Art Basel opens with $60mn Rothko, influx from Asia and ripening pears

Nothing is certain in the volatile art market, but one fixture — the Art Basel fair in June — stands strong after more than 50 years. The 2023 event, which runs until June 18 with 284 selected exhibitors, opened with understated glamour on Tuesday, with art on show that underlines the seriousness behind the Rhineland glitz.

Stifling sunshine helped keep visitors inside the fair, where a 1955 painting by Mark Rothko with a $60mn price tag is at the booth of New York’s weighty Acquavella Galleries. The trademark work, which had once belonged to banking heir Paul Mellon, was getting “serious interest” on opening day, said gallery co-owner Alexander Acquavella, though had yet to sell at time of writing. On the other side of the fair’s ground floor, the Swiss-born, international powerhouse Hauser & Wirth reported an avalanche of sales, topped by a climbing, bronze “Spider IV” (1996) by Louise Bourgeois that sold to a US collector for $22.5mn.

Some sales were finalised beforehand or eventually sealed on the day. “Art Basel is the centre of gravity for collectors. The first day of the fair is the final day of many, many months of preparation and dialogue for us,” said gallery president Iwan Wirth while offering restorative champagne truffles at his Basel booth.

There is greater experimentation to be found on the first floor of the Messeplatz convention centre, where more cutting-edge galleries show their wares. At the Paris gallery gb agency, five pears on a plinth that need to be replaced every couple of days are offered as a conceptual work by Cally Spooner for €11,000 (“Still Life”, 2018, plinth included). Beirut’s Marfa‘ gallery offers a reflection on consumerism with a project called “Death Investment” by Raed Yassin. The artist uses animal skulls, whose teeth have been restored by his childhood dentist, to suggest an alternative symbol of wealth and veneration under the booth’s spotlights (priced between $6,000 and $10,000). Six of 12 works sold on day one; “Bankers seem to like them,” said gallery founder Joumana Asseily.

London gallerist Sadie Coles also has a standout booth, which features work by the in-demand American artist Laura Owens. The solo showing of 16 works, ranging from $90,000 to $1.8mn, benefited from being kept largely under wraps until the opening day. “We didn’t send materials out in advance, which is unusual in 2023 when people are used to getting PDFs, so they had to come here to see them instead — kind of how it used to be,” Coles said.

In her favour was the fact that this year’s fair is the first fully-fledged event since the Covid-19 emergency was officially declared over. Dealers were pleasantly surprised by the number of visitors from China and other countries in Asia, and the fair had a level of buzz last witnessed in 2019. There was, however, less of a frenzy on the VIP day, with booths mostly uncrowded and queues for bratwurst and champagne relatively thin. “People are more selective about the art fairs they go to now,” said Samia Saouma, partner at Galerie Max Hetzler, whose work in Basel includes a huge Jeff Koons “Celebration” painting priced at an undisclosed seven-figure sum.

The heat that has fuelled the market since its previous slump in 2009 has cooled, with a higher interest rate environment making art a riskier place to park money. Noah Horowitz, CEO of Art Basel since November and overseeing his first edition in Switzerland, agrees “there is less urgency in the market” but, he says, “the baseline is still there. For exceptional art and works that are unique or check a specific box, there are buyers.”

Horowitz’s recent appointment points to winds of change within the longstanding fair group, which now has editions in Miami, Hong Kong and Paris and whose anchor shareholder, since 2020, is James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems. Horowitz says the group is more than conscious of a new, younger generation of “active collectors”, plus the increasingly blurred lines with other creative industries, such as fashion and music. “The opening days this year were a resounding reminder of the singular imperative of this fair and our industry. We want to stay as relevant as we have been for the past 50-plus years,” Horowitz says.

To June 18, artbasel.com