Brighter mood as blue-chip art finds buyers at Miami Beach

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ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009 

Brighter mood as blue-chip art 

finds buyers at Miami Beach 

But pace of sales is sedate, reflecting more considered purchasing 

As Art Basel Miami Beach 

opened to VIP guests yesterday 

at high noon, among the 

early arrivals were Las Vegas 

art collector and casino mogul 

Steve Wynn, arm-in-arm with 

ex-Guggenheim head honcho 

Lisa Dennison. He quickly 

bagged a 2007 James Rosenquist 

from Acquavella (B21), 

entitled Zone, for just under 

$1m. Right next door at 

Gmurzynska (B20), actor 

Sylvester Stallone was introducing 

his abstract paintings 

to the lavender-clad British 

royal, Princess Michael of 

Kent—a recently hired consultant 

to the gallery. Elle 

McPherson, John McEnroe 

and Calvin Klein rounded out 

the celeb quota, but big-hitting 

art world players were also in 

evidence, from collectors such 

as Eli Broad and Susan and 

Michael Hort to museum 

heavyweights Glenn Lowry 

and Michael Govan with a 

posse of trustees in tow. 

Greeting them was a confident 

display by the 265 galleries 

in the expanded fair 

space, with a clear emphasis on 

blue-chip modern and contemporary 

art by tried-and-tested 

artists. Works by Picasso, 

Calder and Giacometti were to 

the fore, with strong showings 

of major names such as Gerhard 

Richter, Alex Katz and 

Frank Stella. At Michael 

Werner’s stand (B23), five 

works on paper by Sigmar 

Polke sold or were reserved for 

prices nearing $1m. 

Gone are the days when 

young unknowns could be unveiled 

at inflated prices, as art 

consultant Nicholas Maclean 

of Eykyn Maclean noted: 

“There’s less interest in buying 

average quality material. 

There’s more confidence: it’s 

a good, sensible market.” 

Skarlet Smatana at L&M 

(D35) concurred: “You feel 

more secure buying historical 

works, if you can afford it.” 

While the quality of the 

works on offer was high, buying 

was sedate. The pace felt 

like that old dance step: slow, 

slow, quick, quick, slow. “We 

are noticing that people who 

previously bought at 12.01 

now want to see what else is 

out there—the rhythm is different,” 

said Jeffrey Deitch 

(F1), whose stand was nevertheless 

swamped. 

While there was no great 

charge, dealers had recorded 

enough pre-sale interest to remain 

optimistic about the first 

few hours. “We had lots of response 

in advance of the fair, 

as well as reserves—that certainly 

wouldn’t have happened 

a year ago,” said Helen Winer 

“There’s more confidence: it’s a good, 

sensible market”—Nicholas Maclean 

of Metro Pictures (D12), having 

just sold a Robert Longo 

triptych Northern Cathedral, 

2009, for just under $500,000 

to a private European buyer. 

“You can’t play it by ear in this 

market, we did lots of pre-prep 

work,” added Adam Sheffer of 

Cheim & Reid (E19), who reported 

sales of Louise Bourgeois’s 

Fôret, a recent cast of a 

1953 wooden sculpture, which 

NEW YORK 

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AUCTION 12 DECEMBER NEW YORK 

VIEWING 5 - 12 DECEMBER 

went to a Florida collector 

for $1.5m. 

Spirits had been lifted by 

the recent New York sales. 

“The climate in the US has 

changed from being really 

down to more upbeat. Six 

Dealers and employees at Art 

Basel Miami Beach were astonished 

yesterday to see the 

arrival of US marshals on the 

Gmurzynska stand (B20) before 

the fair opened. At around 

10.30am, the marshals arrived, 

accompanied by art dealer and 

former corporate raider Asher 

Edelman. Four paintings, with 

an estimated value of more 

than $6m, were seized: a 

Degas Jockeys, a Miró abstract 

from the 1920s, a Léger and an 

Yves Klein. 

The story behind this dramatic 

move is a lawsuit that opposes 

Edelman Arts Inc “as 

assignee for XL Speciality Insurance 

Company” and 

Gmurzynska gallery. In his 

Sold: James Rosenquist’s 

Zone, 2007, was bought by 

Las Vegas collector 

Steve Wynn from 

Acquavella (B21) 

US marshals seize works 

from Gmurzynska’s stand 

original complaint, according 

to court documents, Edelman 

accused Gmurzynska of damaging 

a Ryman painting, 

Courier I, 1985, which was on 

consignment from Edelman 

Arts Inc to Gmurzynska. He 

claimed $750,000 in damages. 

He said that the seizure resulted 

from a judgement “entered by 

the New York courts in the matter 

of insurance misinformation”. 

The court made a default 

judgement of more than 

$767,400 to be paid by the 

gallery to Edelman. 

However, according to Peter 

R. Stern, the lawyer for 

Gmurzynska gallery: “This is a 

default judgement, because the 

gallery inadvertently failed to 

months ago Americans were 

not in the buying mood, but 

they are now. Core collectors 

are coming back,” said Thaddaeus 

Ropac (C10), who had 

placed a range of works in the 

$500,000 bracket by the likes 

of Tony Cragg, whose stainless 

steel sculpture Inclination, 

2009, was sold twice over. 

“Buyers remain selective, 

you can’t push them but those 

stupid conversations about 

what the work might be worth 

in ten years’ time are over,” remarked 

Nicole Hackert of Contemporary 

Fine Arts (E5), 

having just agreed the sale of a 

Cecily Brown painting to a 

South American collector for 

$450,000. Buyers are in the 

driving seat, according to 

Javier Peres of Peres Projects 

(J6): “They’re calling the shots, 

you can’t even joke about putting 

them on a wait list.” Some 

are taking browsing to new 

heights by keeping the dealers 

guessing until the final hour: 

“My favourite day is the last 

day,” says local hotel impresario 

and art hound Don Rubell, 

“because you can sit and talk to 

dealers and say, OK, what do 

you really have.” 

Until the dust settles, it remains 

unclear if collectors who 

have seen too much and covered 

too much ground will find 

their way back to make good 

on their reserves. “I’m actually 

waiting for two curators from 

US museums,” said a hopeful 

Daniel Buchholz (C6). 

Georgina Adam, Charlotte 

Burns, Ossian Ward 

answer the complaint, and is not 

made on the merits of the case. 

The underlying dispute is simply 

with regard to the allegedly 

damaged painting.” The Art 

Newspaper understands that the 

misunderstanding stems from 

the fact that the gallery believed 

its insurance company was 

looking after the problem. 

Edelman was present while 

the works were impounded, and 

said: “I assisted the marshals in 

valuing the works [that were 

taken].” He declined to comment 

further. 

Edelman’s art gallery, Edelman 

Arts, is currently exhibiting 

at Art Miami; he is hosting a 

talk on art as an investment at 

the fair today. Georgina Adam 

Reported 

sales 

Donald Baechler, Yellow 

Rose, 2008, $60,000, at 

Cheim & Reid (E19) 

Bharti Kher, Indra’s Net 6, 

2009, sold to a German 

collector for $100,000, at 

Hauser & Wirth (E8) 

Nari Ward, Max Roach, 

2009, $8,000, at 

Lehmann Maupin (F19) 

Richard Woods’ floor commission, 

2009, $30,000, 

at Perry Rubenstein (H10) 

Liu Ye, Girl with 

Toy Bricks, 2007, 

$400,000, at Sperone 

Westwater (C7) 

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2 THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009 

Fair report 

Dutch and Latin American focus at Design Miami 

Fewer galleries and patchy opening sales, but a large programme of events brings in the crowds 

The fifth edition of Design 

Miami opened to packed 

crowds despite the fact that 

galleries from Copenhagen, 

Shanghai, Tokyo, London and 

Chicago did not return. The 

total dealer roster was sharply 

reduced from 24 last year to 14 

this (plus three further gallery 

presentations in the “Design 

On/Site” section), and early 

sales were patchy, reflecting 

the slower pace of decisionmaking 

across the board. 

The fair, supported by 

HSBC Private Bank (with a 

swanky VIP lounge to match), 

boasts a large programme of 

events, demonstrating the continuing 

dynamic character of 

this fair despite the downturn. 

Visitors on the VIP day included 

prominent US interior 

designers such as Frank de 

Biasi of Miami, New York and 

Paris, as well as US furniture 

designer Wendell Castle and 

French shoemaker Christian 

Louboutin. “We have a complete 

makeover, from a new 

tent to the injection of performance 

art,” says Ambra Medda, 

fair co-founder and director. 

