44 review T uesday 14 June was a bright and sunny day in Basel, rather akin to the sales climate at the vernissage of the 42nd edition of Art Basel. Perhaps the only aspect to dampen the spirits of collectors that day was the queue at the fair entrance, but that did noth- ing to affect some speedy purchases, beginning at the 11am viP preview. Some ground-floor gal- leries were even seen re-hanging artworks dur- ing the vernissage itself – a sure sign that sales were at full throttle. One Middle eastern collector quipped, “it’s almost like it’s 2007 again!” – a state- ment echoed by a number of gallerists, including Sukanya rajaratnam of L&M Fine Arts; the gallery sold its striking The Damned by Liza Lou for a lit- tle under $1 million. “There’s a mix of collectors that we haven’t seen before and i’m pleased with the sales,” added rajaratnam, who is “looking for- ward” to the gallery’s second participation at Abu Dhabi Art in November. A “mix of collectors” was certainly evident, with some observers noting minimal attendance by the Americans but an interesting increase in Turkish buyers. The overall mood was upbeat at the world’s largest Contemporary art fair, hot on the heels of the announcement in May of its acquisition of Art HK. “The fair has never been this good, it’s much more international,” beamed Chantal Crousel of Paris’s Galerie Chantal Crousel; “we’ve changed our booth twice and sold out twice!” Unlike previous editions, however, there were no monumental showcase pieces at the fair’s entrance. instead, Art Basel reinstated its second edition of Art Parcours – 10 works dotted around Basel, among them a series of photographs by the recently freed Chinese artist Ai weiwei. ironi- cally, it was his porcelain installation, Field , that had taken centre stage at Art Basel 41; this year, an avid fan of weiwei waltzed around Art Unlim- ited, donning a mask of the artist’s face and hap- pily posing for photos with bemused members of the public. in another show of support, Anish Kapoor declined the exhibition of his works at Beijing’s National Museum of China in protest of weiwei’s detention. Kapoor, whose stellar works could be found at a number of galleries at the fair, recently unveiled Leviathan – a gargantuan work at the Grand Palais in Paris. Notable sales reported by galleries included Cheim & read’s Eye by Louise Bourgeois for al- most $2 million, Fernand Léger’s La Charmeuse d’Oiseaux for $2.8 million at Helly Nahmad and all three of Paul McCarthy’s White Snow Dwarf 7 editions for $2.8 million each at Hauser & wirth. All eyes remained on the 1970 Francis Bacon triptych, Three Studies of the Human Body , at Marl- borough, which remained unsold at the time of press. Speculations on its price hover between the $50-60 million figure. The gallery, which has plans to widen its scope of Contemporary art- ists through a new space in London set to open in 2012, exhibited a mini retrospective of one of all smiles Sound sales, packed halls and great art set the mood for a successful Art Basel this year, which featured almost 300 galleries. Myrna Ayad and Tala Chukri look back at the highlights and survey some of the Middle eastern art that was on show. Facing page clockwise, from top left: Ghada Amer. 35 Words of Love . 2011. Bronze with gold leaf. Diameter: 61 cm. Courtesy Kukje Gallery, New York and Seoul. Farhad Moshiri. (Detail) Angelina Jolie Instant Eyebrows . 2010. Embroidery, acrylic on canvas on MDF. Four panels, 124 x 164 cm each. Courtesy Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels. Nabil Nahas. (Detail). Untitled. 2010. Acrylic on canvas. 172.3 x 188 x 10 cm. Courtesy Sperone Westwater, New York. the 20th-century’s greatest masters. rumours abounded that a 1980 triptych print (an edition of 180) was sold to Saudi collectors. Like all Art Basels, a predominance of works by certain artists was evident, and this year pieces by Andy warhol, Frank Stella, Josef Albers and Lucio Fontana stole the show, especially on the ground- floor galleries. A two-metre warhol, One Hundred and Fifty Black/White/Grey Marilyns , was priced at a reported $80 million at Bischofberger and re- mained unsold at the time of press; the Swiss gal- lerist had only shown a single warhol at last year’s fair. in terms of genres, photography was well in evidence and in terms of collectors extraordinaires , the rubells and Broads were spotted, as was Germany’s Christian Boros and Pinault’s advisor Caroline Bourgeois. SAMe SAMe BUT DiFFereNT in previous Art Basel reviews in Canvas , we have commented on the repeated exhibition of works 45 by a very small pool of Middle eastern artists. Tal- ented, Diasporic and stellar, these ‘usual suspects’ hold the torch for the region over and over again at Art Basel. Be that as it may, it is an interesting thought that in spite of auction world records in Dubai, London and New York, respected biennials across