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4 THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL/MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 4 DECEMBER 2008 Trends Is glitzy art on the way out? The changing market may diversify the works being produced Prices aren’t the only thing different about the art on offer at ABMB this year: tough economic conditions have also influenced what many dealers have brought and what many collectors are buying. Eventually, the times may also affect what art is made. In a word—or a few—big, glitzy, high-cost art is out, replaced by smaller, less showy works that don’t require artists or dealers to take out a mortgage to produce, or collectors to build showcase museums to display their treasures. “The art here is more conservative, more accessible and more residential-compatible,” says Ann Richards Nitze, who both collects and guides other collectors. Advisor Todd Levin agrees: “That whole big ‘I’m going to build a museum, here’s the huge coffee-table book’ thing has gone ‘poof!’ So all those huge installations have disappeared from the fair. Now people are returning to cocooning, so they want domestic-size art that they can live with.” Diamond-dusted works seem to be gone, too, also a casualty of the times. The tone is simply different this year. Some long-time collectors welcome the trend as good not only for their budgets but also for artists, especially those who’ve struggled to get noticed in the money-driven market of the past several years. Now people may look for these kinds of artists—the young or overlooked. “I’ve heard collectors saying: ‘I’m going back to my roots of collecting younger artists’,” says Andrea Rosen (C15). In fact, this is the kind of market that collectors such as Agnes Gund, president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, says she likes. “The froth is gone. There’ll be less blingy art,” she says. “The market is better for selling less-well-known but important artists like Lynda Benglis. She’s finally coming into her own. “I’ve sold a lot of Lynda Benglis works from the 1970s to significant collections and institutions, and she’s not the only one in this category,” Ms Rosen adds. Something similar happened the last time the art market plunged. After the 1991 decline, according to Charles Moffatt, a senior vice president at Sotheby’s, “people looked seriously at art that they weren’t looking at seriously before, because suddenly things that were purchased casually became serious purchases.” This, he continues, “created a more pluralistic market, stylistically. There was more word-based art, figurative art, photography and so on. Everyone’s vision broadened because of the lower price points.” Moffatt says that artists like Cindy Sherman benefited—her work grew in prestige and her prices began to rise steadily. Quick sale: Isca Greenfield-Sanders, The Lighthouse, 2008 Examples at ABMB could include Isca Greenfield- Sanders, a 30-year-old painter represented by Berggruen Gallery (J4), who makes somewhat representational works from vintage photographs she buys at garage sales. “We’ve had two exhibitions for her, and we sell every work we get,” says Gretchen Berggruen. Lighthouse, 2008 (shown above), sold for around Tom Krens, the Guggenheim Foundation’s former director and now senior advisor for international projects with a brief that covers the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, said the giant museum, scheduled to open in 2013/14, has hired an international committee to advise on artists and acquisitions. In an interview with The Art Newspaper, he said the group of 12 Middle Eastern curators includes Sharjah Biennale director Jack Persekian; Tirdad Zolghadr, independent critic and curator; Christine Tohme, director of Beirut-based arts organisation Ashkal Alwan; William Wells, director of Townhouse Gallery, Cairo; Vasif Kortun, director of Platform Gallery, Istanbul; and the Moroccan Abdellah Karroum, director $50,000 in the first hour of the fair. Berggruen puts Christopher Brown, who also paints in an “abstracted representational and figurative” style, in the same category, and bets that his piece Windward, 2008, priced at $80,000, will also sell. “We work with people who are looking for artists that were never part of the superinflated market, where there’s a good record of exhibitions,” Guggenheim Abu Dhabi appoints informal acquisitions group of L’Appartement 22 in Rabat. The group is an informal one. “We are attempting to imagine what the art world will be like in ten years’ time, and we are looking at local, South Asian, Asian, Russian, Latin American and US artists,” Mr Krens said. Mr Krens, who described the museum as “pharaonic”, said its budgets are unaffected by the financial crisis. “It’s like an ocean liner. There may be some storms on the way, but it will sail on,” he said. The Frank