Chelsea dealer Paul 

Kasmin, a newcomer to the 

fair, is featuring the latest 

If you’re looking for glitter, Art 

Basel Miami Beach has long 

been a reliable destination— 

tinsel is part of the city’s flamboyant 

history, and during the 

Off the shelf: furniture by Arik Levy unveiled in the fair’s HSBC Private Bank VIP lounge 

works by Swiss designer 

Mattia Bonetti, whose pieces 

are owned by celebrities 

including Madonna. One of his 

patinated bronze and acrylic 

Meander coffee tables, 2009, 

was snapped up on the opening 

night for $40,000 by a US collector. 

Meanwhile, Paris dealer 

Patrick Seguin is sporting models 

of three Jean Prouvé houses. 

Among them is his 1948 

Ferembal house, which architect 

Jean Nouvel has adapted 

(2007-09). The price is $8m 

and the stand was crammed 

with interested parties. 

Fair trends: it’s bling, but not as we know it 

boom years it was omnipresent 

in the fairs in the form of Jeff 

Koons, Takashi Murakami and 

co. Now, after last year’s chastened, 

bookish fair, shiny 

The prominence of Dutch 

design across the fair reflects 

the Netherlands’ reign as a 

world-class design centre. The 

emphasis ranges from Brad 

Pitt’s favourite designer, 

Maarten Baas, taking the 

Designer of the Year award to 

six dealers featuring Dutch 

examples. They include Droog, 

Moss and Ornamentum, all 

New York state; Mitterrand + 

Cramer of Geneva; 

Priveekollektie Contemporary 

Art Design and Vivid Gallery 

of the Netherlands. On show at 

Moss are works from Baas’s 

works have returned to the 

floor in force, but instead of 

simply being reflective, many 

are notably self-reflective, and 

self-critical. Often by leading 

Clockwise from top right: Kendell Geers, Eurovision, 2007 (the glitter ball); Lee Bul, 

Sternbau No. 23, 2009; Tony Cragg, Inclination, 2009; Jim Lambie, Untitled, 2009; Marc 

Bijl, Porn, 2009; Monica Bonvicini, Desire, 2006 

Creative Link for the Arts and the New Museum are pleased to announce the finalists for the 

ORDWAY PRIZE 

CURATOR/ARTS WRITER FINALISTS Sabine Breitwieser 

Hou Hanru 

Hamza Walker 

The Ordway Prize recognizes midcareer Curator/Arts Writers and Artists who have made important 

contributions to the field of contemporary art. Each winner receives an unrestricted award of 

$100,000. The winners will be announced in early 2010. 

© All photos: Casey Fatchett 

“Where There’s Smoke…” 

series, begun in 2004, in which 

he takes significant designers’ 

works and burns them—such 

as a Frank Lloyd Wright 1955 

Taliesin floor lamp, at $65,000. 

In the expensive league is 

Studio Job’s 2008 bronze, rosewood 

and glass “Farm” series, 

with 30 objects, priced at 

$350,000 at Vivid (in an edition 

of six, with single objects 

ranging from $5,000-$20,000). 

“Three sets from that edition 

have already sold in Europe,” 

says Vivid director Aad Krol. 

On view at Mitterrand + 

younger artists, these suggest a 

new form of post-bust bling. 

Art dealer Anton Kern (D7) 

built his booth around this 

principle, declaring that “the 

idea of reflection, both the mirrored 

image as well as the considered 

thought” is at the centre 

of his presentation this year. 

A yet-to-be-titled Jim Lambie 

mosaic of shattered mirror 

glass and images of eyes seizes 

the viewer’s attention only to 

disquietingly stare back. (It 

sold for £60,000 at the beginning 

of the VIP preview.) 

Glitter-covered sculptures by 

Matthew Monahan reveal 

themselves on 

inspection to be 

bandaged and broken. 

“There is the 

shining part and 

then there is the 

rough part, and I 

wanted to bring this 

out,” Kern says. 

Even Thaddaeus 

Ropac’s booth 

(C10), usually the 

domain of sober works 

by Anselm Kiefer and 

Georg Baselitz, is dominated 

by a bright stainless 

steel sculpture by 

Tony Cragg (who has 

just returned to the 

Cramer are three works from 

Studio Job’s “Industry” series, 

including the 2008 Industry— 

Table, a laser-cut wood marquetry 

table with bomber jets, 

gas masks and skeleton 

images, for $55,000 (edition of 

six). “Clients for that work 

range from a Czech telecom 

and gas billionaire to financial 

figures,” says a Mitterrand + 

Cramer spokesman. 

Catering to the growing 

Latin American visitorship is an 

exhibition within the fair, 

“Latin America”, together 

with New York’s Sebastian 

material after years of 

not using it). Nearby are 

headless metal sculptures 

of men by Erwin Wurm, a 

metal Richard Deacon, and a 

reflective sculpture by Lee Bul. 

“I was almost embarrassed 

because people have been 

telling me: ‘Oh my God, your 

booth has a lot of silver this 

time, it’s very shiny,’” says 

Ropac, who adds that the 

theme of the booth is distortion 

rather than simply shininess. 

“At the moment we have a lot 

of sculptors who are working 

with silver and grey for many 

different reasons.” 

Among this new breed 

of eye-grabbing art— 

which seem set apart from 

the Subodh Guptas and 

Anish Kapoors—are a 

brass-and-coral skull at 

Blum & Poe (G2) and a 

Robert Indiana-tweaking 

metal “Porn” sculpture by 

Marc Bijl at Breeder 

(H21). At Stephen 

Friedman (F18), it is 

impossible to miss Kendell 

Geers’ giant revolving glitterball, 

Eurovision, 2007. David 

Altmejd’s hairy creatures are 

impaled on mirrored crystalline 

spikes at Andrea Rosen 

(D9). Many of these works 

© Casey Fatchett 

+ Barquet, R 20th Century and 

Cristina Grajales Inc galleries, 

which are all sporting design 

from south of the border. 

Especially prominent is the 

work of Mexican Pedro 

Friedeberg. “Five years ago, the 

response to Friedeberg was 

quiet, now there’s a sudden 

rush,” says Sebastian + Barquet 

director Nicholas Kilner. 

Rock solid furniture from 

granite to concrete abounds. 

Seoul-based Seomi Gallery, 

showing furniture in these 

materials as well as ceramics 

and wood, scored two sales of 

Lee Hun-Chung ceramic 

stools, one in white for $5,000 

and one in yellow for $6,000. 

Large installations are also 

for sale. Swarovski has commissioned 

US architect Greg 

Lynn to develop new work 

with its crystals. He has created 

four vast sail-like screens, each 

costing $100,000, or $350,000 

for the set. “I’d want it but the 

piece requires a large home,” 

says Swarovski creative director 

Nadja Swarovski. 

Brook S. Mason 

were made specially for the 

fair, such as Elmgreen & 

Dragset’s golden scarecrow 

with a garbage pail for a head 

at Victoria Miro (F10). Monica 

Bonvicini made a new sculpture 

for Hetzler gallery (E7) 

that consists of a mirrored cube 

topped by a smaller, dissolving 

cube of wormy, polished chain; 

in another work by the artist, 

the word “Prozac” is spelled 

out in reflective chain. 

Bonvicini’s work also dominates 

Fontana’s booth (H9), 

with her huge sign spelling out 

the word “Desire” in mirrored 

letters. “It’s playing with the 

idea of luxury and trying to 

comment on that at the same 

time,” says dealer Emi 

Fontana. “This is a time when 

everything is changing, the 

structure of society is changing 

and the structure of the art 

world is going to change. We 

don’t want to be corporate— 

we still want to be a territory 

for ideas.” 

Andrew Goldstein 

NEW 

235 BOWERY 

NEW YORK NY 

10002 USA 

MUSEUM

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Artists 

“To use art is not enough” 

Ai Weiwei on the reasons writing, blogging and tweeting on politics matters 

INTERVIEW 

AI WEIWEI 

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, 

speaking today at Art Basel 

Conversations (right), is 

recovering from brain surgery 

in Munich, the result, he says, 

of an assault by police officers 

in Sichuan Province. “The 

operation saved my life,” he 

said when The Art Newspaper 

visited his Beijing studio just 

before the fair, adding that it 

will take around four months 

for him to fully recover. 

Ai’s popular blog on 

Chinese website Sina.com has 

been removed, and his activities 

are now limited to 

Twitter, on which he has 

around 10,000 followers. 

“140 characters is enough— 

following the operation, that 

is all I have the attention span 

for,” he said. “I cannot write 

long articles right now.” 

Twitter is blocked by the government 

in China, so users 

hack into the site. 

