon Sells for $5 Million in Art Basel Spree (Bloomberg)

Billionaires at Basel Bet Art Better Investment Than Cash (Businessweek)

Judd Tully reeled in the biggest fish:

♦ Spruth Magers: Sterling Ruby’s large-scale “BC (4805)” fabric, glue, paint, dyed canvas on panel abstraction from 2014 sold for $245,000.

♦ Metro Pictures: Robert Longo’s masterful faux Ab-Ex creation, “Untitled (Pollock Composite)” from 2014, in charcoal on mounted paper and measuring 59 7/8 by 120 inches, sold for $400,000 to an American collector.

♦ Dominique Levy: sold a 12 by 12 inch Frank Stella geometric abstraction, “Delaware Crossing” from 1961, for $1 million, as well as a major suite of eight large-scale paintings by German artist Gunther Uecker, “Weisse Bilder (White Pictures)” from 1989-92, that went to a European foundation for $5 million.

♦ Per Skarstedt: George Condo painting, “Smiling Girl” from 2014, for $500,000 to a German collector.

♦ Mitchell-Innes & Nash: Alexander Liberman’s target-like “Black and Red Circle” from 1960, a 24 by 30 oil on canvas, sold in the $50,000 range; Anthony Caro’s glass, bronze, and steel “Display,” from 2011-12, went for a bit over $100,000; and among the living artists, Virginia Overton’s Arte Povera-like “Untitled” wall piece sold for around $25,000.

♦ Paula Cooper gallery: Sherri Levine’s “Nature Morte: Purple and Red Roses,” sold for $150,000 each. Both sets of six floral compositions went to European collectors, according to gallery director Steven Henry; abstract works by Kelley Walker, including “Untitled,” a 15 panel, pantone four-color process with acrylic ink on MDF from 2012, at $225,000; Bruce Connor, “Religious Instruction” from 1990, comprised of three engraving collages, for $40,000; Tauba Auerbach, “Panes Trans/Step Ray,” for around $200,000; Rudolf Stingel, “Untitled” from 1996-97 sold at an asking price over $1 million.

♦ Barbara Gladstone Gallery: Jim Hodges’s electric blue “Untitled (Shadow Blue/Black”) from 2014, in the $700,000 range. Marisa Merz’s “Senza Titolo,” circa 1980s, in the region of 300-400,000 euros; Sigmar Polke  “Laterna Magica” from 1990, sold somewhere between $1.3-1.6 million.

♦ White Cube: Julie Mehretu’s “Mumbo Jumbo” from 2008, at $4.85 million; Damien Hirst’s “Nothing is a Problem for Me,” a medicine cabinet vitrine from 1992, for $6 million; and Zhang Huan’s “Grand Canal,” for $1.8 million.

♦ David Zwirner: Richard Serra’s “Large Symmetry #5,” for $575,0000, and Luc Tuyman’s head shot portrait “DA” from 2014 for $750,000; Gerhard Richter’s “Farbtafel (Color Chart)” from 1966, in the region of the $2 million asking price; Though no price was released by the gallery, in deference to the work’s new owner, a stunning Ad Reinhardt canvas, “Blue Painting” from 1951-53, measuring 80 by 59 7/8 inches, sold to a European collection. An art advisor and former auction house expert with apparent knowledge of the transaction suggested the price was “north of $10 million” — if accurate, it crushes the auction record for the artist, which stands at $2.7 million.

Art Basel Kicks Off With a Big Bang of Serial Sales (BLOUIN ARTINFO)

Tully went for round two:

♦ Fergus McCaffrey: racked up over 25 transactions since opening day at prices ranging from $25,000 to $2.5 million, including Jiro Takamatsu’s impressive oil on wood and metal abstraction, an untitled shadow painting from 1966 that sold to a European collection for $475,000.

♦ Galeria Elvira Gonzalez sold Rudolf Stingel’s rather early “Untitled” painting from 1988 in the region of the $850,000 asking price and a striking, wall hung Donald Judd copper and red Plexiglas sculpture, “Untitled (Bernstein 81-8),” from 1981 that sold to another European collector in the realm of $1.5 million.