Gehry-designed building will have eight open spaces in the form of conical windtowers, which offer 11,000 sq. m for large-scale commissions (for comparison, the Tate Turbine hall is “just” 3,840 sq. m). “You could have Frank Gehry’s mock-up of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, 2007 says Berggruen. “There are more people like that now.” It’s not just taste that is changing what’s available. In part, the big installations have declined in number, and are likely to drop further, because they require financing, often from the artist’s dealer. “It’s not financially prudent to fund something for millions of dollars,” says Tim Poe, of Blum & Poe (C17). Some dealers—like James Cohan (C8)—say they’ll continue to try to help their artists. “When given the opportunity to fund an important work, it’s impossible to say no,” Cohan says. But overall, says Barbara Gladstone (E11): “There won’t be as many things that cost a ton of money to make.” Gladstone says that the economy alone won’t change the art of the times, but she adds that the recent US election may be an influence. “I’d look for something more political and soulful from young artists,” she says. “It’s also about objects and change and belief again, instead of cynicism.” So while it may be just spin, maybe the drop in prices will be a tonic for art, if not for galleries. The worst of times could bring the best of times. Judith H. Dobrzynski the Sistine Chapel or the Olafur Eliasson Waterfall, that’s the scale,” said Mr Krens. The museum’s core “classical collection” of art will be built up by a committee that has not yet been finalised, but Mr Krens has previously said that the crown prince of Abu Dhabi is providing $781m towards acquisitions. “Buying will be through galleries, at auction and directly from the artists,” said Mr Krens. Longer term, in phase two of the cultural project, Mr Krens said there were plans to create three 10,000 sq. m spaces “comparable to the DIA Beacon or Mass MoCA model”. Asked how many visitors he expected annually, Mr Krens said: “We can’t predict, but our best market analysis suggests 800,000 per year.” Georgina Adam and Antonia Carver Artists Picabia: a star is reborn Carried by multiple galleries, the dada dandy is the talk of the fair At an art fair that seems to be embracing quieter works over the attention-seeking glitz of recent years, Francis Picabia (1887-1953) has emerged as an unexpected star of ABMB. One of the artists spotlighted in the Art Kabinett solo displays, the dandyish French painter, poet and filmmaker— whose work ranged from dada to pin-up portraits—is making a strong showing. His work can be seen at Mary Boone Gallery (H7), Michael Werner Gallery (F13), Francis Naumann Fine Art (K2), Waddington Galleries (J7) and Patrick Painter (C1). Lori Spector, of Haas & Fuchs (H1), the Berlin gallery responsible for presenting Picabia in Art Kabinett, says the artist’s widespread presence suggests “a level of connoisseurship” that has returned to the fairs. “I think when you have changes in the market, people re-evaluate why they were buying things in the first place, and so I think now people are actually looking at objects a little more carefully and doing research about Documenta director named Correction artists, and not necessarily running to just buy the next hot thing.” Prices range from €100,000 to €700,000. Picabia’s influence on younger artists, from the US painter Philip Pearlstein to the Swiss sculptor Urs Fischer, has led to his recent reconsideration. Ron Warren, the director of the Mary Boone Gallery, says they flanked Picabia’s Vision, 1938, with two works by the US painter David Salle because of the debt the younger artist owes the French artist. A European collector bought Vision for $200,000. Warren was surprised to see so many Picabias at the fair. “It’s really interesting when Clockwise from above: Composition Abstraite, 1938; Personnages Transparence, 1935; Portrait of a Woman, 1951 this happens so suddenly out of nowhere—something coalesces and you start thinking about an artist again,” he said. “I don’t think Picabia is an artist that people have thought about a lot recently.” Anyone looking for proof of the artist’s relevance needed only go to Werner’s stand, where the outer wall was given over to ten Picabia portraits almost seamlessly mixed with nine Peter Doigs. “It kind of just happened,” said the dealer, who sold six of the Picabias— which ranged from $175,000 to $300,000—by 3.30pm. “We put them down on the floor and the Doigs worked perfectly with it.” Andrew Goldstein Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev has been named as director of Documenta 13 (9 June-16 September 2012), the major contemporary art exhibition held every five years in the central German town of Kassel. Ms Christov-Bakargiev is currently chief curator at the Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art