Recent topics on his prolific 

feed have included his 

ongoing struggle with Sichuan 

police over the assault, his 

research into the Sichuan 

earthquake, the nomination of 

Chinese writers for the 

International PEN Writers in 

Prison award and the recent 

Obama visit to China, often 

using strong language. The 

police in Sichuan have issued 

an official denial of his assault 

(Ai says he has a recording of 

the attack that took place 

against him), and the government 

has now launched a 

probe into his finances. 

Describing his move into 

the media, Ai said: “To use art 

is not enough, to describe 

your view, in the old traditional 

forms, such as painting, 

sculpture…as a citizen you 

need to express your views. 

Writing, blogging and giving 

interviews is a part of that, 

otherwise you will very easily 

be misunderstood by the 

establishment…as long as 

there is power and people 

there will be a struggle.” 

Ai grew up with his family 

in exile in Shihezi, on a semimilitary 

farm camp in 

Xinjiang Province, in the 

north west of China. “[The 

Cultural Revolution] was 

nothing but frightening,” he 

said. “The whole society was 

frightening. I was born in 

1957—the year my father [the 

poet Ai Qing] went into exile. 

First he was sent to the forests 

in north China to work, then 

one year later to Xinjiang, so I 

grew up there until I was 18 

Ai Wei Wei photographed in Beijing last week, with the scars of his ordeal clearly visible 

years old. During the Cultural 

Revolution we were sent to 

live in the poorest conditions 

as punishment. I hate to tell 

those stories, there is too 

much sentiment there. The 

fact is people died, were 

dying. My father lost his sight 

in one eye, he almost died several 

times, and I came out of 

there very fragile.” 

Ai then went to New York. 

“A completely different civil- 

isation—1980s art, German 

expressionism, all these kinds 

of things there,” he said. His 

career started as a painter. “In 

school I majored in animation 

and then started doing more 

installations or objects. I 

came back to China in 1993, 

having left in 1981.” Ai was 

one of the original members 

of the Stars Group, considered 

the most important 

movement following China’s 

reform process of the 1980s. 

“This was completely new, 

freedom, but the party would- 

n’t let you go too far, unless 

there was some structure. 

There were struggles, there 

was no real understanding of 

contemporary life then, it was 

more art for art’s sake—but 

quite political.” 

Ai said he threw away his 

work from that period. “I 

never knew I would be so successful 

today…I had my first 

show in 2004, in Bern.” Ai had 

already been in China for more 

Art is not about making people 

happy. Not much art touches 

the taboo 

than ten years, working on his 

underground book project, and 

had founded the China Art 

Archives and Warehouse 

gallery with Hans van Dijk. He 

also co-curated the Shanghai 

exhibition “Fuck Off” in 2000 

at Eastlink Gallery, with Feng 

Boyi. “I was quite unhappy 

about some of the content [of 

that show], but art is not about 

making people happy. Not 

much art touches the taboo—it 

was ugly, bloody, violent and 

sickening, but not far from 

reality. Reality in China is at 

least one million times worse.” 

Ai’s latest work is 

Sunflower Seeds, 2009, a pile 

of 1,000 handmade ceramic 

sunflower seeds. “These seeds, 

they are a memory of the 

Communist times, we would 

share these seeds with 

friends,” he said. He does not 

know what effect the Chinese 

government’s censorship on 

art exports (The Art 

Newspaper, November 2009, 

p1) will have on future shows 

he may have abroad—works 

for his previous two major 

shows this year at the Munich 

Haus der Kunst and Tokyo’s 

Mori Art Museum were 

shipped out of China before 

the rules came into place in 

August. “I think strategically 

China has come to a very crucial 

moment, they have to rejustify 

themselves, even the 

past 20 to 30 years are based 

on a kind of destructive, suicidal 

act. Now they are trying to 

reach a higher level, but I think 

in any society, culture should 

have its own rights, not to be 

touched by the government, 

not to be promoted by the government, 

also not to be 

destroyed by the government.” 

Chris Gill 

For the full version of this 

interview, see the January 

issue of The Art Newspaper 

Today’s highlights 

03/12/09 

Art Basel Conversations 

Oceanfront, Collins Park, 

between 21st and 22nd 

Streets, Miami Beach 

www.artbaselmiami 

beach.com 

Artist Talk: Ai Weiwei 

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei 

speaks with Philip Tinari, 

director of the Office for 

Discourse Engineering in 

Beijing. 

10am-11am 

Art Salon 

Miami Beach Convention 

Center, Miami Beach 

www.artbaselmiami 

beach.com 

Artist Talk: Pae White 

US artist Pae White 

speaks with Creative 

Time’s curator Meredith 

Johnson and president 

Anne Pasternak. 

1pm-1.30pm 

Panel: New Market 

Dynamics: Five 

Perspectives on 

the Global Art Scene 

Panel discussion with 

journalist Lindsay 

Pollock, art advisor 

Suzanne Gyorgy, Norton 

Museum of Art curator 

Charles Stainback and 

Art + Auction journalist 

Judd Tully, moderated by 

Renée Vara, founder of 

Vara Global Fine Arts, 

New York. 

2pm-2.30pm 

Panel: Gender, Wars 

and Chadors, Part III 

Artists Ghada Amer, 

Kader Attia and Akram 

Zaatari speak with Hans 

Ulrich Obrist, of London’s 

Serpentine Gallery. 

3pm-3.30pm 

Artist Talk: Shepard 

Fairey 

Los Angeles street artist 

Shepard Fairey speaks 

with independent curator 

Pedro Alonzo. 

4pm-4.30pm 

Artist Talk: Cristina 

Lei Rodriguez and 

Eduardo Abaroa 

The artists speak with 

Mexico-based curator 

Patrick Charpenel. 

5pm-5.30pm 

Presentation: No Soul 

For Sale. Independent 

Spaces at X Initiative 

Presentation by New 

York curator Cecilia 

Alemani. 

5.30pm-6pm 

Pecha Kucha: 

Contemporary Art 

& Social Media = 

Network & Networth 

Presentations by Artnet 

associate editor Ben 

Davis; Ruthless and 

Toothless chief executive 

Joey Hernandez; 

moblog:tech director Lori 

Faye Fischler; artist and 

designer Leyden 

Rodriguez-Casanova; 

PopTech digital content 

and community manager 

Kristen Taylor; new 

media artist [dNASAb]; 

and CultureOfFuture.com 

head Jody Turner. 

Moderated by Carl 

Hildebrand, director of 

Miami’s Pecha Kucha 

networking events. 

6pm-6.30pm 

Design Talks 

Design Miami Media 

Lounge, NE 39th Street 

and 1st Court, Miami 

Design District 

www.designmiami.com 

Collections, 

Commissions and 

Collaborations 

French shoe designer 

Christian Louboutin 

speaks with decorator 

and design collector 

Jacques Grange and 

Swiss designer Mattia 

Bonetti. 

5.30pm-6.30pm 

Design Performances 

Design Miami Media 

Lounge, NE 39th Street 

and 1st Court, Miami 

Design District 


Moritz Waldemeyer 

andOkGo 

Los Angeles band Ok Go 

play on guitars customised 

by Londonbased 

designer Moritz 

Waldemeyer to perform 

like paintbrushes. 

6.30pm-7pm 

Art Video 

Oceanfront at Collins 

Park, between 21st and 

22nd Streets, Miami 

Beach, www.artbasel 

miamibeach.com 

Video Art and 

Mainstream Distribution 

Video art curated by 

Meredith Johnson of 

Creative Time, featuring 

works by Tom Sachs & 

the Neistat Brothers and 

Marc Horowitz, followed 

by a panel discussion. 

7pm-8.30pm 

Art Perform 

Oceanfront at Collins 

Park, between 21st and 

22nd Streets, Miami 

Beach, www.artbasel 

miamibeach.com 

Programme curated by 

CCA Wattis Institute 

director Jens Hoffmann 

Featuring performances 

by artists Simon 

Fujiwara, Kris Martin 

and Kelly Nipper. 

9pm-10pm

Dade Blvd 

Art Basel 

Miami 

Beach 

Convention 

Center 

Lincoln Rd 

16 St 

James Ave 

19 St 

18 St 

Collins Ave 

December2-6 

inkartfair.com 

Dolan / Maxwell 

Dranoff Fine Art 

Durham Press Inc. 

Graphicstudio/USF 

Jim Kempner Fine Art 

Marlborough Graphics 

Riverhouse van Straaten 

Shark's Ink 

Tandem Press 

Verne Collection Inc. 

Suites of Dorchester 

1850 Collins Ave. (19th St.) 

Miami Beach, FL 33139 

Café open 12 - 2 p.m. 

Beer & Wine Bar 4 - 7 p.m. 

