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:
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:
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
Vincent Anthony Falkiewicz
Of all the art and artists displayed at the 42nd Art Basel, none is quite as controversial as that of "incarcerated Chinese sculptor and performance artist Ai Weiwei (Allsop 1)." He was recently arrested by officials of the People's Republic of China, but several protests have been conducted to free the free speaking artist. Although many expected his arrest to spark a large number of people to attend these protests, "some protests have been sparsely attended." Even though his protests have been sparsely attended, it has done wonders for his works. Specifically, a collection of pictures of "500 of the 1001 Chinese people that he brought to Kassel in 2007 as part of his art work named Fairytale (Allsop 1)" has been the talk of the show. This was part of the reason he was incarcerated, hence the reason it is so highly discussed. Considering he was arrested for it, I don't think this was a marketing strategy of his. Otherwise it would have ended with him not in jail. However, even though it's not a specific strategy, the arrest has certainly helped bring attention to his art, specifically Fairytale. Normally, this type of attention varies on how it affects the price of the artist's work. In the case of Weiwei, no such effect is apparent. However, information is limited on the price of works displayed. Weiwei does prove how an artist with significant representation and respect in the contemporary art world can have significantly more attention be drawn to his work though.
Erica Gilbert-Levin
Kimberly Ann Phoenix
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.