Twenty-One Cranky Ways of Looking at Art Basel Miami Beach

By Linda Lee

Published: December 2, 2008

Courtesy Art Basel Miami Beach

Art Basel Miami Beach attendees view work at Milan-based De Carlo gallery's booth at last year's fair.

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Hedge-fund managers such as Steven Cohen, who paid David Geffen $137.5 million for de Kooning’s Woman III in 2006, helped fuel the rising market for art. Now hedge-fund managers are hurting, with many having to unwind their positions.
Message: Don’t expect record prices on art. Will Steve Cohen even come?

As investors pull their money out of mutual funds, which they have been doing for weeks, they feel poor not just on paper, but for real.
Message: People who are telling their kids that they can’t have an Xbox for Christmas are not going to be buying art — at any level.

With so many people having recently lost their jobs, it’s bad form for the still-employed to throw money around on things like paintings, fine watches, Hummers, and caviar.
Message: The words “conspicuous consumption” and “ostentatious” will replace “bling” and “glitz.” If there are big sales, they will be quiet … except for, maybe, those involving Jeffrey Deitch, who always seems to sell everything on the first day.

According to New York magazine, orders for booze at this year’s fair are down 20 percent.
Message: Dealers aren’t even counting on hooch to convince prospective buyers to snap up that as-yet-to-be-started Cecily Brown.

The bankrupt Lehman Brothers had a collection of 3,500 pieces of art. On December 3, a court will rule if Lehman can pay the warehouses storing its art so that it can spring $8 million worth and sell it. As people like former Lehman CEO Richard Fuld Jr. liquidate their assets, personal collections are being sold, too. Fuld’s 16 works on paper, consigned to Christie’s for sale in November, brought in $13.5 million; he was guaranteed $20 million.
Message: Supply and demand applies to the art market, too.

There are too many fairs. Not just the dozens in Miami, but fairs all over the world, too, including, just recently, Art Beijing, ShContemporary, the Dublin Art Fair, the Singapore Showcase, Art Copenhagen, the Korea International Art Fair, FIART 2008 Valencia, the Toronto International Art Fair, the Third Seville International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Art Verona 08, Frieze, Zoo, FIAC, Art Forum Berlin, Artissima, and Arte Lisboa. The Art Newspaper said that there were 150 fairs around the world that merited attention this year.
Message: Buyers are faired out, and so are the galleries.

Enough galleries dropped out of the giant Art Miami satellite fair in Miami's Midtown that those on the waiting list were able to get in. The galleries that dropped out tended to be national; those on the waiting list were local.
Message: Nonresident dealers don't want to pay for travel, shipping, and insurance; local dealers are willing to jump in for the chance of meeting an out-of-town collector... because there aren't enough in Miami right now to keep the galleries going.

“Owning a painting is an utter luxury, like owning a diamond necklace,” Laurie Fendrich, a professor of fine arts at Hofstra University, wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education. “A painting — cumbersome to take care of, appreciated by only the very few, and, as assets go, not even remotely liquid — is an easy thing to do without.” By the way, the ultra-high-end Graff Diamonds of London recently reported that sales of diamonds in the $20,000–100,000 range are soft.
Message: No one needs art (or fancy diamonds).

One major publicist in Miami handled 10 big events last year; this year, she is handling two.
Message: Oh, you cynic. She’s a great publicist. People are just canceling.

Some of the better hotels in Miami Beach had rooms available recently but weren’t dropping their room rates. Last year, when hotels like the Anglers had cancelations, they lowered their rates for the fair.
Message: Some people haven’t gotten the message yet (but they will: An empty room looks really empty once the fair starts).

Jerry Saltz is giving a talk on Thursday, December 4, as an official Art Basel event. It is titled “This is the End: The Rising Tide of Money Goes Out of the Art World and All Boats Are Sinking.”
Message: Mayday!

Cartier (a new sponsor of Art Basel last year) reserved the back page of the official Art Basel Miami Beach magazine — and then did not buy it.
Message: In hard times, it makes sense to cut back.

Finally, in a recent article in the Independent, Damien Hirst said he thought his own art was overpriced.
Message: If über-self-promoter Damien Hirst says his art is overpriced, it really is.

Linda Lee is editor in chief of www.MA2Dweek.com, a Miami Web site covering Art Basel.

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