♦ Washburn Gallery: Mark Rothko 20- by 28-inch oil, “Heads,” from 1941-42 that sold to a European collector for $550,000 and a Jackson Pollock, “Untitled,” from circa 1944 in gouache, India ink, and graffito on paper that sold for $285,000. Myron Stout graphite on paper, “Momento,” from 1977-79, just 3 by 9 ½ inches that went to an American collector for $125,000.

♦ Helly Nahmad Gallery: three Calders had sold at prices ranging between $1 to 2.5 million. Lucio Fontana, “Concetto Spaziale attese” from 1964-65, measuring 25.7 by 21.3 inches and bearing four vertical cuts in the canvas, for approximately $3 million.

♦ Thomas Ammann Gallery: two large-scale works by the artist collective Bruce High Quality Foundation, as “Olympia,” a unique silkscreen from 2014 and measuring 72 by 108 inches and framed by slender and lit neon tubes, sold in the region of the $200,000 asking price. Enoc Perez’s “Nude” from 2012-13 at 80 by 60 inches sold for around $220,000 as did “Untitled (Yves Klein Blue)” from 2013 and scaled at 60 by 48 inches in oil, acrylic, silver leaf, and inkjet on canvas.

♦ Marc Blondeau: Louise Lawler’s C-print, “18-20” from 2003, from an edition of three, depicting a group of Marcel Duchamp objects as they were being prepared for a Phillips de Pury auction, sold for more than $100,000. A smaller Lawler, just three by three inches, “Diamonds” from 1989, titled after two-diamond shaped paintings by Piet Mondrian, sold for approximately $18,000.

♦ Thaddaeus Ropac: Georg Baselitz’s “Self-Portrait as Rodin’s Thinker,” which sold to an American collector for 2.3 million euros. Joseph Beuys’s “Unbetitelt,” for 2.2 million euros. A 20- by 16-inch acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas Andy Warhol from 1980, “Joseph Beuys,” also sold for 325,000 euros. A trio of 74-inch high Alex Katz “Chance (Anne),” “Chance (Vivien),” and “Chance (Darinka),” from 1989-90 sold as a group to a Swiss collector for $1.5 million.

♦ 303: two untitled abstract paintings by Jacob Kassay at $150,000 apiece and Kim Gordon’s “Chelsea Series (Silver Wreath 2) from 2014 in spray paint on canvas for $30,000.

♦ Galerie Chantal Crousel: Wade Guyton’s super-scaled “Untitled” canvas from 2013, sold to an otherwise unnamed museum for $350,000. Five other like-sized works and similarly composed by Guyton sold for the same price at his other primary market dealers stationed in Basel, including galleries Capitain, Marconi, Pia, and Petzel.

Strong and Steady Sales Continue at Art Basel (BLOUIN ARTINFO)

Melanie Gerlis tweeted this sale:

♦ Domenico Gnoli‘s “Dormiente no.2” 1966 sold from Luxembourg & Dayan, one of the finest booths at Art Basel (price undisclosed)

Gallerist sent someone around to tell tales on the parties who happened to gather a sale too:

♦ Gavin Brown’s Enterprise: an enormous Joe Bradley for $185,000.

Basel or Bust: The Art World Flexes Its Muscle, Strains Its Wallet in Switzerland (Gallerist)

A source in Basel has these:

♦ Dominique Levy sold a Calder in the range of $1.1m.

♦ Seroussi another Calder with an asking price of €380k.

♦ Gray a 1954 Dubuffet gouache of a cow for an asking price of $1.1m.

Art in America gathered these sales:

♦ Andrea Rosen: an untitled 1957 wood sculpture by Carl Andre that sold for $275,000

♦ Galeria Starmach: two pieces from , Krakow, in the first two hours of the preview. What for? (1964), by Edward Krasinski, for $41,700; the other was a Henrik Stażewski untitled constructivist-style painting, for $30,000.

♦ Sabine Knust Gallery: Two works by Daniel Richter (in editions of between three and five), priced around $6,000 each, sold before the fair started, while an additional four sold in the first two hours of the preview.

