review At 41 As the rain poured onto Messeplatz, Art Basel nonetheless roared through another successful fair. With healthy sales and a cosmopolitan clientele, artists and gallerists alike had much to celebrate. Myrna Ayad picks out the highlights. T he only gloomy thing about the 41st edition of Art Basel was the weather. The rain did nothing to dampen the impressive turnout – a record 62,500 – and per- haps even more impressive were the sales. The vernissage buzz was largely due to a vibrant mix of new and regular collectors, with galleries reporting on the return of the Americans (in comparison to last year), new Middle Easterners (Qatari royalty spotted) and a steady stream of Europeans, most notably the Rus- sians. A noticeable amount of Asian collectors were also present, much to the delight of a number of gal- leries who had picked up on the growing momentum of the Hong Kong International Art Fair (ART-HK). Facing page, from top to bottom: Hans Ulrich Obrist and Myrna Ayad during the Canvas-organised panel Frankly Speaking and a crowd shot of the audience; Abaseh Mirvali, Makram El-Kadi and Marwan Assaf during the panel Focus on Beirut. This page: Latifa Echakhch. (Detail) For Each Stencil a Revolution. 2007–2010. Installation, A4 carbon paper, glue, methyl alcohol. Dimensions variable. Edition of three plus two artist’s proofs. the packed audience, then approached Obrist at the talk’s end, asking questions before revealing herself as an “installation artist”. In using the chador amongst a predominantly Western audience, one wonders whether she was attempting to perpetu- ate or dispel stereotypes. Despite sparse attendance, The Global Art World: Focus on Beirut was a refreshing insight into how flowing into Beirut as they are to other centres”, which brought a remark from Canvas Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Ali Khadra, who called for the Lebanese Diaspora to support Beirut’s cultural ini- tiatives, “as the infrastructure, know-how and tech- nique are there, just as they are in Cairo and Tehran, two of the region’s most vibrant cultural cities.” With a 65 per cent increase in visitors (46,100) at that fair’s third edition this year, as well as the participation Lebanon is nurturing its domestic art scene via the of bluechip galleries – White Cube, Gagosian, Lehmann Maupin and Pace Beijing – some have wondered establishment of numerous initiatives. El-Kadi, an A Taste of the East if ART-HK could be a viable contender for Art Basel. The 303 galleries at Art Basel didn’t stop short of architect at L.E. FT (which designed the Beirut Ex- In its 17 June Art Basel edition, The Art Newspaper displaying some of their best works – Basquiat could be seen at New York’s Tony Shafrazi, among Haring hibition Centre), discussed Lebanon’s continuous ran an article on the dominance of male artists at and Schnabel, which echoed The Beyeler Foundation’s astounding retrospective of the late artist’s work. “identity crisis”, echoing art collector and founding the booths, citing “the top 40 most represented Elsewhere in the fair, Picasso and Warhol were dominant, with over 20 galleries showing each, followed Beirut Art Center benefactor Assaf’s description of artists on show at the fair are all men”. The article by a prevalence of pieces by Judd, Miró, Stella and Dubuffet, among others. New York gallery Jan Krugier, Beirut as a “heterotopia”; in quoting French phi- credited New York’s Cheim & Read for its majority which showed 26 works by Picasso, got off to an incredible start through the sale of a sculpture, Person- nage 1960, Cannes, by the Modern master for $15 million, just minutes into the vernissage. A record losopher Michel Foucault, Assaf went on to explain how the city “is a war zone with cutting-edge ar- showing of female artists – Pat Steir, Lynda Beng- lis, the late Louise Bourgeois and Joan Mitchell 62,500 chitecture, it is traditionalism and liberalism, it is a juxtaposition of different elements.” El-Kadi noted (the first selling 28 watercolours for $1.5 million and the latter an Abstract work for $2 million) and TALKING THE TALK The 36 talks at Art Salon included two book launches on Turkish art and two panel discussions on Mid- attended, that “75 per cent of the period since Lebanon’s independence was spent in conflict and turmoil,” Egyptian Ghada Amer (Canvas 6.1), whose Green Paradise (2008) sold for $100,000. “When we