After the first day at the annual Art Basel fair, it is safe to say that the art market is showing no signs of slowing down.
Art Basel, which has three global editions — one at home in Switzerland, one in Hong Kong and one in Miami — is the world’s biggest art fair and it is where the top collectors, artists and gallerists converge every year.
Sales reports from the first day include an untitled 1984 work by Keith Haring selling from Skarstedt Gallery for approximately US$5million, a piece by Joan Mitchell at Cheim & Read for US$6 million and a Marlene Dumas for US$3.5 million at David Zwirner. Pace Gallery also reported selling out its entire presentation of Robert Rauschenberg works from the 1980s and early 1990s.
Attendees during the first two days of the show included curators and museum directors such as Richard Armstrong, head of the Guggenheim Foundation, Chris Dercon, the outgoing director of the Tate in London and Melissa Chiu, the director of the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
There was also a strong contingent of Middle Eastern participants — I will update you about all of those very soon.
• Art Basel runs until June 21. For more info visit: www.artbasel.com/en/Basel
aseaman@thenational.ae
