Basel Fair to Offer Artworks by Warhol, Ruscha, Kippenberger
June 13 -- Basel, Switzerland, will become the world's No. 1 art market this week. Some 270 galleries will pitch works by Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha, Richard Prince and Martin Kippenberger to about 50,000 visitors at Art Basel.
Sales at past fairs have been estimated at as much as $300 million, several times more than any rival, says Samuel Keller, director of 36-year-old Art Basel. For collectors, it's the next shopping stop after New York's contemporary auctions in May, which also racked up sales of about $300 million in a week.
Because of its size, Art Basel, which runs June 15-20, may provide a clue to whether prices can continue to rise after trebling since 1996.
``In the speculative secondary market, prices may not be sustainable,'' says Craig Robins, a Miami real-estate developer and collector who's coming to the fair. ``I've been going there every year for five years or more, and I always find incredible things.''
While works by Warhol, Ruscha and other established artists fetched record prices in New York, pieces by newer names such as Maurizio Cattelan and Marlene Dumas didn't sell or sold for less than expected. Still, the contemporary market is so strong that the weak U.S. dollar won't keep buyers away from Basel, says Marc Payot, a partner at Hauser & Wirth, a Zurich-based gallery.
Art Basel and its sister fair, Art Basel Miami Beach, are the two largest, says Gerard Goodrow, Art Cologne's director. He ranks Cologne's fair third, followed by London's Frieze Art Fair and New York's Armory Show, which each took in less than $50 million at their last sessions.
Giant Intestine
The city at the bend of the Rhine river bordering France and Germany has 190,000 inhabitants. Its population will swell by almost one-quarter with visitors to the fair, as 5,000 artworks arrive from galleries in 28 countries. Basel also will be transformed by 10 art projects in public places.
Hauser & Wirth artist Allan Kaprow is conscripting students to build geometric sculptures out of ice blocks that will melt fast or slowly, depending on the weather. Dutch art group Atelier van Lieshout has created ``Bar Rectum,'' where visitors can have a drink inside a giant plastic intestine.
Names on collectors' shopping lists include classic contemporaries, such as Andy Warhol; artists in mid-career who did well at the New York auctions, including Prince and Kippenberger, and younger ones who have waiting lists for new works, such as Kai Althoff and Neo Rauch, say collectors and dealers.
It's hard to see who the promising new artists are because a rush of money into the market has pushed up prices for everyone in recent years, says Miami collector Marty Margulies. ``I do not have a shopping list,'' he says. ``When I see a work at the fair in a booth, that is when I decide.''
Temptation
Artists with new shows, such as Richard Serra, whose massive sculpture ``The Matter of Time,'' has just gone on display at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, or those representing their countries at the Venice Biennale that opened June 11, including Ruscha and Gilbert & George, may also be in demand.
``Dealers tend to bring artists who are getting attention,'' says Robert Shimshak, a California radiologist and art collector. ``They're easier to sell.'' Shimshak is skipping Art Basel this year, after using up his art budget. ``If I go, I'll be tempted to buy something.''
New Yorker Larry Gagosian's Gagosian Gallery will bring works by Kippenberger, Ruscha and Prince to Art Basel, plus older pieces by Damien Hirst, whose solo show of paintings at Gagosian closed last month. Galerie Eigen + Art of Leipzig and Berlin, which sold out within hours of the Miami fair's opening in December, will show two 1993 works by Rauch, known for his nightmarish paintings, plus a large work by Tim Eitel, who'll have a solo show in December at the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Anton Kern Gallery of New York, which represents Althoff, says none of his works were available for Art Basel.
Mixed Media
Art Basel's catalog lists 12 galleries that will offer Ruscha, including Robert Mnuchin's C&M Arts of New York. Kippenberger, who features currently in a show at collector Charles Saatchi's London gallery, shows up 10 times.
Works by Gilbert & George, who are representing the U.K. in Venice, will be available at five galleries, including Jay Jopling's White Cube of London and Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac of Salzburg and Paris.
Ropac has Gilbert & George's ``Seventeen Street,'' a mixed- media work, for 120,000 euros ($146,448). White Cube has ``Ten,'' a nine-panel piece decorated with quirky classified advertisements.
Some hot names may be already reserved. Art Basel sells 2,500 catalogs in advance, says Keller. ``People contact the galleries, and try to buy in advance,'' he says.
A couple of years ago, some collectors got hold of passes belonging to workers at the fair, and slipped in before the opening to try and buy art that was in demand, Keller says, adding that he's put a stop to that.
Works by Picasso, the granddaddy of earlier 20th-century art, will be offered by 29 galleries, including Acquavella of New York and Helly Nahmad of London. Richard Gray Gallery of Chicago and New York will offer a 1956 Picasso, ``Buste de Femme,'' for $2.8 million.
De Kooning Work
Gray will have oil paintings by two other artists who did well at the New York auctions: Willem de Kooning's ``Woman (Green)'' from the 1950s and Roy Lichtenstein's ``Head with Monocle,'' from 1980.
Keller says that in diversifying Art Basel he's added modern- art dealers and vintage-photography dealers as well as young galleries.
Eighteen new galleries at the fair range from 1301PE of Los Angeles and Kurimanzutto of Mexico to Moscow's XL Gallery and Helsinki's Galerie Anhava, said Peter Vetsch, a fair spokesman.
Collector Robins aims to add works by U.S. artists he already owns, such as John Baldessari and Richard Tuttle. ``Some artists I'm collecting in depth,'' he says. What about hot artists like Chris Ofili, Elizabeth Peyton and Wilhelm Sasnal?
``Lots of them have become expensive,'' he says. `But if I'm offered important examples of their work I would continue to collect them.''
Offerings, Prices
His advice to collectors: Look for new works that galleries are showing for the first time. Be picky about older works that they may have bought at top prices at recent auctions.
The auction world will be in Basel, too. ``You have to go in order to see what is being offered and at what price,'' says Olivier Camu, international director of impressionist and modern art at Christie's International in London ``It is also interesting to see what sells and what doesn't.'' In the art world, he says, ``Information is of the essence.''
Dealers pay 20,000 euros ($24,390) to 50,000 euros for a booth at the fair, which Keller says is higher than other European fairs though lower than at U.S. fairs, including Art Basel Miami.
Basel doesn't have beaches or internationally famous chefs, yet it attracts passionate collectors and museum professionals, says Paul Gray of the Richard Gray Gallery. ``This usually translates into business for us and makes the relatively expensive venture well worthwhile.''