Wednesday - Saturday 

10 am - 7 pm 

Sunday 

10 am - 3 pm 

Sponsored by the IFPDA 

Admission is free 

Information 212.674.6095 

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Design 

“We grow every time there is a recession” 

Collector, dealer and designer Axel Vervoordt on carving out a niche, his Venice show and creating a home for his foundation 

While other dealers constrict 

their operations to a single 

speciality, Axel Vervoordt 

early on blazed a path in 

expanding his dealership into 

a range of cultures and time 

periods, from Egyptian antiquities 

to cutting-edge contemporary 

artists, at the same time 

taking on the design of clients’ 

entire homes. That eclectic 

approach was in evidence this 

year at the Venice Biennale, 

where the Belgian collector 

and dealer created the third in 

his series of non-commercial 

exhibitions held in Venice and 

Paris. “In-finitum”, at 

Venice’s Palazzo Fortuny (6 

June-15 November 2009), was 

filled with 300 works by 

Picasso, Rothko and contemporary 

artists along with antiquities 

and other objects spread 

over the 60,000 sq. ft space. 

In addition to these monumental 

exhibitions, Vervoordt 

not only undertakes interior 

decoration but tackles houses 

from the ground up. In serving 

up his particular brand of taste, 

he quickly snared big-name 

clients such as French fashion 

designer Hubert de Givenchy. 

The Art Newspaper caught 

up with Vervoordt on the eve 

of Art Basel Miami Beach, 

where his son Boris is scouring 

the fairs and catching up 

with clients. 

The Art Newspaper: Is this 

your first Art Basel Miami 

Beach fair? 

BV: Not at all. I was at the first 

one but I missed last year. I go 

to see what is happening in the 

art and design world. 

WITH 

PRIVATE PREVIEW 

TAN: Tell us about your 

Florida clients? 

BV: They are very private but 

our first design commission 

there was in 1998 for an 

American couple. Now we are 

working on ten commissions. 

We do use 17th-century 

antiques there. 

TAN: Why did you form the 

Vervoordt Foundation? 

AV: We created the foundation 

last November to separate 

more clearly our business and 

those endeavours that are not 

about selling. The exhibitions 

such as those in Venice are 

about the future generations 

and growing our vision. “Infinitum” 

was the first show 

organised and produced by the 

foundation along with the 

Musei Civici di Venezia. Work 

was borrowed from institutions 

and the show included 

examples from my private collection 

and galleries as well. 

The foundation will soon be 

housed in its own museum 

[due to open in 2012 in a 

30,000 sq ft space at 

Vervoordt’s Kanaal building in 

Wijnegem, northern Belgium]. 

TAN: Tell us about the 

process of putting “In-finitum” 

together? 

AV: We started with a thinktank, 

bringing together art historians, 

archaeologists and 

curators at the castle [the 

medieval Gravenwezel Castle 

near Antwerp, where 

Vervoordt resides] or in Venice 

for the weekend. It takes four 

to five sessions to get the concept. 

Bernard Lietaer, 

Berkeley research fellow and 

author of Of Human Wealth 

FIRST FOCUS APRIL 29 

Benefiting the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 

For Tickets and Information 

MCACHICAGO.ORG/FIRSTFOCUS 

THE INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION OF EMERGING ART 

Axel Vervoordt (right) with “In-finitum” curators Francesco 

Poli and Daniela Ferretti at the Palazzo Fortuny, Venice 

[2007], Daniela Ferretti, architect 

and curator at the Palazzo 

Fortuny, and others attended. 

TAN: How do the installations 

spur commissions 

and sales? 

BV: We can’t measure it. But at 

the Haughton International 

Fine Art & Antique Dealers fair 

in October, five sales were to 

new clients. Almost all of them 

had seen “In-finitum”. Is there 

a direct link? We don’t know. 

TAN: I understand that 

Paris dealer Kamel Mennour 

paid $500,000 to install his 

current Huang Yong Ping 

show [until 19 December] in 

the chapel of the École 

Nationale Supérieure des 

Beaux-Arts in Paris. Did 

yours cost as much? 

BV: We don’t get into costs 

because that has nothing to do 

with the exhibition goal. They 

are more transcendent. 

TAN: How has your role as a 

dealer changed? 

AV: Now it’s far more about 

teamwork. I depend on almost 

100 others including art historians 

and restorers. I do the 

more philosophical efforts 

such as the think-tank. 

TAN: Tell us about your 

residential commissions 

and sales? 

AV: We are working on 50 to 

60 houses, some are large. I am 

personally working on ten of 

them. At the moment we’re 

restoring the home of Picasso 

in Mougins [France] for a 

young Dutch family. Their 

entire collection had to be 

reviewed. We tried a Basquiat 

in the house but it didn’t work. 

Even a Kiefer didn’t go, but a 

Kapoor is fantastic there. 

Happily, the family has other 

houses. Eighty percent of our 

sales are to collectors and 

museums, from the Getty to the 

Metropolitan. The rest is furniture 

we make for our clients 

and other interior designers. 

TAN: What is the nationality 

of your client base? 

AV: The dominant cities are 

New York, Los Angeles and St 

Petersburg. New Yorkers make 

up the overwhelming portion. 

Russians are brand new and I 

never thought we would have 

them. I saw their taste as flashy 

but that has changed. 

TAN: Has the recession 

affected your firm? 

AV: We grow every time 

there is a recession as our style 

fits in an even more pronounced 

manner. We saw that 

also in the recession at the 

end of the 1980s. Then I 

bought the castle. This time, 

we have more important 

clients and are working with 

higher quality objects. 

TAN: Where do you source 

your material? 

AV: Around 20% of the 

antiques and art come from 

the sales rooms; the rest we 

buy privately. Many times we 

buy back works from our 

clients and often go directly to 

artists such as the Zero Group. 

In acquiring contemporary art, 

you have to know that in five 

years time the work will be 

enormously important. I 

bought my first Fontana in 

1969 and I love it. In 1998, I 

bought Anish Kapoor’s first 

major sculpture, At the Edge 

of the World. It’s eight metres 

in diameter. In those days, it 

cost a fortune, $2m. Now that 

seems cheap and I will never 

sell it. 

TAN: Many collectors have 

told me your exhibitions 

only work in Europe as the 

American buildings are too 

sterile, not steeped in history. 

Do you agree? 

AV: Not at all. An installation 

would work very well in New 

York in an unrestored house. 

Or it could be a garage, but a 

large one. 

Interview by Brook S. Mason 

PABLO PICASSO, UNTITLED /photo:Audia 

CHICAGO’S CELEBRATION OF ART, ANTIQUES & CULTURE

1220 Collins Avenue 

Miami Beach, Florida 33139 

T 1 305 674 7899 

www.thewebstermiami.com

www.ikepod.com 

The Horizon (Cannonballs) by Jeff Koons 

Proceeds from the sale of this watch support The Koons Family Institute, 

a resource of the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children.

PULSE Miami 

Dec 3 – 6, 2009 

The Ice Palace 

1400 North Miami Avenue 

(Corner of NW 14th Street) 

Miami, FL 33136 

PULSE New York 

Mar 4 – 7, 201 0 

New York, NY 

www.pulse-art.com 

THROCKMORTON FINE ART 

TINA,UNDER THE MEXICAN SKY 

December 17th - March 6th, 2010 

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THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 3 DECEMBER 2009 11 

Trends 

Is the market westernising Middle Eastern artists? 

As the US and Europe embrace work from the Gulf region, questions are raised over the impact on practitioners 

everything we do, as artists, 

is made for a global market. 

Thinking about it too much is a dead 

“Ibelieve 

end,” says Lebanese artist Akram 

Zaatari, a participant in the final talk of the symposium 

series “Gender, Wars and Chadors” at 

Art Basel Miami Beach today at 3pm. As the 

Middle Eastern contemporary market grows, 

and both private collectors and public institutions 

in Europe and the US embrace artists 

based in the Gulf and the diaspora, questions are 

being raised about the impact of the international 

art market. Do Middle Eastern artists feel 

they have to leave the region to make their 

mark? As the market heats up, echoing the 

Chinese and Indian art booms, do practitioners 

feel increasingly pigeonholed and is there a danger 

that they will only cater for foreign audiences, 

sidelining domestic markets? 

“There are many Middle Eastern artists making 

wonderful work in their own countries,” 

says Rose Issa, an independent curator specialising 

in Arab art. “Monir Shahroudy 

Farmanfarmaian in Iran, Chant Avedissian in 

Egypt, Lebanese artist 

Ayman Baalbaki and 

Palestine’s Raeda 

Saadeh…The list is 

long. However, of 

course exposure 

abroad helps in terms 

of international recognition,” 

she adds. 

