You Definitely Need to See This Work in Person’: Art Basel in Miami Beach

For weeks I’d been telling myself, and anyone who would listen, that I was going to skip the 2014 edition of Art Basel Miami Beach. It had been a busy fall. October’s Frieze London fair is at least on my home turf, but then there were whirlwind trips to Paris, for FIAC, and New York, for […]

Your Concise Guide to the 2014 Miami Art Fairs

With the mercury dropping in the art world power centers of old, it’s time for the annual migration to Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach, its ever-expanding roster of satellite fairs and pop-up exhibitions, and the impossible schedule of parties and performances all week long (December 1–7, 2014). Great week, but getting a bit crazy…?!

Performance: do you buy it?

The public is warming to the medium, but collectors remain cool. While some visitors spent the first public day of Art Basel admiring multi-million-dollar paintings, others strayed from the main fair to watch a nude woman examine her body with a hand mirror and a war veteran stand silently in a corner. These performance works, […]

A Shadow Market at Art Basel

BASEL, Switzerland — Art Basel, the world’s pre-eminent fair devoted to modern and contemporary works, opened its doors to V.I.P.s on Tuesday. But by then plenty of business had already been done by many of the 285 exhibiting dealers. Hundreds of thousands of digital images had been emailed to collectors, advisers and curators, giving them […]

Buy! Sell! Liquidate! How ArtRank is shaking up the art market

Controversial website ArtRank treats art like a commodity – tipping investors off about who’s hot and who’s toxic. Site founder Carlos Rivera talks bubbles, bonuses and backlashes. A few years ago, Carlos Rivera was a virtual unknown, even in the art circles where he earned his living. He was just another gallerist, running a West […]

Art Basel Turns Away Nude Performance Artist

Milo Moiré, a Swiss performance artist you may remember for creating a painting from paint-filled eggs she dropped out of her vagina outside Art Cologne, paid a visit to Art Basel in Basel on June 19. Or at least attempted to. After having her skin painted with the names of the articles of clothing she wasn’t wearing […]

The Best Artworks of Art Basel 2014 – Artspace’s view

With an overwhelming array of booths by top international galleries filling two full floors, Art Basel presents so much first-rate art that it’s hard to believe such visual splendor is only on view for a few days every June, to be immediately dispersed onto the walls of collectors around the globe. Artspace toured the fair to tease out […]

The Best of Art Basel on Instagram

For everyone not gallivanting around to the flurry of fairs, parties, and events that make up Art Basel, we’ve picked the best, most FOMO-inducing Instagram photos to make you feel (if just momentarily) like you’re right in the middle of it all. For those of you who are there? See how Klaus Biesenbach, Marina Abramović, and Simon […]

At Art Basel, Works With a Museum Presence

BASEL, Switzerland — In an old market hall adjacent to the cavernous center where Art Basel, the gold standard of contemporary art fairs, is taking place, there is a happening unlike anything ever staged here. Called “14 Rooms,” it consists of 14 mini-performances created by artists including Marina Abramovic, Damien Hirst and Yoko Ono, each […]

Art Basel: Visuals With A Bit Of Drunk Texting

Ben Austin follows the pack to the Art epicentre with a satellite or two thrown in for good measure. Isn’t there a rule about drunk texting and doesn’t that apply to writing about an art fair, anyway I really don’t care, as it is nearly 11pm, I’m due to go to the Kunsthalle for arty […]

A century of the readymade

Duchamp’s influence is in evidence at the fair, but can today’s artists reimagine his idea? One hundred years after Marcel Duchamp invented the readymade, his influence reverberates around Art Basel. Overt references include the late Elaine Sturtevant’s Duchamp Porte Bouteilles, 1993, suspended from the ceiling at Galerie Hans Mayer (2.0/E8). The work, which sold to […]

Feudalism returns to the art world

The Art Newspaper: What characterises the art of our time? Harald Falckenberg: In recent years, art has become ever more dominant with large-scale public events and huge prices for important works that only a few wealthy people, leading art institutions and multi-national companies can afford. Having emerged from the 1960s avant-garde’s goal of anchoring popular […]

Artists retain the element of surprise at Art Basel

A set of vividly coloured rollers wrapped in shiny metallic sheeting is stopping visitors in their tracks at Art Basel. The work, available with Daniel Blau (2.0/D3), seems to have come straight from the studio of Jeff Koons. ButUntitled (Mylar Sculpture I-III), 1969-70, is actually by the Pop Art master Andy Warhol, known for his […]

See the 25 Best Booths at Art Basel 2014

Visiting Art Basel can be a dizzying experience: so much to see, so little time . . .  And with 285 exhibitors from 34 countries, the 2014 edition is a killer. To give you a taste of what’s on offer, the artnet News team on the ground shares its highlights. Lisson, Pace, Ropac, Marian Goodman, […]

A Collector’s Tips for Art Basel Newbies—and Why Not to Despair if You’re Not Going

What advice would you give to younger collectors who are going for the first time or haven’t been to an art fair before?  Well, first of all, enjoy it. Really enjoy the art fair experience. It’s unique and it’s different from the gallery exhibition or the museum experience. Also, really take advantage of everything that […]

Now East meets West (at Art Basel)

Why there are more and more works by Asian artists at the fair, many of them on Western galleries’ stands. The VIPs who came to the opening of Art Basel yesterday found more works by Asian artists than ever before—and many have been strategically placed to capture the interest of collectors. Unlike previous editions of […]

‘Perfectly unfashionable to be fashionable again’

Artists and curators have embraced ceramics, but collectors need a little more convincing. Are ceramics, long relegated to the realm of craft, finally getting their due? Clay and porcelain works by artists including Josh Smith, Mai-Thu Perret, Rachel Kneebone and Thomas Schütte are in abundance at Art Basel this year, and sales were brisk yesterday […]

Daily Pic: Tino Sehgal Has the Best Thing in Basel

At the giant Art Basel fair that opens tomorrow in Switzerland, the best thing to be seen has nothing to do with the thousands of deluxe art objects being offered on the sales floor. It sits in a building off to one side, where, as part of a performance-art project called “14 Rooms,” the brilliant artist Tino […]

The great art fair scramble

Moving the opening of the Venice Biennale to May has set the cat among the pigeons. When it was announced that the Venice Biennale was shifting the date for the opening of its 2015 edition to 9 May (with previews from 6 to 8 May), it sent the whole art market into a frenzy. The […]

How To Get a Coveted VIP Card for Art Basel

Let’s face it, in today’s cutthroat contemporary art market, it’s not enough that you’re a millionaire, or even a billionaire, when it comes to collecting art for your homes. These days it’s all about access. Whether you are sitting in the auction salesroom fighting for an eight-figure Francis Bacon or jetting off to Switzerland for next week’s […]