♦ Thomas Zander: sold a large series of unique photographs by Albert Renger-Patzsch, a photographer who influenced Bernd and Hilla Becher for only $250,000 as a series

♦ Bruce Silverstein: a series of nine photos by the Bechers for $145,000.

History Makes a Comeback at Art Basel (Art in America)

The Art Newspaper gathered these sale:

♦ Galerie Karsten Greve: Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, 1960, $4.7m

♦ Van de Weghe Fine Art: Fernand Léger, Les Deux Soeurs, 1932, $3m

♦ Edward Tyler Nahem: Jean-Paul Riopelle, Ombre d’Espace, 1954, $2m

Warhol tops fair’s big-ticket sales (The Art Newspaper)

♦ Mitchell-Innes & Nash: Anthony Caro sculpture Display (2011–12), which sold in the region of $100,000, and two André Kertész photographs taken in Piet Mondrian’s studio, which went for up to $100,000.

Art Basel in Basel 2014 Sales Report

The Economist bucks the trend toward viewing art collecting as an investment with a reasoned and well-reported article on what collectors actually say about their experience buying and selling art. The data was collected at ArtBasel, the Mecca of Collectors:

The sociability of the fair contributes to the aversion that collectors have to going home empty-handed. Jay Smith, an investment advisor at CIBC-Wood Gundy and an important donor of art to museums, admits, “When I don’t buy anything, the fair feels dull. Buying makes you feel connected to what is going on.”

Buying art doesn’t just offer a sense of community, it engenders feelings of victory, cultural superiority and social distinction. Some say that it even fills a spiritual void. The term most commonly used by collectors, however, is that buying art gives them a “high”. George Economou, a self-made shipping tycoon whose art collection in Athens is open to the public, bought several works at Basel this year, including a wooden sculpture from 1924 by Hermann Scherer for over €1m. He distinguishes between buying at auction, which he says feels “more exciting, more vibrant, more alive”, and buying at an art fair, which may have a longer-lasting thrill.

However sweet the chase of buying, the Economist points out that selling, even at a massive profit is a fleeting victory:

Joel Mallins, a New York collector,[…] sat at the back of a Sotheby’s auction in London five years ago, watching two telephone-bidders scrap over his Damien Hirst pill cabinet, “Lullaby Spring”. It fetched a record £9.6m ($19.2m) in June 2007. He had paid well less than $1m for the wall sculpture, which dates from 2002. Speaking at a seminar during Art Basel, Mr Mallins admitted that he doesn’t expect ever to repeat the jubilant experience.

Many sellers suffer a measure of remorse when they sell an artwork. They feel “conflicted” and even “guilty”.[…] Several factors fuel the sense of regret. First, selling art has a long association with debt, death and divorce. No one wants to look like they need the money. Second, collectors are exceedingly hesitant about selling works before they have realised their full value, so much so that they often don’t end up selling them at all.

Why Buy Art? (Economist)

Our intrepid art fair habitué, Kenny Schachter, takes on the big daddy of art fairs, ArtBasel. The subject is so vast, so intriguing that he keeps on having more to say. So check back often for his periodic updates:

Got off to an early start this year prior to the onset of the ART Basel fair(s), at 5am very early, and headed off to Zurich for a jump on the proceedings. I received more .pdf’s offering pre-fair fare than on any prior occasion, which can’t foreshadow a good thing for sellers now or in the near future. At a recent lunch, a London property developer showed me agent emails predicting a slowdown for much touted high-end residential on the horizon. Could this all be a red flag for things to come, an indication of distress looming? I doubt it. But here was a prospect even scarier: longtime 1980’s art dealer Tony Shafrazi announced he returned to making art after retiring his spray-can decades ago following his unprovoked vandalism attack against Picasso’s Guernica in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, threatening to show his hand at the fair, and what a hand it was to be (more on that to below).

Basel is the big daddy of international art fairs, though at 43, it’s not the oldest that would be Cologne, which is now on life support. As an attendee at Basel, you even feel compelled to dress differently, like entering a place of worship, where all are dolled up in their Sunday best. But at the same time, many of the characters in and around the art world are smug and righteous who feel both superior and envious to those contributing to drive the art market. Auction and art fair aesthetics may not be definitive, but there is always a degree of underlying logic to a market as broad and far-reaching as art. The New Yorker critic Peter Schjeldahl recently stated: “Our age will be bookmarked in history by the self-adoring gestures of the incredibly rich. Aesthetics ride coach.” Sorry but I beg to differ as life isn’t as straightforward and simple as us against them (or them against us, depending where you situate yourself).