“Many of these artists 

have been producing 

works well before the recent hype. But because 

artists such as Mona Hatoum, Shirazeh 

Houshiary and Shirin Neshat studied, worked 

and became well known all in the west, this 

encouraged the idea that you need to be in the 

west for institutional recognition.” 

Both Neshat and Youssef Nabil point out the 

risks of creating art to satisfy foreign tastes. 

Cairo-born Nabil, best known for his homoerotic 

photographs, says that since settling in Paris 

and New York, he has started producing selfportraits 

that reflect his dislocated life away 

from Egypt. He told The Art Newspaper that 

“the market is clever enough to know if some 

artists are trying to please western audiences by 

creating ‘fusion art’, using existing ideas that 

the west is used to alongside local images”. 

Nabil’s gelatin silver print Natacha 

THE CAT CATALINA TAALINA 

HOTEL 

1732 Collins AAve 

ve 

December 3–6, 2009 

www.vergeartfair.com 

www. .vergeartfair. 

.com 

“I was active before Iranian or Arab art became so popular”: Shirin Neshat, Women of Allah, 1994 

Sleeping, Cairo, 2000, sold for £22,500 (est 

£18,000-£25,000) at Sotheby’s London in 

October. Iranian art market darling Farhad 

Moshiri’s Cowboy and Indian diptych, 2007, 

went for £397,250 at the same sale (est 

£150,000-£200,000). At the other end of the 

scale, a gelatin silver print by Fouad Elkhoury 

(Lebanon) fetched £3,125 (est £3,000-£4,000). 

“The market is only hot for a few,” says Issa. 

“You can still build fantastic collections in this 

current market for less than the price of a single 

Damien Hirst.” 

New York-based Neshat, Iran’s most successful 

art export, agrees that certain Iranian 

artists tend to rely on traditional Islamic idioms 

such as calligraphy. But Maryam Homayoun- 

Eisler, a London-based collector of contemporary 

Iranian art, contends that even though symbols 

such as the veil are overly prevalent in 

western interpretations of Middle Eastern art, 

“there are many examples of art from the region 

acclaimed in western circles that are...almost 

“The market is clever enough to know if some artists are 

trying to please western audiences by creating ‘fusion 

art’, using familiar ideas alongside local images” 

—Youssef Nabil, artist 

parodying western art to escape ‘orientalist’ 

clichés or traps”. But can any artist operating 

within a global market escape regional categorisation? 

“I could consider myself lucky since I 

was active before Iranian or Arab art became so 

popular, so I have managed to escape overly 

simplistic categorisation,” says Neshat. 

But Issa raises the issue that many artists who 

studied in the west returned to the Gulf for 

inspiration and insight. “They became successful 

because of their originality and their unique 

links to the east, even if they produced works in 

the west,” she argues, citing Neshat’s “Women 

of Allah”, 1993-97, a photographic series of 

militant Muslim women, as a prime example of 

the Middle East’s hold on artists in the diaspora. 

The work of Mona Hatoum (Palestine) and 

Shirazeh Houshiary (Iran) is also driven by the 

aesthetic ideas of the region, she adds. 

Nevertheless, Neshat is critical of the conveyor 

belt approach to making art for audiences 

abroad: “The success of the Iranian and Arab 

market has been a mixed blessing, since it has 

brought the artists visibility and well deserved 

recognition but it seriously threatens the noncommercial, 

underground activity that has been 

such a powerful aspect of Iranian culture. So 

what we are really facing is a growing presence 

of works that are desirable for the market and 

western expectations, but are at times mediocre 

according to international standards.” 

Certain practitioners residing in the region, 

however, hope to resist market pressures. 

Zaatari, an active participant in Beirut’s contemporary 

art scene, is credited with rupturing 

Lebanon’s fine art traditions by producing 

astute multimedia installations and single-channel 

videos, drawing on the region’s photographic 

heritage (Zaatari co-founded the Arab Image 

Foundation in 1997, which preserves examples 

of Lebanese imagery). “In 

some cases, artists from a 

certain locality and a specific 

generation draw 

links between each other’s 

works…a good example 

would be my generation 

of Beirut-based artists 

who work with documents. 

I personally base 

my work on the idea of 

‘excavations’, so the territory where I live is 

very important,” says Zaatari, adding, however, 

that he doesn’t see that “as being dictated by a 

market (although my work has been very hard 

to market). I still want to work in Beirut. I have 

the freedom to raise issues I am interested in”. 

This idea of “partial” liberty is picked up by 

Issa, who agrees that in Lebanon, Palestine and 

Iran, artists have managed to transcend local 

restrictions by adopting a “new aesthetic language” 

that does not breach cultural codes. A 

reality check is also in order as some parts of 

the Middle East are more tolerant than others, a 

point reiterated by Ali Khadra, publisher of 

Canvas: “It depends on the geography, with 

some artists even finding refuge in the United 

Arab Emirates, which, after all, is a Muslim 

country. It’s not always about self-expression 

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but ethics, though censorship must be reduced 

to a minimum.” Working under such a threat 

can even be beneficial, says Homayoun-Eisler: 

“It is my firm belief, based on facts and conversations 

with artists in Iran, that the day-today 

tension, expressive and physical restrictions, 

as well as routine challenges, act as catalysts 

which encourage strong creative outpouring.” 

Art world dynamics are nonetheless 

undoubtedly developing in the Gulf. A vibrant 

contemporary collecting culture exists within 

Iran, while the buying psychology is “changing 

rapidly” across the Middle East, says Khadra, 

who adds that the Abu Dhabi ruling authorities 

are even softening their hardline stance towards 

sculpture (for centuries, the medium has been 

banned in the UAE due to religious prohibitions 

on the representation of figures). 

Significantly, Dubai-based gallery the Third 

Line (stand J24) points out that of the 21 Middle 

Eastern artists it represents, just five reside in 

their native countries—86-year-old Monir 

Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, who studied in 

New York and later returned home to Iran (a 

selection of new glass and mosaic works by the 

artist are on view at Art Basel Miami Beach), 

Farhad Moshiri and his artist wife Shirin 

Aliabadi, based in Tehran, and Emirati artists 

Lamya Gargash and Ebtisam Abdulaziz, who 

have stayed in Dubai. 

Gargash, who represented the UAE at this 

year’s Venice Biennale, says: “I’ve never felt 

dictated to create work for a certain group. I do 

not see that contemporary artists are working 

towards international acceptance. Now, however, 

the boom has given them the opportunity to 

present themselves to the world. There is great 

international interest, but this isn’t because 

Middle Eastern artists have abused their ‘exoticness’ 

to help them attain recognition.” 

Neshat, however, continues to question the 

draw of the west: “For so many artists living in 

Iran, the quick financial and critical success in 

the west is the key to the outside world, but the 

problem they face is whether this shortlived 

attention is based on the ‘mystique’ behind the 

current political climate in Iran, rather than the 

quality and content of the work.” 

Gareth Harris 

❏ See p4 for talk details and more event listings 

Li Linc Lincoln coln Rd 

Lincoln Ln Ln ASHINGTON AV 

WASHINGTON WW 

ASHIN TO AV AVE VE E 

17th 177th h St 

18th 18 8th St 

ART T BASEL 

COLLINS COL C LLIN AVE


Artists at Art Positions 

Brent Green asks “Who’s afraid 

of Virginia Woolf?” 

The cartoonish, crafted creations 

of film-maker Brent 

Green at New York’s Edlin 

Gallery (E14) are stopping 

visitors to Art Basel Miami 

Beach (ABMB) in their tracks. 

These Dalí-esque works, 

which the artist built in his 

Pennsylvania barn, are all 

taken from the set of Green’s 

upcoming feature-length film 

“Gravity Was Everywhere 

Back Then”. The film opens 

next May at the IFC 

(Independent Film Channel) 

Center in New York, along 

with a solo exhibition devoted 

to Green at the Berkeley Art 

Museum in California. 

But doesn’t this theatrical 

stand look a little contrived at 

Nathaniel Rackowe trips a 500-watt 

light fantastic 

London artist Nathaniel 

Rackowe and gallery Bischoff/ 

Weiss (E16) decided to build 

Black Shed (Expanded), 2009, 

in situ, rather than prefabricate 

the structure in the artist’s 

London studio and ship it. 

“It was a bit of a risk because 

it was difficult to know what 

kind of presence it would 

have [in Art Basel Miami 

Beach],” Rackowe told The 

Art Newspaper. 

The work, which is priced at 

Agathe Snow surrounds herself with “yes men” 

Until recently, New Yorkbased 

artist Agathe Snow’s 

work was more about a way 

of life than making physical 

objects. Part of the Lower 

East Side scene, her practice 

was largely performancebased 

and involved creating a 

social enclave with other 

artists and musicians. 

