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Art Basel Postscript: More Editors Picks

By Magdalene Perez

Published: June 28, 2008
BASEL—

Right on the top of our list were three elegant works by Louise Bourgeois at Cheim and Read's prime first-floor space near the entrance. Her Topiary, a small bronze and silver sculpture, sold in an edition of six, looks like a torso sprouting an artichoke-like top. Another small piece, titled Couple, depicts two fragile-looking cloth figures embracing beneath a glass encasement. Finishing up the trio is a large untitled sculpture made of tapestry and resembling a totem-like Easter Island head ($800,000). On the way out, don't miss Andy Wharhol's Sex Part, an explicit diptych silkscreen that carries a price tag of $300,000.

Just around the corner, another New York Gallery, Matthew Marks, was offering a series of sublime glamour photographs by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin. Our favorite was the powdered and painted face of My Little Darling Eva, a somewhat eerie photograph available in an edition of 10 for $9,500.

Right next door but at the other end of the photography spectrum, Cindy Sherman's Untitled #180 at Skarstedt Fine Arts stared out with blank fish-eyes from a huge bisected print of a strange, yellow and purplish wax face. The work went to a private collection in Europe for $250,000.

A more subtle work is Larry Bell's Cube #30, a partly transparent glass box which was on view at Galerie Daniel Templon. The meditative minimalist work slowly changes shades and levels of reflection or transparency as the viewer walks around it, encouraging the viewer to get lost in its depth. Despite many inquiries, the work was still available for $50,000. "Maybe it's too subtle for an art fair," commented a gallery director, "You need something flashier to bring people in at a fair." A task easily accomplished by the lighted neon tube chair by Ivan Navarro sitting at the front of the Templon booth. An extremely fragile piece, the chair is sold in an edition of three for 35,000 euros.

At Mexico City's OMR Gallery were displayed three of Bonnie Seeman's intricate porcelain teapots and vessels, painstakingly crafted and glazed to look like a ghoulish but elegant mix of muscle, bones and vegetation. When all of these sold out, the gallery put out two other fascinating works, an onion-like water vessel showing exposed crystal arteries and sitting on a green leafy base, and a cabbage-like bowl inlaid with a spine and thick muscles. Both works were available for about 7,000 euros each.

Last but not least, a miniature work at Deitch Projects succeeded in catching the AI eye. Situated on the corner of a wall at was a tiny Barry McGee model of a graffiti bomber vandalizing the Art Basel exhibition space with black paint.

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