October 13, 2008 
Art Basel 37: Day One Sales: Fast & FuriousBy Judd Tully
Published: June 13, 2006
Primavera by Janaina Tschape, a large-scale abstract watercolor on paper, measuring 60 by 119, including the frame, sold to a Japanese collector for $35,000. The gallery also sold a mixed-media work by Mark Bradford, who showed at this years Whitney Biennial and who won the 2006 Bucksbaum Award. Weather (75 x 64) went for $40,000. A Kara Walker work of cut paper on paper and pencil (Redbone Bluebird, 53 x 73) was on a strong hold for $175,000. Two small-scale but lovely Leonardo Drew works, however, were still available at $12,000 each. CINDY SHERMAN SELLS, AND SELLS AT SKARSTEDT Photography was also hot on opening day, especially if it was by Cindy Sherman Skarstedt (New York) sold four major Sherman pieces, ranging from $250,000 to $700,000, according to gallerist Pers Skarstedt. Untitled #180, a huge, double-panel work from 1986-7, featuring a rather scary looking and uncomfortably close-up female face, sold to a Swiss foundation for $250,000. Untitled #150& from 1985, featuring one of Sherman's wildly concocted fairy-tale images, sold for $700,000. In between those prices, Untitled #193, a C-print from 1989, fetched approximately $500,000 and features Sherman a la a coquettish Marie Antoinette, complete with authentic, 18th-century clothes borrowed from an aristocratic Roman family. It's a great image from her History Portrait series. Though not on display, Skarstedt also sold a famous Film Still of Sherman's from 1978 for approximately $500,000. In this work, she looks like a scared runaway from a 1950s era Alfred Hitchcock film. The storied, 20 by 16 image (from an edition of three) was consigned to the dealer by an otherwise unidentified American art critic who bought the image directly from the artist in 1980, according to the dealer. Skarstedt also sold You Are Not Yourself, Barbara Kruger's punchy gelatin silver print from 1981, for $250,000 to a New York collector. Not bad results for barely an hour of work. SCULPTURE SCOOPED UP Early buyers were also eager to sate their hunger for sculpture, too. Lisson Gallery (London) sold Close Quarters, a mirror-finish Tony Cragg stainless-steel sculpture from 2005 featuring the streamlined profile of a woman's face. It sold for approximately €150,000. Remarkably, the new edition of four has sold out in the past two weeks, according to Lisson's Neil Robert Wenman, since their debut in London at Lisson. Two major Anish Kapoor sculptures, in the range of £300,000 pounds each, are being held on an all-day reserve at Lisson. Usually, at least at the Basel art fairs, reserves are limited to an hour or so but as Wenman points out, "Collectors are seeing a lot and can't make up their minds in 20 minutes." Sculpture also made a splash at Cheim & Read (New York) with Topiary, Louise Bourgeois' petite bronze from 2005 with a silver nitrate patina, sold in the early moments of the fair for $200,000. At the same gallery, Jenny Holzer's carved marble bench from her Survival series sold for approximately $45,000. The 2006 work hails from an edition of 10; the gritty text, which is carved into the marble seat, dates from 1985 but is all too relevant today: "Die fast and quiet when they interrogate you or live so long that they are ashamed to hurt you anymore." WANG'S UNDERGARMENTS Not all of the art consumed in the early moments was of a deadly serious nature as evidenced by Underpants, the cleverly conceived fiberglass and acrylic reliefs from 2003-05 of profusely decorated undergarments by Beijing artist Wang Zhiyuan at Hyundai (Seoul). In the first hour of shopping, at least three in the edition of eight sold in the €3,000 range. Things snappy and decorative were also consumed enthusiastically at Goodman Gallery (Johannesburg) as a group of beaded, silk and Swarovski crystal covered pillow-like objects by the 30-year-old South African artist Francis Goodman (no blood relation to the gallery) sold at prices ranging from $1,200 to $4,000. |
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