Art Basel Miami Beach Opens

Written by Andres Schipani Tuesday, 22 May 2012 21:25

Now is the time of the year when Miami turns its back on the sea and casts its eyes on the work of 2,500 artists, represented by over 250 galleries from all over the world, at the US edition of Art Basel Miami. This year ABMB’s organizers have put the “Art Positions” and “Art Nova” sections, devoted to emerging galleries and artists, alongside the more established dealers. “These are two sections I particularly enjoy,” says Elizabeth Neilson, who heads the Zabludowicz Collection in London. “It is really important to be able to give the younger galleries a chance to show their rising stars and that for us is a really exciting place to be.” She adds that, for curators like her, this is an opportunity to see artists one does not normally get the chance to see “in the flesh”. In some peoples’ eyes, a positive consequence of the slower pace is that institutions have more of a chance to buy. Tanya Bonakdar said that she had sold a Haim Steinbach sculpture to the Hammer Museum at U.C.L.A., and the Mexican gallery Kurimanzutto said it had a major work on hold for a museum. Lest the fair get overwhelming, the organizers have developed applications for iPhones and BlackBerries to help visitors navigate their way around and earmark their favorite pieces. Even old ABMB hands may find them useful. “There are a lot of new things happening in this edition of the fair. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the ninth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which opened to the public Thursday and runs until Sunday. In the first 90 minutes after the 11 a.m. opening, the rush proved profitable: Dealers at the contemporary art fair reported sales far stronger than last year's, and several patrons noted that they'd tried to put works on reserve -- only to find out they were already sold. Many gallerists said works were selling for at or near asking prices. The trend held into the night

During the VIP preview day of its ninth edition, business was brisk. Within 30 minutes of the opening, for example, London’s Timothy Taylor Gallery had sold Sean Scully’s “Cut Ground Pink Black Pink” (2010), a fizzy, colorful array of stripes and rectangles, for $750,000. “It’s still very, very early in the fair but we sold one of the strongest things on the booth”, says Oscar Humphries, who works in international sales at the gallery.

However, it was the local Cernuda Gallery that grabbed everyone’s attention, after selling two paintings by the Cuban modernist Wifredo Lam in the first 90 minutes: “Les Fiancés” (1944) for $3m and “Femme Cheval” (1959) for $600,000. “It has been a great opening for this edition of Art Basel Miami Beach,” says gallery owner Ramón Cernuda. “We’ve brought in just the Cuban ‘vanguardia’ of the early 20th century and we’ve already sold 10 works, including our stellar painting [‘Les Fiancés’] that depicts the artist marrying Helena Holzer.” Cernuda believes that Art Basel Miami Beach is well placed to benefit from a growing global interest in Latin American art. “We are very much impressed by the level of collectors attending Art Basel and by the interest they are showing in Latin American art,” he says. “Americans, Europeans and others are now realizing a Wifredo Lam can sit next to a Pablo Picasso.”

Among the big galleries business also seemed to be thriving. According to Marc Payot of Hauser & Wirth, ABMB got off to an excellent start: “Some important pieces have been sold and some are in the pipeline. We feel a much stronger presence of international collectors this year; it seems Art Basel it is becoming the only fair covering the entire world.” Noteworthy sales include Roni Horn’s “Well . . .” (2009-10), for $750,000, and Bharti Kher’s “Symphony” (2010), for $175,000, to a European and South American collection respectively.

Tim Marlow of London’s White Cube Gallery is similarly cheerful, believing that the Miami fair was never “hammered” by the recession like other art fairs. “Miami always had a kind of momentum behind it.” For Marlow, as with any opening day in Miami, big sales happened “immediately” on Wednesday, with “James Bond Island 1”(2007) by Andreas Gursky fetching €400,000 ($520,000).

Even after 3 p.m., when the fair opened to a wider crowd, the atmosphere was still so relaxed that Peter Benedek, a co-founder of United Talent Agency, whose clients include “Sopranos” creator David Chase and, more recently, the 24-year-old auteur Lena Dunham, actually sat down on the floor in Zwirner’s booth to contemplate a Neo Rauch oil-on-paper work resting against the wall in front of him. Apparently, his communion with it was gratifying, because he ultimately bought it.

Among the people who visited those booths was Anne Strauss, an associate curator in the department of 19th century, modern, and contemporary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, who said she was at the fair with a very specific goal: catching up on Latin American contemporary art, an area in which she said the Met was “way behind.” She had recently been to Brazil for the Sao Paolo Biennial and to visit Inhotim, the art park created by the iron magnate Bernardo Paz, but she said that Art Basel Miami Beach was “indispensable” as a way of further educating herself about the current trends in Latin American art, and would save her multiple other trips abroad.

Miami Herald staff writer Daniel Chang contributed to this report.