Art-fair fatigue 1: Basel

Posted

I don't usually 'do' international art fairs. I don't have enough black clothes for a start. But this year, as Tehran gallery Dastan was presenting a solo show of Mamali Shafahi's recent flocked reliefs, Heirloom Velvet, I took a week out of my summer holidays in Greece to go, for the first time, to Art Basel and Liste.

I don't really feel at home in these events, with their VIP cards, air-kissing and cocktail parties, and Basel itself is otherwise a dull city, albeit an expensive one. But I must say the main fair, Art Basel itself, was spectacular. People I met there said it looked as if the galleries, post-Covid, were pulling all the stops out to show their very best works, and for once it seemed to me as if, in the huge central exhibition halls (it took me four-and-a-half hours to go round once), there was hardly anything actually bad.

Liste is a different affair, where less fancy galleries can show edgier (and cheaper) work in grungier surroundings. There was a lot there I had no interest in, but that only served to throw into relief the things I liked, and Dastan's booth was, to me, unbiased as of course I am, one of the most striking.

Here's a selection of Basel photos, starting with a few things I liked in the main fair.

By the way, I had a thrill of goose bumps when I went in, as by chance the first things I came across were mirror-mosaic works by the late Mounir Farmanfarmaian, whose museum in Tehran was one of the highlights of my last trip there.



I especially liked the corner of the fair where you found Kraupa Tuskany and Mother's Tankstation together.







Here, now, are a few photos from Liste.

The first is an installation view of Mamali Shafahi's Heirloom Velvet on Dastan's booth, but I'm thinking of doing a special post on these new works in the next few days.

I wasn't tempted to buy much, which is just as well now I'm an old-age pensioner, but if I'd had the money and it hadn't already been snapped up, I'd have loved to own this:






Sultana's display of large works by Matthias Garcia was impressive.



Robbie Fitzpatrick's booth was among the best-curated. Back in Paris this week I visited his new gallery and was similarly impressed...




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Paris tips: visiting

Posted
Image
  Note : this post and the April 28 one, about eating out, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** I guess you'll have your own guide book to help you plan your visit. But whichever one (or more) it is, I thought you might find the Michelin Green Guide 's tourist map of Paris (below) helpful, as it makes it easy to locate the main sights. I think you'll find if you click on the map, it will blow up to a more legible size. The inset box at top left explains Michelin's ratings system, similar to its approach to restaurant ratings. With a decent guide book, you won't need much help from me, but I just wanted to add one or two items that visitors might miss, plus an idea for a north-south walk (or south-north, as you wish) that makes a change from the usual main east-west (or west-east!) drag. Also, finally, one neglected but unique mus...
Read more

Paris tips: eating out

Posted
Image
Note : this post and the April 30 one, about things to see, were written for American friends visiting Paris, one of them for the first time, who wanted a few tips from a local. They were staying in a hotel just off République... ***** THREE STRONG RECOMMENDATIONS These are the three places I'd most strongly recommend during your visit, as I think they offer a nice variety of quality Parisian eating experiences. 1. Dinner at Le Train Bleu When the underlying idea was to recommend places off the tourist track, it might seem odd to start with Le Train Bleu, at the Gare de Lyon. But this is surely one of the most extraordinary restaurant spaces in the world. You can only experience it in Paris, of course, and I usually take any first-time visitor there for dinner. It's Lyon-influenced brasserie food at more-than-brasserie prices, but they have simple set-price menus at 55 and 74 euros, and anyway, as usual, the final bill depends above all on what you drink. It's worth it (and...
Read more

Anna Uddenberg: an interesting new development

Posted
Image
Anna Uddenberg is a Swedish artist whose work has, I think, something quite original, distinctive and perceptive to say about the image of women in certain, specific currents of consumer culture that might otherwise be overlooked. I hadn't seen much of her recently, but she now has an exhibition, at her Berlin Gallery, Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler (or K-T Z), of totally new works focusing, this time, not on women but on men. The resulting woodcarvings are an interesting and quite surprising development, and add to what seems to be almost a 'fashion' for reliefs in art at the moment. This is the link to the new exhibition, 'Big Baby' , at K-T Z. This is the link to a video about the new work, on Vimeo , but the video is also on the gallery website. This is the direct link to the page about Anna Uddenberg on the gallery site. The following are some photos of Anna Uddenberg's new and previous work, 'borrowed' from K-T Z.
Read more