Art Basel Miami Beach 2008
The Art Newspaper presents exclusive coverage of Art Basel/Miami Beach 2008. For other fair editions and previous years click here
Loyal buyers secure a positive start
Dedicated, long-term collectors turn out to support galleries and artists
Despite nerves on the set-up days before the fair, the collectors who were invited to Art Basel Miami Beach’s opening preview yesterday soon packed the aisles. The sheer turnout lifted the spirits of many, and while sales were much slower than the frenzied buying of earlier years, for many it was better than they feared. “The shocking thing about this fair is how much is being sold. If you had asked me yesterday I would never have thought there would have been so many sales,” said major Miami collector Don Rubell. On the opening VIP day Emmanuel Perrotin (D2) had given over his stand to a solo show by Iranian artist Farhad Moshiri. It contained just two large mixed-media canvases valued at $250,000 each—one of which was bought by a Belgian collector right at the beginning of the fair. “I sold 50% of my stand within the first 20 minutes of the fair!” quipped Mr Perrotin. Others’ reactions to the fair were more muted: Daniel Buchholz (D1), with galleries in Cologne and Berlin, said he...READ ON
Is glitzy art on the way out?
The changing market may diversify the works being produced
Prices aren’t the only thing different about the art on offer at ABMB this year: tough economic conditions have also influenced what many dealers have brought and what many collectors are buying. Eventually, the times may also affect what art is made. In a word—or a few—big, glitzy, high-cost art is out, replaced by smaller, less showy works that don’t require artists or dealers to take out a mortgage to produce, or collectors to build showcase museums to display their treasures. “The art...READ ON
TV interviews from Art Basel Miami Beach 2008
French investigate suspected design fakes
French investigators have arrested a Ukrainian man and four members of an artist’s family, suspecting them of having produced and sold fake 20th-century furniture by Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Alexandre Noll and Pierre Chareau over the past three years. The 30-year-old Ukrainian, identified only as Dmytro, confessed to making fakes, according to the French provincial newspaper Sud-Ouest. He had made them for a Parisian painter called Christian Duran, who died in 2006. The artist’s wife,...READ ON
How will Miami’s art scene weather the economic storm?
In the atrium of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz’s house in Key Biscayne, several works by the late Félix González-Torres commune with each other. Two stacks of posters sit on the floor between a generous heap of candy and a glowing string of light bulbs. While one poster states, “Nowhere better than this place”, the other declares, “Somewhere better than this place”. The conflicted work seems to typify the high-low, grungy paradise that is Miami. One of the most culturally diverse cities in the US...READ ON