For Art Positions, Snow has 

moved towards a more material 

practice, covering the walls 

ABMB? “The contemporary 

art world provides the proper 

context for these pieces. The 

work has great appeal for collectors 

of both insider and outsider 

art, Brent is a storyteller,” 

argues dealer Andrew 

Edlin, who specialises in selftaught 

artists. 

At ABMB, Green’s woodcut 

(Virginia Woolf, 2007, 

$1,200) hangs alongside an 

imposing wooden angel who 

is listening to the prayers of 

characters that appear in his 

film (Angel with Listening 

Machine, 2009, $15,000). A 

working, striped piano 

($35,000) sits adjacent to a 

chair sprouting branch-like 

limbs ($12,000); three 

of James Fuentes’ booth (D18) 

with wallpaper scrawled with 

the repeated word “YES”. The 

wallpaper comes as an edition 

of ten, priced at $10,000 each. 

Within the space are seven 

kinetic sculptures on wheels 

(prices range from $15,000 to 

$18,000), depicting the likes 

of President Obama and 

Homer Simpson (the latter has 

sold for $15,000 to New York 

collector Asher Edelman). 

vignettes taken from the film, 

available in five editions each, 

are also available. The fantastical 

pieces are set against 

specially decorated stand 

walls that have been 

intricately stamped with a 

black-and-white design conceived 

by the artist. 

“I think of myself primarily 

as a film-maker,” says Green, 

who must be getting used to 

comparisons with movie director-cum-artist 

Tim Burton (the 

creator of such macabre films 

as “Edward Scissorhands”, 

who currently has a retrospective 

exhibition at the Museum 

of Modern Art in New York, 

until 26 April 2010). 

Gareth Harris 

James Fuentes describes both 

as “yes men”. 

Snow has exhibited at the 

New Museum, New York, and 

the Jeu de Paume, Paris, this 

year. Her work at Art Basel 

Miami Beach is the latest in an 

ongoing project that explores 

Leonardo da Vinci and the 

spirit of the Renaissance. “A 

lot of the intent behind this 

work is suggesting that 

America is embarking on a 

neo-Renaissance,” says 

Fuentes. The untitled installation 

at the art fair is a “punctuation 

mark” to a 2008 exhibition 

at his gallery, “Just Say 

Yes”, he explains. 

As well as the Italian 

Renaissance reference, 

Snow’s work is very New 

York. “There is this King 

Kong narrative,” says Fuentes 

pointing to a creature climbing 

the Empire State. A.S. 

£35,000, is a shed painted 

black on the outside and a 

sickly green on the inside. 

Suspended by scaffolding, it 

casts its criss-crossing shadows 

on the walls of the gallery 

space, which the artist has 

stripped bare. The only light 

comes from within the shed 

where 60 fluorescent tubes are 

fixed to the walls, ceiling and 

floor and one massive 500-watt 

light bulb hangs in the middle. 

“It’s like an inverted sun with 

German artist Ulla von 

Brandenburg creates “complex, 

multi-layered narratives that 

investigate the thresholds that 

exist between reality and artifice”, 

according to the London 

dealer Pilar Corrias (D21). 

Visitors navigate between 

two hanging quilts to view a 

Man Ray-esque film (The 

Objects, 2009, $23,000) while 

a wall assemblage consists of 

paintings, found objects and a 

magazine print. The quilts 

(Tumbling Blocks II, 2009, 

and Drunkard’s Path II, 2009, 

$18,000 each) are inspired by 

the Underground Railroad, a 

network of safehouses used by 

slaves to escape to freedom in 

northern America or Canada. 

The fabric shapes conveyed 

black on the outside and light 

on the inside,” says Rackowe. 

Controlled by a computer, 

the cool light emitted by the 

fluorescent tubes dims every 

three minutes and is replaced 

by the warm tungsten glow of 

the giant light bulb. “People 

dashing around the fair will 

miss the change,” says 

Rackowe, “but people who 

stand and watch will be 

rewarded with a more subtle 

piece.” Anny Shaw 

Ulla rides the 

Underground Railroad 

coded messages to slaves 

across the plantations, giving 

these works extra resonance 

in Florida where the slave 

trade flourished. 

Pieces in the nuanced wall 

montage draw upon Von 

Brandenburg’s favourite 

themes of ghosts, the theatre 

and early 20th-century modernism. 

The work includes a 

photograph of a galaxy taken 

from a 1950s Christian magazine. 

Emblazoned on the rear 

are the words Dieu Existe, the 

title of the wall piece (2009, 

$45,000). Alongside hang two 

garish paintings of gargoyles 

on tissue paper and a black 

painting of a levitating figure. 

“It’s all about what you see and 

don’t see,” says Corrias. G.H. 

All photos: William Oliver


What’s On Miami 2009 

FAIRS 

Art Basel Miami Beach 

Miami Beach Convention 

Center, 1901 Convention Center 

Drive, Miami Beach 

www.artbaselmiamibeach.com 

3-5 December, 12pm-8pm, 

6 December, 12pm-6pm 

Aqua Art Miami, Wynwood 

42 NE 25th Street, Miami 

www.aquaartmiami.com 

Preview, 3 December, 10am-1pm 


4-5 December, 11am-7pm 

6 December, 11am-4pm 

Art Miami 

Midtown Boulevard (NE 1st 

Avenue) between NE 32nd and 

NE 31st Street, Miami 

www.art-miami.com 



Art Asia Miami 

Soho Studios Miami @ 

Wynwood Convention Center, 

2136 NW 1st Avenue, Miami 

www.artasiafair.com 



Design Miami 

NE 39th Street and 1st Court, 




Fountain Miami 

2505 North Miami Avenue, 


http://fountainexhibit.com 



Ink Miami 

Suites of Dorchester, 1850 

Collins Avenue, Miami Beach 

www.inkartfair.com 



NADA 

The Deauville Beach Resort, 

6701 Collins Avenue, 

Miami Beach 

www.newartdealers.org 





Photo Miami 

3401 North Miami Avenue 

and NW 34th Street, Miami 

www.photomiami-2009.com 



Pool 

The Cavalier Hotel, 

1320 Ocean Drive, Miami Beach 

www.poolartfair.com 

4-6 December, 3pm-10pm 

Pulse 

TheIcePalace,1400North 

Miami Avenue, Miami 

www.pulse-art.com 




Red Dot Miami Beach 

3011 NE 1st Avenue, Miami 

www.reddotfair.com 




Scope 

Soho Studios Miami @ 

Wynwood Convention Center 

2136 NW 1st Avenue, Miami 

Being in the World: Selections from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection 

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation 

Until 7 March, www.cifo.org 

Framed around existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre’s idea of “situation”—that a person’s ideas and beliefs are based 

on real-life events and experiences—this exhibition features videos that depict the struggle of an individual dealing with a 

changing world. The show’s curator, Berta Sichel, director of the audivisual department at the Reina Sofía in Madrid, says 

that “in the last few years social critics have returned to Sartre's ideas to explain the current mobility of people and ideas 

in a world where media, technology and globalisation constantly test our sense of place”. Works by Bill Viola, Chantal 

Akerman, Francesca Woodman and Robin Rhode, among others, are on view. Above, Muntean/Rosenblum, Disco, 2005. 

Katharine Albritton 

www.scope-art.com 



Sculpt Miami 

46 NW 36th Street, Miami 

www.sculptmiami.com 



Verge 

The Catalina Hotel, 1732 Collins 

Avenue, Miami Beach 

www.vergeartfair.com 

Preview, 3 December, 12pm-6pm 

4-5 December, 12pm-8pm 


Vanguard @ Aqua Wynwood 


www.genart.org/vanguardartfair 





Zones Art Fair 


www.zonesartfair.com 



5 December, 10am-12am 

6 December, 10am-1am 


NON-PROFIT SHOWS 

ArtCenter/South Florida 

800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach 

www.artcentersf.org 

Primary Flight: Blue Print 

for Space 

Until 2 January 

Bass Museum of Art 

2121 Park Avenue, 


www.bassmuseum.org 

Dzine 

Until 21 February 

Where Do We Go From 

Here? Selections from 

La Colección Jumex 

Until 14 March 

Kent Henricksen 


Cisneros Fontanals Art 

Foundation 



www.cifo.org 

Being in the World: Selections 

from the Ella Fontanals- 

Cisneros Collection 

Until 7 March 

Fairchild Tropical 

Botanical Garden 

10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral 

Gables, Miami 

www.fairchildgarden.org 

Yayoi Kusama at Fairchild 

5 December-30 May 

Frost Art Museum-Florida 

International University 

University Park 

10975 SW 17th Street, Miami 

http://thefrost.fiu.edu 

The Mystical Arts of Tibet 


The Missing Peace: Artists 

Consider the Dalai Lama 


Navjot Altaf: Lacuna in 

Testimony 


En Vista: Eduardo del Valle 

and Mirta Gómez 

Until 7 December 

Little Haiti Cultural Center 

250 NE 59th Terrace, Miami 

www.theglobalcaribbean.org 

Global Caribbean: Focus on 

the Contemporary Caribbean 

Visual Art Landscape 

4 December-30 March 

Lowe Art Museum, 

University of Miami 

University of Miami, 1301 

Stanford Drive, Coral Gables 

www.miami.edu/lowe 

Trends and Techniques: 