heard dle Eastern art – Frankly Speaking, with the Serpentine Gallery’s Hans Ulrich Obrist and Canvas’s Myrna Ayad, a culmination of the Canvas-organised Gender, Wars and Chadors series (the transcript of which and perhaps explaining how this has become the “norm”. And yet, the need for public art galleries is fundamen- of the sale, we put our Ghada piece up front,” laughed South Africa’s Goodman Gallery’s Liza Ess- will be published in October); and The Global Art World: Focus on Beirut with Makram El-Kadi and Marwan Assaf, moderated by Abaseh Mirvali. One Middle Eastern collector who attended Frankly Speaking, noted even more tal, as Assaf underlined, “how can a country’s art be taken seriously [internationally] if it is not taken ers. Cheim & Read sold an erotic piece for $225,000 to a European buyer and a smaller work for $30,000 that it was “interesting to hear Obrist’s views on the direction of the Middle Eastern art scene.” Regional art enthusiasts, he added, often tend to “pat each other on the back” and it “wasn’t surprising to hear of impressive care of at home?” Both gentlemen addressed the importance of education, with El-Kadi comment- to a collector in the UK. “Ghada is our youngest art- ist,” said the gallery’s Adam Sheffer, “she’s still evolv- the need to focus more on curators.” As for the tongue-in-cheek questions to Obrist, “it afforded the op- portunity to get inside his head!” Eyebrows were raised when a black chador-clad woman sat among were the sales. ing on “art still being somewhat elitist in Lebanon”. Mirvali also highlighted that “the millions are not ing.” With the Bourgeois, Amer and Mitchell sales, Sheffer was upbeat – “People feel that art has 50 51 review Facing page: Sigalit Landau. Compressed Household. 1996–2010. Household content and strange, especially as Houshiary’s pieces are nor- The Usual Suspects scaffolding post. 300 x 500 x 100 cm. mally snapped up at the vernissage. The same Haerizadeh’s photographic collage, He Came, He This page: Farhad Moshiri. (Detail) Tiger. 2009. could be said about Turkish artists Haluk Akakçe’s Left, features the deposed Pahlavi monarchy. To a Embroidery, acrylic and fake snow on canvas. (Canvas 5.6) 280 x 210 cm Blue and Taner Ceylan’s non-Iranian audience, would such a piece be con- 290 x 460 cm. 170 x 180 cm 1923 (From the Lost Painting Series) sidered ‘difficult’ to comprehend? “The main pro- Detail of Walid Raad’s four prints from the Appendix XVIII series. 2009. Archival inkjet print. at Istanbul-based Galerist (Canvas 5.3); the gal- tagonists are in there,” said Ropac. Another ‘difficult’ 162.6 x 129.5 cm. All edition of three of five plus one artist’s proof. lery reported meanwhile that [smaller] works by piece was Walid Raad’s (Canvas 5.2) Appendix XVIII at All photography by Sara Yassine. Egyptian Youssef Nabil (Canvas 1.1) were selling the Paula Cooper Gallery – the entire set (23 prints) maintained its value and we’re now dealing with her Women Without Men debut feature film, which is a balance, something very strong and very well, particularly his homoerotic works which, and one print were sold to Middle Eastern collec- a more sophisticated buyer.” Seoul’s Kukje Gallery recently garnered Neshat the Silver Lion award at weak all at once,” explained the gallery’s Marie- as one collector noted, “could not be shown in tors. “They pull you in,” said the gallery’s Anthony Al- also sold two works by Amer to American and Eu- the Venice Film Festival. Sophie Eiché. The gallery will participate in the the Gulf”. len, “Walid doesn’t answer any questions; you can’t ropean collectors. New York’s Edwynn Houk exhibited new Abu Dhabi Art fair in November, but will Size wasn’t a particular challenge for Iranian come to an easy conclusion, it’s very poetic.” A sleek relief by British/Iraqi architect Zaha works by Moroccan Lalla Essaydi (page 90) – a re- they bring work by Laundau? “I would Pop artist Farhad Moshiri’s (Canvas 1.5) works Raad, like the aforementioned Middle Eastern Hadid (Canvas 3.2) was displayed at Swiss gallery freshing change from Essaydi’s earlier Converging love to show her work in the UAE,” smiles at Emmanuel Perrotin and Thaddeus Ropac. artists (including Kader Attia, Canvas 3.4, who also Gmurzynska, whose Zurich branch has been trans- Territories and Les Femmes du Maroc series, regu- Eiché, “so I hope it will be possible!” The The former had sold two works – courtesy the showed at Art Unlimited and Adel Abdessemed formed to show Hadid’s designs alongside works larly shown at previous Art Basel fairs. “The new gallery’s Latifa Echakhch (Canvas 6.3) sold works gallery’s iPad – for $200,000 and $250,000 to at Christine König) belong to the group of ‘usual by the Russian Avant-garde (on until 25 Septem- works really bring Morocco to the fore,” noted the on average for $19,000 and also showed For Each collectors of German and Asian nationality, re- suspects’ at Art Basel. It is largely due to them that ber). Art Basel regular Mona Hatoum (Canvas 6.1) gallery’s Edwynn Houk, “people are amazed with Stencil a Revolution at Art Unlimited. The installa- spectively. Tiger, a $300,000, 290 x 460 cm piece Western gallerists are keen on discovering other showed through Alexander & Bonin, Continua and the intricacy in Lalla’s work.” With a recent Louvre tion, which uses a quote by Yasser Arafat on the at Perrotin, was initially reserved by art collec- regional artists. Rabih Mroué is on Allen’s radar; the Galerie Chantal Crousel (Canvas 6.3), among oth- acquisition, Houk’s pieces were priced at between rise of political demonstrations in the late 1960s, tor extraordinaire, François Pinault, who then Goodman Gallery is eager to find North African art- ers, with the latter exhibiting Hatoum’s 3-D Cities, $18-24,000, “still reasonable, given her growing utilises carbon paper and in so doing, harks at bought Life is Beautiful, “because Tiger was too ists and Cheim & Read are excited about the region an installation composed of wooden tables and fame” and remained unsold at the time of press. its employment decades ago in the creation big,” noted the gallery’s Nathalie Brambilla. “Iran as a whole. “I always start with the galleries upstairs,” printed maps of Beirut, Kabul and Baghdad – cit- One particularly striking work was Israeli art- of numerous copies of revolutionary images is not known for its tigers,” she said of the piece, said one Middle Eastern collector, “it’s where one ies bombed in the last 20 years. Priced at $124,000 ist Sigalit Landau’s Compressed Household (sold for and statements. “Farhad is breaking away from Iranian culture can find the new stuff.” Granted, ‘new stuff’ could (and unsold at the time of press), areas were perfo- $56,000), at first-time Art Basel participant, Galerie and clichés with this work.” More embroidery be found upstairs, but none of the Middle Eastern rated in convex and concave forms to symbolise Kamel Mennour (Canvas 4.3). The installation and work by Moshiri was found (and sold) at Ropac, artists were new to Art Basel. The fair’s last edition craters, “they are also symbolic of the rebuilding of video artist, selected to represent Israel at the Size Matters who also showed a piece by Iranian Ramin Haer- introduced works by Iranian artists Sara Rahbar and a city,” explained the gallery’s Philippe Manzome. 2011 Venice Biennale, received an Artis grant for Apparently, artwork size was a challenging factor izadeh (Canvas 5.6), which sold to an American Rokni Haerizadeh (Canvas 5.6) to a wider audience; “It’s about humanity, how conflict exists and will her solo show at the MoMA in 2008. Using origi- for collectors, or so the galleries said. A large 270 collector for $20,000. “We want to show these the same could not be said for this year. The Middle continue to exist, but it also offers hope.” Another nal material from her parents’ home, Compressed x 190 cm work by Iranian artist Shirazeh Houshi- artists for who they are and integrate them all East has a wealth of emerging and established art- Art Basel regular, Shirin Neshat (Canvas 3.5) showed Household literally compresses all objects – and ary (Canvas 6.2), priced at $433,400 at Lisson curatorially,” said the gallery’s Thaddeus Ropac, ists and with a lot of international focus on the re- through Gladstone Gallery, which had sold four memories – into one installation. “Through the Gallery was unsold at the time of press, alleg- “I don’t want an ‘Iranian’ wall and prefer to hang gion’s art, it would be great to some of these ‘new’ editions of her work; Stadtkino Basel also screened scaffolding used to hang the work in the air, there edly due to its size – even gallery reps found this them altogether with Baselitz and Cragg.” names hang alongside Basel’s ‘usual suspects’. 52 53
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