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Last week Art Basel Miami Beach brought the art world's jet set down to Florida, while in France museum workers went on strike and a Guggenheim Bilbao official was thrown in jail. Read on for ArtWeLove’s news digest, now also available in email form—bringing a comprehensive roundup of the week’s art developments to your digital doorstep. If you aren’t signed up, click here. As always, we welcome your feedback at editorial@artwelove.com.
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH RECAP: PEOPLE WERE BUYING! AND WAS THAT MILEY CYRUS? (YES, IT WAS.)
Art Basel Miami Beach took over the post-boom art world last week, and the climate at the fair and its satellite events was much like the South Beach weather: a little dampened at times, but for the most part sunny, hot, and even a little breezy. Heartened by the drumbeat of a resurgent economy, collectors from all over the world—with a large contingent from Latin America this year—converged with artists and celebrities like Naomi Campbell and Val Kilmer to forage for art among the main fair’s 250-plus booths, resulting in a marked improvement over last year's dour sales.
Reflecting lingering anxiety about the art market, the work on view was largely conservative—meaning lots of safe pieces by standbys like Picasso and Alex Katz, with less bling overall (a welcome change) and fewer works by untested artists (a boring shift, though there were some breakout appearances, like the British sculptor Thomas Houseago). On the higher end, works were still slow to move, even with sharply discounted prices. “The numbers have all changed, $500,000 is the new million,” 303 director Lisa Spellman said to the Art Newspaper. But sales were surprisingly brisk for premium pieces by coveted young artists. “Everything that was really good was sold in three seconds,” eminent contemporary-art collector Don Rubell told us at the VIP vernissage. “I thought there would be a lot of things available, but there aren’t. It’s astonishing.”
Of the city’s other fairs—Pulse, Art Miami, Pool, Ink, and the rest—NADA was the standout, as usual. Newly installed at the retro-chic Deauville Hotel, it had a strong display of attractive, interesting work brought by an international sampling of upstart galleries. Highlights included Julieta Aranda’s degraded film at unosunove arte contemporanea, Ellen Harvey’s mirrored landscape chamber at Stephan Stoyanov, and Luke Butler’s movie-inspired collages and Star Trek paintings at Silverman gallery. As at ABMB, non-exorbitant work by good (and mostly young) artists sold like crazy, especially for galleries from New York’s Lower East Side. Rental gallery, which showed Brendan Fowler’s smashed-together poster sculptures, not only sold out its booth on the opening day—it also sold out a second booth’s worth of work that dealer Joel Mesler was displaying in his hotel room, and received new commissions on top of that. Sunday L.E.S. gallery also unloaded its entire booth of Kirk Hayes’ paintings in the first hour of the fair.
U.S. MARSHALS AND LADYBUGS INVADED THE FAIR, & RAMBO SHOWED HIS SENSITIVE SIDE
While the week was sedate and almost leisurely compared to previous years, it began with a jolt when New York dealer Asher Edelman arrived just before the main fair’s V.I.P. opening with a cadre of U.S. Marshals to seize four paintings from Gmurzynska gallery’s booth. The artworks—by Yves Klein, Joan Miro, Edgar Degas, and Fernand Leger, and together worth $7 million—were later returned when the dealer and the Swiss gallery reached a settlement relating to a previous financial matter. Gmurzynska also received attention of another kind for showing art by Rocky actor Sylvester Stallone, who hung around the booth as his thickly-painted canvases sold in the mid five-figure range. (A second actor-turned-artist, James Franco, was also at the fair with his gallerist grandmother.) Other talk at the fair centered around a massive ladybug infestation in the fair’s V.I.P. lounge, the work of an artist or prankster (probably both).
DEITCH PAINTED THE TOWN, THE JUMEX COLLECTION STOPPED BY, & THE RUBELLS STOLE THE SPOTLIGHT
For those who went to Miami for the art, there was also plenty to see in the overall absorbing spate of exhibitions at the city’s institutions. At the top of the list was the Rubell Family Collection’s “Beg, Borrow, and Steal” show, a survey of appropriation art from the 1970s to the present that spotlighted a number of exciting young talents, like Karl Haendel, Elad Lassry, and Aaron Curry. MoCA’s “The Reach of Realism” and the Bass Museum’s show of art from the Jumex collection—the first time Mexico’s foremost contemporary art collection has traveled to the U.S.—also provided a good view of what artists have been doing in recent years. Jeffrey Deitch added his customary bolt of energy to the proceedings with a pop-up show of murals by graffiti artists like Os Gemeos and Shepard Fairey (whose Obey Giant stickers could also be seen around the city, suggesting he's undaunted by his ICA Boston experience). Finally, the new de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space opened in the Design District with a show of work by artists from Ana Mendieta to Jim Hodges.
Oh, and then there were some parties, too.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS ROUNDUP: GUGGENHEIM BILBAO OFFICIAL JAILED, VENICE BIENNALE BEAT RECORD, & PARIS MUSEUMS SHUT DOWN
In assorted international news on what was otherwise a slow week—or maybe all the art press was just in Miami—the former financial director of the Guggenheim Bilbao, Roberto Cearsolo, was sentenced to almost 3 years in jail after he admitted to siphoning over half a million dollars from the museum’s coffers. Meanwhile the Venice Biennale announced that this year it received its highest attendance ever, a rise mirrored by many U.S. institutions, which also reported record visitors. Paris museums, on the other hand, had a noted drop in attendance last week thanks to a strike by museum workers that began at the Pompidou and spread to shut down the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay, and other major institutions. The unions, who are protesting government budget cuts in their sector, allowed most of the museums to reopen over the weekend, though the Pompidou remained under siege as of Sunday night.
[Editor's Note: In last week's news digest we mistakenly said that Herzog & de Meuron's new Miami Art Museum building was completed; instead only the plans had been unveiled.]
"Shhh! Wall Street is Spending Again" [via the Wall Street Journal]
"Jobs Report Is Strongest Since the Start of the Recession" [via the New York Times]
"Art Basel's New Power Players" [via the Wall Street Journal]
"The going is tough: but stronger sales at all levels than last year" [via the Art Newspaper]
"Signs of the Boom Times at NADA" [via artinfo.com]
"Fast and furious sales at Nada’s beach side fair" [via the Art Newspaper]
"US marshals seize works from Gmurzynska’s stand" [via the Art Newspaper]
" Stallone Scores TKO at Art Basel " [via NBC Miami]
"A Star, a Soap and the Meaning of Art" [via the Wall Street Journal]
"Ladybugs At Art Basel: Art Or Prank?" [via justnews.com]
"Former director of Spain's Guggenheim museum jailed" [via the Agence France-Presse]
"Venice Biennale Reports Record Attendance" [via artinfo.com]
"Most Paris museums open, strikers consider options" [via Reuters]
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