in Turin. She was the artistic director of the 16th Sydney Biennale (2008). Gareth Harris On page 4 of yesterday’s paper, we said that the artist’s proofs of My Lonesome Cowboy, 1998, and Hiropon, 1997, were “consigned [by Murakami] to Marianne Boesky, were broken up, and both sculptures eventually hit the block”. In fact, Marianne Boesky did not split up the works or deal with the artist’s proofs. In 1997 the first edition of Hiropon was sold by Murakami via Feature gallery and eventually made its way to Richard Cooper (and was later bought by Victor Pinchuk). Ms Boesky later received its pair, My Lonesome Cowboy, which she sold in 1998. It was then sold to Pinchuk this May via auction at Sotheby’s. The pair has now indeed been reunited. Edition two and the first artist’s proof were sold by Blum & Poe to the Nortons and Vanhaerents respectively. Ms Boesky sold edition three as a pair to the Logans to place with SFMOMA.
THE ART NEWSPAPER ART BASEL/MIAMI BEACH DAILY EDITION 4 DECEMBER 2008 5 Art & finance How will Miami’s art scene weather the economic storm? Collectors, artists and dealers are cautiously optimistic that the future still looks bright In the atrium of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz’s house in Key Biscayne, several works by the late Félix González- Torres commune with each other. Two stacks of posters sit on the floor between a generous heap of candy and a glowing string of light bulbs. While one poster states, “Nowhere better than this place”, the other declares, “Somewhere better than this place”. The conflicted work seems to typify the high-low, grungy paradise that is Miami. One of the most culturally diverse cities in the US and the home of some of the best collectors of international contemporary art, Miami is a resort town with a cosmopolitan heart. But, at this strange economic time, how will it and the local art scene ride out the next few years? Miami collectors Don and Mera Rubell are currently showing “30 Americans”, an exhibition of work by African- American artists drawn from their collection (Rubell Family Collection, until 30 May 2009). Frequent travellers, the Rubells have just returned from a marathon of art-viewing that had taken them to Beijing, Yokohama, Paris, Dubai and Washington, DC. “We like to think macro but only know micro,” say the Rubells. The owners of the Albion Hotel, Miami Beach, they can measure the effect of the rise of Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) and its numerous satellites on tourism. “In 1996, 80% of the visitors to the Albion were from the US. Over the past two years, 70% have been non-American,” says Mr Rubell. Another consequence of ABMB has been that the Miami art scene “started seeing itself through the eyes of people coming from all over the world,” he says. Although there were always Miami collectors besides the Rubells and the de la Cruzes who thought big—Irma and Norman Braman, Marty Margulies and Ella “It wouldn’t hurt if we could have something close to CalArts or UCLA” – Hernan Bas ' ' ' Fontanals-Cisneros—“showing your collection to people from all over the world, including tribes of travelling art patrons, meant that you had to upgrade your collection and show at the highest level,” says Mr Rubell. “People can no longer limit themselves to New York and London.” The presence of international visitors encourages more globally minded collecting. “You have to follow the geography,” Mrs Rubell adds. Even if an economic downturn dampens foreign travel, most Miami insiders believe that the international perspective is here to stay. Emmanuel Perrotin, the Parisian dealer who opened Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami in December 2004, expects that a decline in the number of art fairs around the world “will actually make Miami a more important gathering place”. Although he is taking a sabbatical from programming the gallery from January to December next year, he was keen to stress that he has not cancelled any shows. Home grown He had shown most of his artist roster, and he looks forward to coming back. Mr Perrotin has an affection for Miami. “One of my old dreams is that artists from places like Berlin can go every winter to Miami. Life is more fun when there are many artists in town. Someone should organise for 30 artists come to Miami every year,” he says. Miami-born artist Hernan Bas thinks the local artistic community has grown in recent years. “It’s not hard to jump into the scene,” he says. “Once you know one artist, you get introduced to everyone.” He hopes that Miami will increasingly become “a place where people feel they can make art away from the hubbub of New York and even Los Angeles”. Certainly, life “We are not afraid of social contamination. We open the house to anyone” – Rosa de la Cruz Above: Rosa de la Cruz’s atrium with Kelley Walker’s Black Star