A Short History of 

Printmaking 

Until 25 April 

Tree of Paradise: Jewish 

Mosaics from the Roman 

Empire 


Ricky Bernstein: Kitchen 

Dreams 


Margulies Collection at the 

Warehouse 


www.margulieswarehouse.com 

Miró & Noguchi: Masters 

of Surrealist Sculpture 


100 Years of Photography 

1909-2009 


George Segal: Depression 

Bread Line 


Sculpture & Video: New 

Additions to the Collection 

including Franz West, Sara 

Barker, Zilvinas Kempinas, 

Ivan Navarro & Bill Viola 


Miami Art Museum (MAM) 

101 West Flagler Street, Miami 

www.miamiartmuseum.org 

Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, 

Paintings and Works on 

Paper, 1980-2008 


Space as Medium 


Carlos Bunga: Metamorphosis 


Shepard Fairey: Arab Woman 

3-6 December 

MAM @ Freedom Tower 

600 Biscayne Boulevard, 


www.miamiartmuseum.org 

Guillermo Kuitca: 

Everything (Else), Large 

Scale Works 


Museum of Contemporary Art 

(MOCA NoMi) 


www.mocanomi.org 

The Reach of Realism 


Rubell Family Collection 


www.rubellfamilycollection.com 

Beg Borrow and Steal 

Until 29 May 

Wolfsonian-Florida 

International University 

1001 Washington Avenue, 


www.wolfsonian.fiu.edu 

Styled for the Road: the 

Art of Automobile Design, 

1908-48 

Until 14 March 

Rhythms of Modern Life: 

British Prints 1914-1939 


World Class Boxing 

170 NW 23rd Street, Miami 

www.worldclassboxing.org 

Raymond Pettibon: Repeater 

Pencil 


Sylvie Fleury: Girls Just 

Wanna… 


COMMERCIAL SHOWS 

101/Exhibit 

101NE40thSt.Miami 

www.101exhibit.com 

David Bowers: Works 

Until20January 

ArtSpace/Virginia Miller 

Galleries 

169 Madeira Avenue, Coral 

Gables, Miami 

www.virginiamiller.com 

Five Abstract Visions 


Coppertone Building 

7300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami 

www.femmeartmiami.com 

Femme Art Miami 


Cremata Fine Art 

1646 SW 8th Street, Miami 

www.crematafineart.com 

Abstractomicin: Curated 

by Aldo Menéndez 


David Castillo Gallery 

2234 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami 

www.davidcastillogallery.com 

Javier Piñón, LaToya 

Ruby Frazier and Paul 

Pretzer 


Diana Lowenstein Fine Arts 



www.dlfinearts.com 

Carlos Betancourt: Lapidus 

Infinitus 


Diaspora Vibe Gallery 

3938 N. Miami Avenue, Miami 

www.diasporavibe.net 

Caribbean Crossroads Series: 

When Black is Clear 


Fredric Snitzer Gallery 

2247 NW 1st Place, Miami 

www.snitzer.com 

Alice Aycock: Sculptures 

and Drawings 

3-31 December 

Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin 


www.galerieperrotin.com 

Matthew Day Jackson: 

Gezellig 


Bernard Frize: Oh Happy 

Days 

Until January 

Harold Golen Gallery 

2294 North West 2nd Avenue, 


www.haroldgolengallery.com 

Mass A-Peel 


PanAmericanArtProjects 

2450 NW 2nd Avenue, Miami 

www.panamericanart.com 

Denarrations 


Pierogi/Hales Gallery 



www.pierogi2000.com 

Pierogi and Hales Gallery 

in Miami 

2-6 December 

Sushi Samba 

3252 NE First Avenue, 

Suite 101, Miami 

www.sushisamba.com 

Graffiti Gone Global 

4-6 December 

The Fountainhead Residency 

690NE56thStreet,Miami 

http://fountainheadresidency.com 

Shepard Fairey: 

the Public Works 

3-6 December


ART BASEL/MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 

Contributors: 

Georgina Adam is The Art 

Newspaper’s editor at large, who has 

been an art market reporter for over 20 

years. Also art market correspondent 

for the Financial Times, she writes 

regularly for RA (Royal Academy of 

Arts) magazine and lectures at 

Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London 

Louisa Buck has been The Art 

Newspaper’s contemporary art 

correspondent since 1997. She is the 

author of Moving Targets: a User’s 

Guide to British Art Now, and the 

co-author of Owning Art: the 

Contemporary Art Collector’s 

Handbook. She is also a regular 

contributor to Vogue UK and 

BBC radio 

Charlotte Burns is The Art 

Newspaper’s assistant editor (art 

market). She has previously worked for 

Anthony d’Offay, Hauser & Wirth and 

Bolton & Quinn 

Andrew Goldstein is a freelance 

journalist based in New York who 

regularly contributes to The Art 

Newspaper. He is a former news editor 

atARTnews and has written for 

publications such as NewYork 

magazine, Rolling Stone and Portfolio 

Gareth Harris is The Art Newspaper’s 

editor at large and former deputy editor. 

He also writes for the Financial Times, 

the Independent,theDaily Telegraph, 

and Vogue magazine as well as specialist 

publications including artforum.com 

and Museums Journal 

Brook S. Mason is The Art Newspaper’s 

New York-based design and art market 

correspondent. She also contributes 

regularly to the Financial Times 

Anny Shaw is a freelance journalist 

based in London. She was a staff writer 

at Art World magazine and her writing 

has appeared in the Daily Telegraph,the 

Observer and Guardian Unlimited 

Ossian Ward is the visual arts editor of 

Time Out London. He previously 

worked at The Art Newspaper and is a 

former editor of ArtReview. He has 

edited The Artists’Yearbook for Thames 

& Hudson from 2006-09 

Editorial and production: 

Editor: Jane Morris 

Deputy editor: Javier Pes 

Assistant editor: Helen Stoilas 

Copy editors: James Hobbs, 

Rosie Spencer 

Designer: Eyal Lavi 

Art director: William Oliver 

Photographer: Casey Fatchett 

Reporters: GeorginaAdam, Charlotte 

Burns, Louisa Buck,Andrew 

Goldstein, Gareth Harris, Brook S. 

Mason, Charmaine Picard,Anny Shaw, 

Ossian Ward 

Editorial interns: KatharineAlbritton, 

Rob Curran 

Group editorial director: 

Anna Somers Cocks 

Managing director: James Knox 

Project manager: Patrick Kelly 

Advertising sales UK: Ben Tomlinson 

and Louise Hamlin 

Advertising sales US: Caitlin Miller 

Advertising executives: Julia 

Michalska, Justin Kouri 

Published by 

Umberto Allemandi & Co. 

Publishing Ltd 

UK office: 70 South Lambeth Road, 

London SW8 1RL 

Tel: +44 (0)20 7735 3331 

Fax: +44 (0)20 7735 3332 

Email: contact@theartnewspaper.com 

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Printed by Southeast Offset, Miami 

© 2009 TheArt Newspaper Ltd 

All rights reserved. No part of this newspaper 

may be reproduced without written consent 

of copyright proprietor. TheArt Newspaper 

is not responsible for statements expressed in 

the signed articles and interviews. While 

every care is taken by the publishers, the 

contents of advertisements are the 

responsibility of the individual advertisers 

The last word… 

Rocky’s royal gal Missing in action 

MAY 21-23, 2010 

Arguably the most unlikely 

pairing in the art world was 

seen yesterday at ABMB when 

a member of the British royal 

family hooked up with 

Rambo. Princess Michael of 

Kent and actor Sylvester 

Stallone came together on 

Gmurzynska’s stand (B20), 

which is selling a selection of 

paintings by the big-screen 

hard-man. Princess Michael, 

who is busy building up a 

contemporary art collection 

with the help of artist Tracey 

Emin, told The Art Newspaper 

that Stallone was “a very 

talented painter”. And will she 

add his work to her collection? 

