Art Basel

Swiss annual art fair

Art Basel

Industry| Art
Founded| 1970; 54 years ago (1970) in Basel, Switzerland
Founder| Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt

Number of locations

| 4 (2024)
Products| Art fairs

Art Basel is a for-profit, privately owned and managed, international art fair staged annually in Basel (Switzerland), Miami Beach (USA), Hong Kong (China) and Paris (France). Art Basel provides a platform for galleries to show and sell their work to buyers, and works in collaboration with host cities' local institutions to help grow and develop art programs.

## History[edit]

Art Basel was started in 1970 by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt.[1] In its inaugural year, the Basel show attracted more than 16,000 visitors who viewed work presented by 90 galleries from ten countries. 30 art publishers also participated.[2][3]

Under the direction of Samuel Keller between 1999 and 2006, Art Basel created Art Unlimited, a section for monumental artworks in the field of sculpture, installations, video art and performances in the newly built Hall 1. The first curators in charge of this very large section were Simon Lamunière (2000–2011), Gianni Jetzer (2012–2019) followed by Giovanni Carmine (since 2021).

Art Basel Miami Beach was first introduced in 2002 under the direction of Sam Keller.[4] In 2007, Ocean Drive launched the Art Basel Magazine (with Cultured's founder Sarah Harrelson as editor-in-chief).[5] In 2008, MCH Group, Angus Montgomery Arts and events organiser Tim Etchells launched Art HK, sparking investor interest in Hong Kong. MCH bought it out in 2013 to create Art Basel Hong Kong, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.[6] In 2015, Art Basel Hong Kong moved its office to Shui On Centre, with their new office designed by OPENUU.[7]

The 2019 show in Miami Beach saw Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition of the infamous Comedian art piece, a banana duct-taped to a wall and sold $120,000.[8] All the 2020 Art Basel editions (Basel,[9] Miami,[10] Hong Kong[11]) were cancelled.

Art Basel's 2022 expansion included Paris+ par Art Basel, replacing the long-standing Fiac art fair.[12][13][14]

## Description[edit]

### Activities[edit]

Art Basel is a group of international annual art fairs focused on contemporary art. The fair is originally organized in Basel, Switzerland, and has been extended to Miami Beach (since 2002), Hong Kong (since 2013), and Paris (since 2022).

A committee of four dealers review art dealers' plans and select the winners in a four-day session several months ahead of each fair.[15] As of 2019, the smallest galleries pay CHF 760 per square meter for a booth at Art Basel, and the largest galleries will pay CHF 905 per square meter. Prices rise relative to each additional square meter.[16]

UBS is the lead partner of the fair in Basel since 1994, the lead partner of Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception in 2002, and the lead partner of Art Basel Hong Kong since its inception in 2013.[17][18]

### Initiatives[edit]

* Art Basel Cities: Art Basel, the city's local art stakeholders and the city's officials sit together to develop an annual program in line with the city's mid- and long-term cultural development goals.[19][20] This initiative was launched during the 2016 Hong Kong edition of Art Basel. The first partner city was Buenos Aires.[21]
* BMW Art Journey Award: Reward to promising artists from the Discoveries sector in Hong Kong and the Positions sector in Miami Beach. The chosen artist can select the destination and go almost anywhere in the world to explore new ideas, discover new themes, and create new works. It was established by BMW and Art Basel in 2015.
* The Crowdfunding Initiative: Partnership between Kickstarter to provide visibility and generate support for projects (artist residencies, education programs, public installations, other innovative artistic projects) from non-profit organizations around the world.[22]
* The Art Market: Annual global art market analysis. The first report was published in 2017.[23]
* Executive-education program Collecting Contemporary Art in Hong Kong was launched by Art Basel, HKU SPACE Centre for Degree Programmes (CDP) and Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design (CSM).

### Leadership[edit]

* 1991–1999: Lorenzo Rudolf[24]
* 2000–2007: Sam Keller[25]
* 2007–2008: Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, Annette Schönholzer, Marc Spiegler
* 2008–2012: Annette Schönholzer, Marc Spiegler[26]
* 2012–2022: Marc Spiegler[27]
* since 2022: Noah Horowitz[27]

## Visits[edit]

Art Basel Exhibition in Hong Kong Year  | Location  | Visitors  | Exhibitors  | Countries represented

|
|
|
|

1970  | Basel[2][3] | 16,000  | 90  | 10
1975  | Basel  | 37,000  | 300  | 21
2019  | Basel[28] | 93,000  | 290  | 35
Miami[29] | 81,000  | 269  | 29
Hong Kong[30] | 88,000  | 242  | 35
2021  | Basel[31] |  | 273  |
Hong Kong[32] |  | 104  |
2022  | Paris[13] |  | 156  |