the region, four art fairs and a greater repre- sentation of Middle eastern artists in international galleries, we still see the same names in terms of regional art – and the same galleries too. it was a question we posed to a number of gallerists whose rosters include Middle eastern artists, among them rodolphe Janssen of Galerie rodolphe Janssen, whose gallery represents iranian Pop artist Farhad Moshiri ( Canvas 1.5). Angelina Jolie Instant Eyebrows , a four-panelled embroidery piece “saved for Basel since November 2010” was reserved for $600,000 by a european collector. “The problem with Middle eastern galleries is that they only show artists from their region; a gallery should be about bringing international artists,” explained Janssen; “Showing more Middle eastern artists [at Art Basel] will take time, because this kind of aesthetic is difficult to understand by the [fair] committee.” The matter of time was sec- onded by Galerie Thaddaeus ropac’s victoire de Pourtalès, who noted, “i am sure it will change little by little and i do agree that a few Middle eastern artists are indeed missing at Art Basel.” ropac showed Fabrication , an oil on linen piece by New York-based iranian artist Ali Banisadr which sold for $30,000; Hangover , a beaded work by Moshiri, was reserved for $200,000. ropac had shown works by rokni and ramin Haerizadeh ( Canvas 5.6) at previous Art Basel and Art Basel Miami Beach fairs, but in early June the brothers announced that they will no longer be represent- ed by the gallery. Three works by Moshiri were showcased at Paris’s Galerie emmanuel Perrotin; two were sold for an undisclosed amount and the third remained unsold at the time of press. Two works by fellow iranian artist Shirazeh Houshiary ( Canvas 6.2) were on show at Lisson Gallery; New York’s MoMA has recently acquired a piece by the London-based artist and one was sold at the fair for $81,000 to an italian collector. THe ArAB CONTiNGeNT New York’s Sperone westwater never ceases to dazzle Basel audiences with the realistic sculp- tural works of evan Penny. A bust of the gallery’s Michael Short was on show last year; Short used an image of the artwork for his nametag this year. A fractal work by Lebanese artist Nabil Nahas ( Canvas 4.6) was displayed and while Short main- We still see the same names [at Art Basel] in terms of regional art. 46 review tains that this wasn’t the New York-based artist’s first showcase at Art Basel, it was noteworthy to learn that among Nahas’s collector fan base is rock star Sir Mick Jagger. “Nabil has received a lot of attention after his retrospective last year at the Beirut exhibition Centre,” added Short, “and the work we have here sold within the first hour for $135,000 to a France-based buyer who collects works by Nahas in some depth.” The flag for Lebanon was raised by Beirut and Hamburg-based Galerie Sfeir-Semler, which, after participating at Art Basel from 1983 until 2003 and returned this year with a superb line- up of Middle eastern artists, including walid raad ( Canvas 5.2), wael Shawky, Taysir Batniji, Marwan rechmaoui, Yto Barrada, Akram Zaatari ( Canvas 6.1), rabih Mroué and Timo Nasseri ( Canvas 5.2). interestingly, the gallery booth’s signboard only mentioned Beirut. “i think it’s more glamorous to have just ‘Beirut’,” laughed the gallery’s Andrée Sfeir-Semler, “after all, we have a role to represent Top to bottom: Taysir Batniji. 5 x Pixels (men) . 2011. Pencil on paper. 19.5 x 14.5 cm (including frame) each. Unique piece, comprising five works. Courtesy Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Beirut and Hamburg. Kader Attia. Unable . 2011. Light installation. 63 x 330 x 3 cm. Edition 1 of 3 plus 1 AP. Courtesy Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna. Adel Abdessemed. Cheval Arabe (1-on Green Book, Volume 1) . 2011. Book, resin and iron wire. Total height: 17 cm. Unique piece. Courtesy Galerie Christine König, Vienna. Photography by Myrna Ayad and Tala Chukri. 47 Arab artists in Basel. i have become an ambas- sador for our part of the world and i am proud to be doing that. i want to put Middle eastern artists on the map.” Sfeir-Semler – who recently signed up emirati artist Hassan Sharif ( Canvas 4.1) to her impressive roster, but didn’t showcase his work due to the booth’s size limitations – noted acquisitions by collectors from europe, the USA, the Gulf and Lebanon. works at the booth ranged from $2900 for pieces by Mroué to $158,000 for a work by Zaatari; by the fair’s third day, works by Mroué, rechmaoui, Barrada and Shawky were all sold, as were two works by Zaatari which went to museums. “what i like about my artists is their subtlety as they deliver something new in a very international way,” explains Sfeir-Semler, “they all speak a universal language and provide an intelli- gent and rooted way of doing Middle eastern art. Their works are not folkloric or ethnic-looking.” Her