Basel, Switzerland, 2010

Convention Center

Art Basel 2010. Overall, some excellent works on view. There were fewer Americans visiting than in previous years but buying still seemed to be happening for smaller ticket items. I preferred Volta and Liste which had some really great works by artists I had not heard of before and some by better-known artists for “accessible” prices.

Ai WeiWei, Grapes, 2008

Works that I was drawn to are included here. Ai WeiWei’s “Grapes” is made up of 17 stools from the Qing Dynasty.

Doug Aitken, Buffalo

For $150,000 this still of a buffalo in a motel room from an Doug Aitken video can be yours.

Marilyn Minter

Or for $300,000 this stunning Marilyn Minter painting that looks like a photo it is so hyper-realistic can hang in your home.

Ernesto Neto

A wooden Ernesto Neto wall work.

Liam Gillick

How cool is the projected shadow on the wall from this Liam Gillick work?

Anne Neukamp

A VERY affordable painting by a German artist that I wanted for myself. Or (below) mechanical flipbooks of hummingbirds that make them look like they are in flight.

Juan Fontanive, Hummingbirds

Michelangelo Pistoletto, Labirinto e Grande Pozzo, 1969/2008

I very much enjoyed Art Unlimited, more so than the large fair itself. In this section of Art Basel, larger works are on view and for sale.

Michelangelo Pistoletto created a maze of corrugated cardboard leading to a mirror in the center (the medium he is best known for).

Doug Aitken, Frontier, 2009

I am never certain what is happening or what message to take from Aitken’s films, but nevertheless, “Frontier” mesmerizes its viewers. Due to the “in the round” nature of the theater (a rectangular structure with openings that reveal snippets of the work to outsiders walking by), people standing and viewing this work from the inside become part of the art itself. Ed Ruscha is the central character in this video work whose imagery begins slowly and gradually becomes “more surreal and hallicinatory.”

Elodie Pong, After the Empire, 2008

Elodie Pong uses figures from history and Pop Culture who interact in most peculiar ways to explore questions of identity in her video, “After the Empire.” Karl Marx and Marilyn Monroe are paired; Minnie Mouse is paired with Elvis; and Martin Luther King, Jr is played by a woman. Simple in form the actors convey the message more than images or a detailed set. While powerful messages are conveyed, there is a lightness and humor to the work that makes it difficult to tear yourself away from.

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Art Parcours– See original blog entry for info and images