Basel Dazzle

BASEL—More than 60,000 visitors are set to take over the city of Basel, in northwest Switzerland, from June 4 through 8 for the 39th edition of Art Basel, widely considered the world’s foremost contemporary-art fair. Seventy-two of the 300 participating galleries hail from the U.S., compared with 49 from Germany, 35 from Switzerland and 29 from the U.K. Among the geographically diverse newcomers are the Beijing Art Now Gallery; Buenos Aires’s Ruth Benzacar; and Vancouver, British Columbia’s Catriona Jeffries.

Art Unlimited, Art Basel’s pioneering exhibition platform for projects that transcend the classic art show, is filled with outsize projects by 60 artists, including Tom Wesselmann’s 30-foot picture Still Life #61 and Swiss artist Fabrice Gygi’s 40-foot metal watchtower. Another cutting-edge section of the fair, Art Statements, presents 31 solo shows spotlighting up-and- coming artists from Peru to Vietnam. Of particular note is the Romanian artist Ciprian Muresan’s floor-to-ceiling installation, at the Bucharest dealer Andreiana Mihail’s stand, of 150 photographs of graffiti inspired by the words of the 1981 literature Nobelist Elias Canetti: “The city becomes text and makes sense.” The work is priced between €40,000 and €45,000 ($63,200–71,200).

The Art Premiere section of the fair is presenting “Artists in Dialogue,” which juxtaposes works by artists from contrasting backgrounds and generations. For instance, six paintings, priced between €50,000 and €100,000 ($79,100–158,200), by the French Minimalist Martin Barré (1924–93) are displayed beside four abstract sculptures, priced from $20,000 to $40,000, by the American sculptor Jessica Stockholder that the Paris dealer Nathalie Obadia commissioned for this project because she feels the two artists share a sense of color and form.

Beyond the fair, a host of concurrent art shows opens in Basel as well: Liste; Volta; Bâlelatina; Design Miami/ Basel (June 2–5); and Scope, which moves into its new premises by the Rhine.

"Basel Dazzle" originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's June 2008 Table of Contents.