Certainly, no other art fair has yet succeeded in stealing the crown, certainly no other fair specialising in modern and contemporary art as Art Basel does. “It is the most important fair for fine art of the 20th and 21st Centuries,” confirms Prof. Dr. Dirk Boll, Christie’s Managing Director-Continental Europe. “Not only is it a showcase of the most amazing range of high-quality artworks, but also a great platform to meet art lovers. And the fair management has cleverly developed this by adding formats for young art, talks and panel discussions that almost give it a bit of a ‘Biennale’ flair.”
“You have to see Art Basel to really get the pulse of the contemporary art market. It’s the mecca,” explains Sarah Greenberg, Christie’s’ Director of Communications & Marketing, Post-War and Contemporary Art Europe. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Christie’s Travel in association with Abercrombie & Kent have arranged a trip there .
The preview of Basel, invitations to which Christie’s Travellers will enjoy, lasts two day, and there’s a lot more of artistic significance taking place in Basel besides.
Gerhard Richter is one of world’s most important living painters, and this is being recognised and celebrated by the Fondation Beyeler, who are hosting the biggest retrospective of his work ever before shown in Switzerland. For those for whom the name ‘Beyeler’ is not immediately familiar, it worth my explaining that Ernst Beyeler was one of the foremost art dealers of the twentieth century, and one of the founders of Art Basel. The Fondation, designed by the legendary Renzo Piano (Christie’s Travel is organising a trip to the Harvard Art Museum in the autumn, another Piano building, which is opening with the Rothko murals) is an exceptionally beautiful building, designed in close communion with the surrounding landscape. Beyeler himself worked with Piano on the design: it was one of his wishes that visitors to the museum would not have to go up or down any stairs, hence it’s all being on one level.
Richter is not the only living artist to be afforded a retrospective at this time in Basel: the Schaulager is showing the first major solo show of the American kinetic artist Paul Chan – Christie’s Mayfair currently has an exhibition of kinetic art and the Kunstmuseum is holding an exhibition of the American sculptor Charles Ray. Christie’s Travellers can expect guided tours of both exhibitions, as well as a visit to one of the most important private collections of 20th Century art in Europe, with pieces from Giacometti to Bacon, and from Surrealist to Abstract Art. Because, ultimately, buying and collecting is what Art Basel is about. “It is a serious place to see art. And you have to work the fair,” is the edict of Sarah Greenberg.
Because, as Nicholas Serota has been quoted as saying in Louisa Buck and Judith Greer’s book, Owning Art: A contemporary art collector’s handbook, “If you can afford it, the best way to engage with art is to buy it and live with it, to feel passionately about it and to care for it.” And fortunately Basel isn’t just for the biggest of spenders, rather, it is a place for those who love art, and, as Prof. Dr. Dirk Boll put it in the opening paragraph, a place to meet others who feel the same way.