Press: Black Press, Black Star (rotated 90 degrees), 2005, and Black Star Press (rotated 180 degrees): Press Star, Press Black, 2006. Right: Glenn Ligon, America, 2008, on show at “30 Americans” is more affordable and you can obtain a studio in Miami for a quarter of the price of a space in New York and half the price of one in Los Angeles. But, then again, nothing beats the property prices in Detroit where Bas has just bought a house and intends to spend his summers. Bas attended the New World School of the Arts, the local, top-ranked, “art magnate” high school. The specialist school also runs the only notable undergraduate studio art degree in town and is rumoured to be considering a masters degree programme. With the Rubell Family Collection’s director Mark Coetzee and dealer Fred Snitzer involved in teaching, Bas says the staff of the New World is “better than ever”. But Bas hankers after a more intellectual local scene. “It “Collecting art and design is more exciting than collecting one or the other” – Craig Robins wouldn’t hurt if we could have something close to CalArts or UCLA,” he says. In the past, the hospitality of Miami-based collectors who welcomed strangers into their art-rich homes has been misinterpreted by some as a local tendency toward hedonistic partying. According to Rosa de la Cruz: “The art scene has to be about giving. If it’s about self-indulgence, it will be lost. It needs an activist purpose.” Cuban-born, Mrs de la Cruz and her husband fled to Miami in 1976. “We are exiles. So we know what it is to make and to lose,” she says. “We are not afraid of social contamination. We open the house to anyone who is interested—the Rotary Club, senior citizens, school children. You don’t have to be a VIP.” The De la Cruzes are building a new space in Miami’s Design District. It will contain galleries devoted to artists including Ana Mendieta, Félix González-Torres and Gabriel Orozco, whose work they own in depth. It will also contain a library. The focus will be on their collection, which they started to assemble in 1991 during the last nadir of the art market, rather than loan exhibitions or events. According to Rosa de la Cruz: “We have too many events and not enough serious year-round involvement [in Miami].” Although she believes in access, she argues that the future should “not simply be about inclusion but participation”. Bonnie Clearwater, the director of Moca Miami, has an international reputation for taking risks by exhibiting emerging artists. The art museum’s education programme and diverse community-building projects are perhaps less well known but they are a crucial contribution to the Miami art world’s infrastructure. Moca has always been run on a “shoestring” and recent grants from the Knight Foundation have given the museum a flexibility that it didn’t have before. Like the Miami Art Museum, Moca Miami is poised to expand, tripling the size of its exhibition space and including a dedicated education wing. Consolidation One of Craig Robins’ favourite words is “opportunity”. The successful developer in South Beach and of the Design District, and the founder of Design Miami, says, “Miami has an opportunity to transform the transcendent first years of Art Basel and Design Miami into an institution.” As ABMB has just signed a three-year contract with the Miami Beach Convention Center, it would appear that Messe Schweiz is committed to see its art fair through to brighter times. Mr Robins expects 2009 will see a downsizing of the satellite fairs and less money for parties, but the activities of the first week of December are likely to “solidify into something like the Venice Biennale”. “It is going to be a really challenging period for us all,” says Craig Robins. “One in which being creative will be much more valued. I’ve always been interested in creativity as a solution not a luxury.” With involvement in both the art and design camps, Mr Robins sees certain trends as staying the course. “Collecting art and design is more exciting than collecting one or the other. It’s geometrically expansive on the level of experience,” he says. He also thinks the days of “plop art— when a work gets plopped on a plaza”, are over in Miami. Public art will be about “site specific work that presents interesting challenges for artists to resolve”. So, what next for Miami? Even with an increasingly vibrant artist community and a sturdier public museum scene, Miami is still likely to be lead by its collectors who will, no doubt, continue to acquire and display significant art in Miami. Most are planning to buy this season. In the words of Hernan Bas: “There is something different about the collectors here. Maybe they have a tinge of insanity. They are not just into art, but really into art.” Sarah Thornton (Author, Seven Days in the Art World) C.M. GUERRERO
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