The VIP opening (has such stupid, vapid terminology any meaning or relevance anymore?) was stretched out over two days in order to avoid a relapse of last year’s billionaires stampede which rivaled a 1970s Who concert in the near death carnage. But everyone still finds reasons to complain about everything—there were too many people, there were not enough people, there was no longer any impetus to make snap, spur-of-the-moment decisions as there was no longer the mad rush of having to pull the trigger prior to the admittance of the hoi polloi. Back to the art market: when you look at the macro macro-economic picture, extrapolating from the bigger trends at large, all the pieces still seem firmly in place to keep this monster fed and roaring for the near future, despite the constant prognostications to the contrary.

Checking into my hotel, the very first person I laid eyes on was a dealer who I had recently concluded a multi-million dollar deal with who then evaporated without a trace for months like a puff of smoke (maybe he was smoking something himself and forgot, but unlikely). Funny the art world manner of doing business, or lack of manners I should say. Such a fortuitous hotel lobby encounter with the New York deadbeat dealer was met with a dumb and sheepish shrug by the offender (who might have ginger hair), which was about all he could muster. Call that misadventure a roadmap for the way in which the unregulated art business is frequently conducted: miscommunications on top of misrepresentations by misfits.

At a lunch before things kicked off, I was going in and out of consciousness during a speech by sculptor David Smith’s daughter when she dropped the most poignant bomb: that her father refused to teach drawing, disallowed coloring books (or anything within an outline) and would not permit the use of crayons. She related that he said, “You need to find your own line.” I thought that just about encompassed the key to the meaning of life. After I explained what I do professionally to the woman seated next to me, she replied that the exclusive party she was due to throw was exclusively for collectors specifically excluding those involved a commercial capacity in art. So like Smith’s daughter, I discovered my own line, which might have involved spinning a few lies, till an invite was presented.

The most coveted dinner invite is not even in Basel but rather Zurich, where the thrower is so reticent each year about hosting the shindig she swears it off every time until succumbing and staging it once again as per usual. Though I bagged an invite I did a quick runner for despite the unimaginable beauty of the setting and plentitude of food, it’s still a meal peopled by hoards of dealers and a smattering of collectors, so how much fun could that be? Answer: not very much, indeed. The following night was an even better story and perfectly exemplifies the questionable high jinks of the art world. How do I dance around this without putting my foot in it—but I can’t help but try. Let’s say I facilitated a show for someone at a prestigious gallery, for which I subsequently received no credit. Over the years, the gallery continued to pursue the relationship, leaving me by the wayside, though the loyal artist always acted impeccably. When the publication from our exhibit was finally premiered at a Basel dinner, not only wasn’t I invited to the launch, but I was also unsure my essay would even appear in the book. None of which stopped me from crashing the party of course.

Art Unlimited opened before the main attraction—a portion of the fair meant for unwieldy, non-commercial scaled art installations, in a world where snot is monetized, that’s a laugh. And let me tell you, in no uncertain terms, this show was an argument writ large for small, dispelling once and for all the concept that bigger is better. The exhibition lowlight was comprised of a mid-sized black Labrador lying prone on a carpet gasping for air directly positioned under a pounding spotlight in an otherwise dark and over-crowded space. Let the artist lie under a scorching light in an enclosed room being gawked at by a countless, never ending stream of VIP’s (Very Insensitive People).  Yes, you didn’t know if the animal was dead, alive or animatronics, and it was certainly startling when the dog was startled back to life by its trainer for a breather. But it was atrocious nonetheless. Are the oh-so-clever art masses thus entertained? I wish they’d have asked me; I’d have selflessly volunteered one of my horrific toy poodles for the hapless job.