“It’s not a question of wanting 

to, but being able to afford to,” 

she exclaimed. Stallone 

himself was happy to discuss 

why he picked up the brush, 

telling us that his Toxic 

Superman work, 1991, was 

about the “ups and downs of 

Hollywood, the peaks and 

valleys. Society makes it 

difficult for a man to be a man. 

The US working male is a 

dying breed”. Rocky’s gone all 

Rothko on us. 

FESTIVAL PAVILION, FORT MASON CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 

www.SFFineArtFair.com 

Corrections and clarifications 

Edward Tyler 

Nahem director 

of Edward Tyler 

Nahem Fine Art, 

New York 

My biggest mistakes... 

not being a great African 

singer or the second coming 

of Jimi Hendrix. Other 

than that, not having the 

money in 1993 to buy a 

group of Rothko paintings. 

My secret passion is… 

not so secret: guitar, 

music, yoga, baseball, 

surfing, snow-boarding, 

wine, movies on the lawn 

in summer time (not 

necessarily in that order). 

More secret: not up for 

discussion. 

The museum I’d like to 

lead…if not my own, then 

the Menil Collection in 

There was much speculation 

surrounding Christian Haye’s 

empty gallery stand (H19) at 

yesterday’s V-VIP preview, 

with several visitors believing 

it to be a suitably subversive 

comment on our productglutted 

era, and one collector 

declaring it his favourite stand 

of the fair. But the sight of all 

this vacant booth space 

(apparently due to shipping 

problems) proved too tempting 

for neighbouring Düsseldorf 

gallery Sies + Höke (H20), 

who by mid-afternoon had 

installed a set of metal chess 

pieces by Kris Martin, aptly 

entitled Lost. “We’re 

babysitting the booth for 

Christian,” declared a gallery 

rep, adding that the fair 

organisers would be informing 

Mr Haye, who at the time of 

writing could not be traced, of 

this cuckoo in his nest. 

The golden touch 

Artist-bibliophile Richard 

Prince was to be seen 

checking out his installation of 

shelved pulp fiction books on 

the Two Palms stand (D1) in 

ABMB yesterday. But for 

Prince fans unable to afford 

his hefty prices, there was not 

much solace to be found in a 

spot of book shopping. The 

three copies of his 1990 

Spiritual America book, at 

John McWhinnie @ Glenn 

Horowitz’s Bookseller’s stand, 

are priced at $35,000, a 

boggling amount even given 

the artist’s enduring popularity. 

Each volume has been 

reworked by Prince to contain 

❏ Yesterday we incorrectly reported Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro’s 

position: he is the director of the Colección Patricia Phelps de 

Cisneros based in New York and Caracas, Venezuela. This was 

an error introduced in the editing process, for which we 

apologise (p1). ❏ Friedman Benda is showing at Art Miami 

(A21) not Art Basel Miami Beach (p6). ❏ Norman Mailer’s 

MoonFire on sale at Taschen’s stand is a limited edition of 

1,969, the last 12 copies of which are titled The Marc Newson 

Lunar Rock Edition of Norman Mailer’s MoonFire. The buyer 

of number 1,969 will dine with astronaut Buzz Aldrin (p15). 

Confessions of an art dealer 

Houston (without 

the humidity). 

The artist I should 

have signed…Picasso, 

Giacometti, Rothko, 

Lichtenstein (a simple 

matter of not being in the 

right place at the right 

time) and Richter 

(still possible?). 

I should have been… 

playing left field for the 

New York Yankees. By now 

I would be retired and 

either owning a bar and 

strip joint in the tenderloin 

district of downtown 

Cincinnati or announcing 

games in a loud plaid 

jacket. But seriously folks, 

a yoga instructor. 

I enjoy the company of… 

my son and his wife and 

good friends, whether 

travelling together or 

hosting at my house in 

the Hamptons. 

Fairs are important… 

a series of unique collages, 

although prices for books that 

have simply been signed by 

this Midas-like figure still start 

at a substantial $750. 

Road to paradise 

There was a distinctly collegial 

atmosphere on the shuttle 

buses to the Moca North 

Miami Vanity Fair party. 

Revellers stuck in traffic for 

up to an hour had to resort to 

carry-on beers on the ride in, 

only to be met with ominous 

flashing police lights in what 

looked like a road accident. 

The real light show was 

provided by the monumental 

Jack Pierson illumination, 

Paradise Light, 1995, on the 

museum’s garden wall. 

Another onerous wait, this 

time for cocktails, was 

relieved by copies of the 

sponsor’s magazines in 

umpteen languages, but even 

the Grey Goose ice sculpture 

couldn’t stay the course, 

eventually melting and 

plummeting from its perch. 

Kusama vs the crocs 

Art and nature found 

themselves in close 

JULY 9-11, 2010 

THE BRIDGEHAMPTON HISTORICAL SOCIETY GROUNDS, BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY 

www.ArtHamptons.com 

It’s like a jungle sometimes 

while not the ideal setting 

for contemplating fine art 

at a more leisurely pace, 

fairs offer the opportunity 

to put much of what is 

going on in the world of 

art under one roof, at the 

same time. For the lazier 

and less curious art world 

denizens, those who don’t 

have the time or desire to 

visit galleries, fairs supplant 

the need to spend 

the necessary time it 

takes to really explore. 

Small talk is…a necessary 

evil of any industry, particularly 

the art world. 

There can be a lot of 

back-biting and sour 

grapes in the art world. 

Small talk is such a waste 

of energy, time and one’s 

spiritual potential. 

However, being a mere 

mortal, it is at times hard 

to resist. 

I was happiest when… 

Space is limited, contact: 631-283-5505 | rick@hamptonsexpo.com 

Sporting a blonde afro, the demeanour of a deranged Grace Jones and a look best described 

as “tribal Pucci”, London singer-songwriter-actress Ebony Bones got South Beach rocking last 

night. “Art is all about the audacity to step outside your own circumference,” shouted the pop 

phenomenon, who’s certainly come a long way from seven years on a British soap opera. L.B. 

competition at the unveiling of 

a spectacular al fresco 

installation by veteran 

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama 

in the Fairchild Tropical 

Botanical Garden in Coral 

Gables. A crowd of artists and 

collectors gathered in the 

Miami sunshine to view 

Kusama’s psychedelic array of 

giant multicoloured flowers, 

spotted pumpkins (below) and 

waterborne spheres. Yet 

amidst all this high culture it 

was ultimately nature that won 

the day, with curator Louise 

Neri regaling the assembled 

crowd with the news that she 

had spotted a large alligator 

just the day before, basking in 

a lake in the park among 

Kusama’s giant red-and-white 

dotted balls. This potentially 

lethal news didn’t deter 

I prefer the present tense. 

Quietly looking at great 

art; watching the Yankees 

win the World Series; 

listening to great music; 

playing guitar; watching 

my newborn grandson 

watching the world. 

My greatest achievement 

is…my son. Making 

people happy. 

The most underrated art 

movement is…. 

futurism. Prescient in its 

forethought, it pondered 

the possibilities of a 

future world 

that came 

to prove 

pretty 

accurate. 

Life’s too 

short to… 

sweat the 

small stuff or 

grapple with 

things that 

don’t amount 

veteran artist Chuck Close 

from pulling his motorised 

chair right up to the edge of 

the water, not to observe 

Kusama’s sculpture but to 

gaze at a Florida turtle that, 

seemingly oblivious to this 

artistic invasion, paddled by. 

Make mine a beer 

AUGUST 6-8, 2010 

ASPEN ICE GARDEN, ASPEN, CO 

www.Art-Aspen.com 

Last year, artist Olaf Breuning 

was commissioned by ABMB 

to create a massive, Picassoinspired 

sand sculpture of a 

reclining nude on the beach. 

Now the Swiss-born artist 

returns to Florida with a much 

more liquid project, having 

been chosen by the New Art 

Dealers Alliance (NADA) and 

Dutch brewers Grolsch to 

design the labels for a limitededition 

bottle that is to be 

distributed at the NADA art 

fair preview today. Breuning’s 

work parodies the evolution of 

man from a stick-wielding 

Neanderthal to a blissful, beertoting 

imbiber. “Humans have 

always invented the right tools 

to reach the next level of 

evolution: the invention of 

fire, wheel, weapons and 

books…It might now be time 

to enter the ‘Grolsch Age’,” 

says the artist. Cheers to that. ■ 

to much in the grander 

scheme of this big old 

world…ie, those who think 

the world is coming to an 

end and freak out when 

Starbucks has run out of 

skim milk for their decaf 

double latte. 

Media Sponsor: 

Photo: Casey FatchettÏÏ

Brighter mood as blue-chip art finds buyers at Miami Beach

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