statement was echoed by Saliha Yavuz at is- tanbul’s Galerist, which sold a number of works by Turkish artists, including a $200,000 Taner Ceylan piece, Fakeworld , to a european collector familiar to the gallery. “The fair is great, in fact better than last year,” she said. “Collectors are surprised be- cause the art doesn’t look Turkish!” works by the ever-so-poetic Youssef Nabil ( Canvas 1.1) were also on show at Galerist, as well as at Galerie Na- talie Obadia; the latter sold editions to American and european collectors for $8000-11,000 and also showcased works by the Turkish-born Arme- nian conceptual artist, Sarkis. Photographs by raad were also displayed at Anthony reynolds Gallery and Paula Cooper Gallery – two were sold at the latter for between $20,000–25,000. The Lebanese artist’s work is nothing if not challenging, but Paula Cooper Gallery’s Matilde Guidelli-Guidi noted a great following for him in New York: “He’s had a lot of success; he’s smart, calm and collected and it is wonderful to listen to him speak; he never gives any answers.” Another Arab artist who enjoys an audience in New York is egyptian-born Ghada Amer ( Canvas 6.1), whose stunning embroidery works (often in collaboration with iranian artist reza Farkhondeh) were dotted all over the fair. From Cheim & read and Pace Prints to Goodman Gallery and Kukje Gallery, all gallerists reported healthy sales and strong interest in Amer’s work, the prices of which ranged from $20,000 for edi- tions to $260,000 for larger works. A bronze sculp- ture with gold leaf, 35 Words Love , at Kukje looked like a mini version of the larger 100 Words of Love created especially for Doha’s Mathaf: Arab Mu- seum of Modern Art. “This [little] one is subtle and elegant,” said the gallery’s randy Moore of the six- edition artwork, which was sold for $60,000 to a Switzerland-based buyer. And of course there was the remarkable Mona Hatoum ( Canvas 6.1), whose works could be found at Galerie Max Hetzler, Crousel, Alexan- der and Bonin and at Art Unlimited through her Impenetrable installation. Poetic, poignant and often hard-hitting, Hatoum’s pieces delight aes- thetically but also sting with their harsh messag- es, as is the case with Natura Morta at Hetzler – an antique cabinet, bought at auction by the artist and which was used to store Hatoum’s trademark glass grenades. MANY STATeMeNTS Meanwhile, the world’s eyes have been fixed on the Arab spring; cultural enthusiasts have been keeping close tabs on the effects that politics may have on works by regional artists. Aside from some participating Middle eastern artists at the venice Biennale who responded artistically to recent uprisings, works by Kader Attia ( Can- vas 3.4) and Adel Abdessemed struck a political chord at Basel. The former, using neon, effected a visual and literal twist through his Unable piece at Galerie Krinzinger – the work glowed with the same blue hue that is synonymous with the UN, but, ever so discreetly, two black dots appeared between the first two letters to hint at the pro- posed inability of the UN. it wasn’t the first time that the Algerian-born artist has played on words and at $50,000, the piece was unsold at the time of press. Fellow Algerian Abdessemed completed two pieces only a week before the fair and sent them over to Galerie Christine König. Sold for $130,000, Cheval Arabe uses the metaphor of the ‘fallen’ Arab world through a horse made of resin sym- bolising the chivalry of Arab horsemen, but is tied with metal string around a copy of Libyan leader Qaddafi’s politically philosophical Green Book Of the three talks related to the region, a hype surrounded Collector Focus: Patronage and Politics , initially scheduled to be led by iranian patron Dr Farhad Farjam, collector Dana Farouki and His excellency Omar Saif Ghobash, emirati ambassador to russia, and moderated by Payam Sharifi, an artist and essayist. For undisclosed rea- sons, Farjam and Ghobash were unable to attend at the last minute and were replaced by Abdullah Al-Turki, Creative Director of edge of Arabia and Qatari collector Tariq Al-Jaidah. while all three speakers spoke well and were able to give sur- veys of art and culture in their respective coun- tries of residence, the talk could have done more to enlighten enthusiasts of Middle eastern art on anything that they didn’t know already. There are a few givens to the Basel situation vis-à-vis Middle eastern art – there are still no new regional names on the Basel circuit; and the yearly talks, which, while featuring people that are clearly ‘in the know’, rarely raise new issues. which leaves one to question: when will we see a greater variety of Middle eastern art at Basel? it is a matter that requires everyone’s support – east, west and everything in between. When will we see a greater variety of Middle Eastern art at Basel? It is a matter that requires everyone’s support. review