With no booth, my business often occurs in the cracks of the fair—the streets, trains, aisles and restaurants of Basel (substitute Cologne, Hong Kong, Miami, London, or New York). In one such instance, a perfect illustration of the inefficient nature of the art market, which makes it such an alluring place to be, was the following. My feet were burning with pain (chronic fair fatigue, a newly acknowledged syndrome) so I plopped myself down on a bench between two dealers I know, an indication of the extent of my suffering. One of them turned to me, interrupting his conversation and stated emphatically: “Let’s do a deal right now.” He proceeded to show me a painting by an artist he knew I admired and quoted a figure he figured to be the retail price (he obviously hadn’t checked for a while—wink, wink) and asked me make an offer from there. I went lower than low and he met me nearby and I was able to scoop up a masterpiece (relatively speaking) for a masterfully cheap price. And so it goes.

No matter your feelings on art fairs, the majors are filled with great art across a vast expanse. And despite widespread skepticism, concern and even mistrust, I am certain the art market is deep and not under threat due to fundamental shifts in global patterns of consumption. There is an undeniable and indescribable excitement in acquisitions that brings to mind the doctor who squandered money funded to secure children’s heart surgeries in order to buy the latest contemporary art; before he went to prison for embezzlement. His property made for one hell of an entertaining auction in the late 90’s when he was forced to dislodge it all by the authorities. The above is a caution to all that subscribe to the notion that the lack of dough is never an impediment to a good collector, rather, a challenge.  Maybe it all just signifies a giant emotional black hole.

A naked man and woman flanked the entrance to the Sean Kelly Gallery necessitating a certain finesse to squeeze through without creating an international incident. The work was a re-enactment of Marina Abramović’s famous performance “Imponderabilia.” Amazing to think that in the Middle East it would not be permissible to stage this innocuous tableau, and even more outlandish that I was thrown off facebook for 24 hours for posting it on my blog. More suppressive then China and Syria, with a flagging stock, fb is a less happy concept then only a matter of months ago.

Gagosian cobbled together 2 sets of Andy Warhol Oxidation paintings from 1978 by grouping 4 8×10 inch works into one frame and 4 16 x 12 inch works into another in an attempt to create something that exceeded the sum of it’s parts. He didn’t succeed and I needed to find one for a client as I believe the series to be undervalued. But part of the fair upside and involving a rare display of camaraderie, is that if you ask enough acquaintances for opinions you will find key information you seek. In the case of the piss painting predicament, I was directed by a private dealer with a Warhol specialization, akin to independent specialists on the floor of a stock exchange, to Per Skarstedt’s booth where he had a larger, more significant work, in stock at the same price as Gagosian. As Diana Ross sang, it pays to reach and touch somebody’s hand.

How hundreds of millions of dollars of business is consummated on the trading floor of a fair is actually an incredible exploit to conceive. A deal is made by agreeing to the financial terms and simply saying ok, I will buy a work at a given level and then boom, the transaction is complete on a handshake (sometimes not even), invoicing to follow, as old a way of doing business as business is old, entailing a nice leap of faith based purely on trust (by both parties) in the process. There you have it, and the result can be a rather intangible experience on both sides of the coin. Another upside is the sheer amount of information that is at hand; with so many whispered gems, among the best reasons to attend a fair, I can hardly remember which ones I’m not supposed to repeat. From the same source that mentioned the $250m Cezanne a year before it was publically announced, came the juicy gossip of a $160m Rothko recently transacted, what better evidence that the news of the art market’s imminent demise is mere premature conjecture. Another unrepeatable tidbit of gossip was that a dealer I had worked with in the past was so hard up for money that he sold a painting 3 times, and more than once; and, now faces an investigation and possible jail term. Desperate times call for desperate actions but I desperately hope I am not sucked into the proceedings. Ugh.

Enough about art business and back to the inimitable social life. When the fair is in full swing, the city of Basel, like Miami, is so taxed by the demands of the rich, famous and not so rich or famous that it verges on bursting. One night for dinner we ended up at a typical art world haunt, freezing outside with no service for miles; the restaurant so dangerously past their capacity, reservation holders were turned away, we had to steal plates not meant for us in order to eat, and in the end were asked for an address so a bill could be sent, they couldn’t even muster the wherewithal to generate a check. And still business cards were exchanged at the table with other art world guests, similarly trembling in the cold. Amazing the art travelers, bordering on clinically cuckoo, that pass off as professionals in the midst of a heated market.

