Art-fair fatigue 1: Basel

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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...




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