## Further reading[edit]

* Franz Schultheis, Erwin Single, Stephan Egger, Thomas Mazzurana: When Art meets Money. Encounters at the Art Basel. Verlag Walther König, Cologne 2015. ISBN 978-3863357443.
* Art Basel | Year 45. JRP|Ringier, 2015. ISBN 978-3-03764-395-2.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Basel, Art. "Art Basel mourns the passing of its co-founder, Trudl Bruckner – Art Basel". Art Basel. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
2. ^ a b "Historical Timeline". Art Basel.
3. ^ a b Bodick, Noelle (17 June 2014). "A Brief History of Art Basel, the World's Premier Contemporary Fair". Artspace.
4. ^ Bodick, Noelle (17 June 2014). "A Brief History of Art Basel, the World's Premier Contemporary Fair". Artspace.
5. ^ "Sarah Harrelson". thegeniuslist.com. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
6. ^ Anny Shaw (13 July 2018), Art Basel owner to launch contemporary art fair ART SG in Singapore next year The Art Newspaper.
7. ^ "Art Basel Hong Kong Office". OPENUU.
8. ^ Markowitz, Douglas. "Peeling the $120,000 Art Basel Banana". Miami New Times. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
9. ^ Reyburn, Scott (6 June 2020). "Art Basel Cancels September Fair". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 July 2020.
10. ^ Durón, Maximilíano (2 September 2020). "Art Basel Cancels Bellwether Miami Beach Fair Following Pandemic Concerns". ARTnews.com.
11. ^ Scott Reyburn, Art Basel Cancels Hong Kong Fair The New York Times, 6 February 2020
12. ^ Gerlis, Melanie (13 October 2023). "Art Basel's Paris edition returns as the city's market grows". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
13. ^ a b "Paris+ par Art Basel's director on his long-term vision for the inaugural fair—and how it compares to Fiac". The Art Newspaper - International art news and events. 19 October 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
14. ^ Greenberger, Alex (16 October 2022). "Paris+, Explained: Why Art Basel Arrived in Paris, and What's Happening to FIAC". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
15. ^ Judith H. Dobrzynski (17 June 1999), In Olympics Of Art World, Anything For an Edge The New York Times.
16. ^ Anny Shaw (3 September 2018), Art Basel introduces new booth pricing structure to subsidise younger galleries The Art Newspaper.
17. ^ Basel, Art. "Partners & Sponsors". Art Basel. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
18. ^ "About Art Basel". global. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
19. ^ Dalley, Jan. "Art Basel offers cities a cachet injection". Financial Times.
20. ^ Forrest, Nicholas (23 March 2016). "Art Basel Announces New Art Basel Cities Initiative". Blouinartinfo.
21. ^ Binlot, Ann (25 April 2018). "Programming For Inaugural Art Basel Cities Week In Buenos Aires Announced". Forbes.
22. ^ "Crowdfunding Initiative: supporting non-profit visual art projects from around the world". e-flux.
23. ^ Sussman, Anna Louie (22 March 2017). "11 Takeaways from Art Basel and UBS's Report on the Art Market in 2016". Artsy. Retrieved 26 July 2017.
24. ^ Patricia Chen (21 May 2011), The next stage Financial Times.
25. ^ Marc Spiegler (1 June 2006) "It was the world's most important fair before I came, it is now, and it will continue to be after I've left": Interview with Art Basel director Sam Keller The Art Newspaper.
26. ^ Andrew Russeth (21 August 2014), Art Basel’s Annette Schönholzer Is Stepping Down ARTnews.
27. ^ a b Gerlis, Melanie (25 November 2022). "Art Basel's Marc Spiegler will be a hard act to follow". Financial Times. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
28. ^ "(press release) The 2019 edition of Art Basel attracted a truly global audience, catalyzing excellent sales at all levels" (PDF). 16 June 2019.
29. ^ "(press release) Art Basel in Miami Beach reinforces its position as the cultural meeting point for the Americas, attracting significant collectors and institutions from the US, Latin America, and beyond" (PDF). 8 December 2019.
30. ^ "(press release) At Art Basel Hong Kong, excellent gallery presentations provided a uniquely global overview of the artworld, attracting collectors from across the globe" (PDF). 31 March 2019.
31. ^ "Who's in and Who's Out at the 2021 Art Basel Fair in Switzerland This September? Here's the Full List". Artnet News. 20 July 2021.
32. ^ Giles, Oliver (8 April 2021). "Art Basel Hong Kong Confirms Over 100 Galleries For Its 2021 Fair". Tatler Hong Kong. Retrieved 14 April 2021.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Art Basel.

* Official website

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF
* 2

National|

* France
* BnF data
* Catalonia
* Germany
* Israel
* United States

Other|

* IdRef

Portals:

* Switzerland
* Art