The booths are strategically and hierarchically laid out at ART Basel like layers of an onion. The sweetest (most powerful) rings are situated around the inner courtyard, and they travel outward like waves until you reach the disparate corners. But like chickens moved to a new coop, not all fair-goers travel far and wide, many stay close to the center, until on occasion they peck each other’s eyes out. No patch of turf in the country of Switzerland is immune to the hustle of an art sale, attempted or otherwise, during the course of the fair. God knows I had a few dry runs in various hotel lobbies and other unorthodox venues, including a bizarre encounter with a famous collector I spied leaning against the concierge desk reading the newspaper on his iPad at 1:30am one evening, where I nonchalantly struck up a Richter conversation. No billionaire shall go unturned. What was the hottest commodity at the fair? Not art or money but phone chargers and the juice to run them. What happened to the time when battery life extended longer than an email? But it’s a dangerous thing to leave your phone in the booth of a dealer “friend” even when the device is locked—snakes can get just about anywhere. After running out of batteries more than once, I had to lug around my charger like an artificial organ.

Being in Basel can at times stir an urge to buy that transcends the immediate surroundings of the fair—exposed to so much stimulus can trigger remote buying reflex. For example there were two Frederick Kiesler multi-purpose chairs from Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century Gallery from 1942 on offer at €450k each at the Design Fair. Only weeks before I was shown images of two replicas made in the 1960’s for Kiesler’s appearance on a TV show for a fraction of the cost; in comparison to the real things I viewed in Basel, I jumped at the low cost simulacrum. An occasion of arbitrage opportunities that frequently pop up at fairs were two beautiful Bridget Riley drawings from the 1970’s—the examples on exhibit were £90k each which reminded me of the even earlier and equally as attractive pieces displayed in Hong Kong only weeks ago at nearly half the cost. I was hoping to cement a deal before the HK dealer arrived in Basel, for timing counts for a lot.

One of the gripes spreading through the aisles like wildfire was the fact that the fair management demanded collector details from the galleries prior to sending out the coveted VIP cards, which caused nothing short of a revolt. Galleries guard their clients like state secrets and would rather face a firing squad or torture then reveal even to their loved ones who the biggest buyers are (you never know how a relationship will end and who will make a grab for the business). After only a few days of looking, an act more strenuous than climbing, I had seen so much so closely, I couldn’t bear the thought of a single museum visit; yes the true philistine in me reared it’s head, only to retreat in a sea of guilt. And my fair visit ended like it always does, faced with the nagging desire to flee early regardless of cost. Foolishly, I had been staying in Zurich which had the unforeseen effect of keeping me out of the bars and parties in Basel which was an hour train ride away; ostensibly and health-wise a good thing (and professionally), but on hindsight, I rather missed it all. Maybe for my next trip to the Miami fair I should commute from New Jersey.

ART Basel should go one step further than the Cologne fair that hosted an autonomous NADA fair within the belly of the main event but still separated; and, in a seamless and nonhierarchical manner, fully integrate the design amongst it’s happy bedfellow, art. In another move towards abolishing the dull sameness of big art fairs, the second floor of Basel, hosting the more adventurous, less established and canonized art and artists should collapse and mix with its forefathers. We don’t really live or think in a chronological universe where history is linear; the future is a non-narrative zone where we bounce between things, with a little more randomness and chaos—don’t fear, fair organizers, give us a little more credit to make our own associations and juxtapositions without spoon-feeding us the identical line, over and over and over. Call it a dose of creative destruction to cure us from the monotony—I’d much rather see a hodgepodge by way of a mishmash.

Now that all is said and done, I get a phone call that the shit I have been writing on the machinations of the art world has inspired a TV show; I hope that a) I get some credit, i.e. the monetary variety; b) it has the chutzpah of Tony Shafrazi exhibiting his very own art within his very own booth with full knowledge he’d be thrown out on his ass next year as a consequence; and, c) that it doesn’t suck as much as Tony’s show did.

 

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