Focus on Art Fairs Art Basel 2011

A view of Art Basel via the New York Times

DAY 13 Today is Friday, June 17,^th and Art Basel 42 opens this weekend! Spend the next day or two following the opening festivities

by examining the official website and following blogs or live reports from ArtForum International, the Wall Street Journal, arttactic.com

or another reputable resource. Choose a gallery, an artist or an exhibition for your report, noting specific marketing strategies, collector rela-

tions, reviews, or notoriety in the contemporary art world. You may refer to the work that you did for the opening of the Venice Biennale

by covering the same artists, should they be exhibited/represented by a dealer or gallery at Art Basel. After perusing the Art Fair Calendar,

comment on the profusion of art fairs around the globe and the frequency of their occurrence. Finally, not everything is peachy at Art Basel

42, the detention of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei by the Chinese government has caused some artists, including Anish Kapoor, who was

scheduled to show his large scale sculptures in that country, to stage protests. Please comment as well on the role of politics in the 

art market.

Art Basel 42 Websites and related links:

Check out the following web page for Art Basel 42:

http://www.artbasel.com/go/id/ss/

Art Fair Calendar, 2011:

http://www.artvista.de/

View Vernissage TV's stroll through Art Basel 42, including works by Damien Hirst, Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, Tomas Saraceno,

and Nuno Ramost; watch a performance by Jamie Isenstein at Meyer Riegger Gallery.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjb7kp_art-42-basel-2011_creation 

Readings

Read the selected excerpt from Sarah Thornton's Seven Days in the Art World: 

Thornton_Fair.pdf

Read Pacco Barragan's "the Art Fair Age," in Metropolis M. Metropolism, 2008:

http://metropolism.com/magazine/2008-no3/the-art-fair-age/

Individual Contributions

Consider & comment:
What did you think of today's readings and wiki features? What issues if any did they raise for you? How did the audio visual material provided support your understanding of this topic? Comment on your classmates' posts. Leave your comments in the box below.