Thursday, October 17, 2024

The 10 Best Booths at Art Basel Paris 2024 https://ift.tt/GLctJVm

The organizers of Art Basel Paris 2024 could not have dreamed of better weather as the fair unveiled its first edition at the Grand Palais yesterday in a balmy, almost summery climate. As a winding queue of VIPs streamed into the complex at 10 a.m. for the fair’s preview, the venue was replete with its Beaux-Arts glory, and perfect sunlight poured in from the newly restored glass roof onto the booths below. The venue was used for tae kwon do during the Paris Olympics this summer, yet the only grappling performed at the Grand Palais yesterday was in the line for the collector’s lounge.

The location change (its previous two editions took place at the temporary Grand Palais Éphémère) isn’t the only difference seen at the fair, Art Basel’s third in the French capital. This year is also the first under the new title of Art Basel Paris (the fair was formerly named Paris+ par Art Basel). And in the grandeur of its location, the strength of inventory and caliber of clientele and exhibitors, this year’s fair felt more like a typical “Art Basel” occasion than ever before—with the touch of Parisian flair a most welcome addition.

“The enormous energy, bonhomie, and internationalism of the fair’s first day, along with the magnificent architecture and atmosphere of the Grand Palais, confirm that Paris truly is a 21st-century art world capital,” said Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot.

Art Basel Paris 2024 features 195 galleries from 42 countries in this year’s edition, up from 154 from the year before and featuring some 53 first-time exhibitors. In addition to unveiling a glamorous new partnership with Miu Miu, Art Basel has also beefed up its program of events and exhibitions across town, adding five new venues to its citywide program, including the Domaine National du Palais-Royal and the Petit Palais. Yet in addition to the various events across town, Art Basel is also enticing repeat visits to the Grand Palais with “Oh La La!,” where 33 galleries at the fair will rehang their booths to celebrate “unexpected or unusual artworks” on Friday.

In addition to the main Galeries section, Art Basel Paris includes Emergence, focused on galleries presenting solo presentations of young and emerging artists. New to the fair this year is Premise, where nine galleries present “highly singular curatorial proposals.” Those looking for tote bags, selfie sticks, and other Art Basel–branded merchandise, meanwhile, will also be delighted to learn that the Art Basel Shop—launched at Art Basel’s flagship Swiss fair earlier this year—also has a stand at the Grand Palais (the store was busier than some booths in the early hours of the VIP opening).

From the outset of the fair, it was clear that any signs of fair fatigue that some VIPs may have had from last week’s Frieze London had been all but abated. Featuring quite possibly the longest art fair queue that this writer has encountered on a VIP morning, Art Basel Paris carried a relentless energy throughout the day, with several booths packed to capacity within the opening minutes. As early as midday, it was clear that the strong spirits among the international crowd in attendance were being matched with similarly robust transactions. Sales on the opening day were led by a $9.5 million work by Julie Mehretu at White Cube’s booth.

See our full roundup of day-one sales from the fair here and check back for the full sales report on Monday. Below, we present the 10 best booths from Art Basel Paris 2024.

P·P·O·W

Booth B52

With works by Hunter Reynolds, Martha Wilson, David Wojnarowicz, Martin Wong, Ann Agee, Grace Carney, Gerald Lovell, and Betty Tompkins.

New York stalwart P.P.O.W draws parallels between its past, present, and future in a booth that underscores the Tribeca tastemaker’s enduring art world influence.

“We try in every booth to sort of reflect the diversity of the gallery in terms of estates and then new artists, in terms of generations,” said co-founder Wendy Olsoff. “When you’re putting together a booth, you’re trying to make it visually dynamic, but we always try to keep some content as well.”

The booth is foregrounded by a delightful table of ceramic vases by Ann Agee (the artist also painted the tablecloth underneath). These works, deceptively straightforward, reveal themselves on approach as nimble exercises in formal experimentation: Some of the works appear to contort in angular juts, while others bear an almost liquid-like sense of motion. Each vase has a twin—speaking to the tradition of presenting vessels in pairs in historical homes—yet each one is clearly unique, bearing its own character.

Wedgwoody Flowers and Stripes Vases, 2024
Ann Agee
P.P.O.W

Wes, Tenizen, & Seneca, 2024
Gerald Lovell
P.P.O.W

Orange Play-Doh Fan Vases, 2024
Ann Agee
P.P.O.W

Untitled, 1985-87
David Wojnarowicz
P.P.O.W

Mourning Flowers, 1993
Hunter Reynolds
P.P.O.W

Black and White Soft Panel Vases, 2017
Ann Agee
P.P.O.W

Agee sits on the more established side of P.P.O.W’s program, along with works by artists such as Martha Wilson and Betty Tompkins. Also featured are works by three of the gallery’s most prominent estates, including Hunter Reynolds, David Wojnarowicz, and Martin Wong. Wong’s outstanding painting Our Lady of the Lower East Side (1989–90), depicting a skateboarder leaping off a brick-built Statue of Liberty, is an outstanding example of the artist’s uniquely textural style.

On the gallery’s more emerging side of the roster, paintings by Grace Carney are a fine example of the artist’s sinuous, gauzy approach to abstraction, while Gerald Lovell’s tender portrait of a man and two children is another highlight. Works at the booth range from $14,000 to more than $1 million.


Pace Gallery

Booth A30

With works by Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith, Lucas Samaras, Paulina Olowska, Lee Ufan, Agnes Pelton, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, and Alexander Calder.

Pace Gallery can be counted upon for its cross-roster group presentations at major art fairs, but it’s not afraid to take a step in unexpected directions, as this booth from the mega-gallery shows. Curated by artist Paulina Olowska, the booth probes the figure of the witch, bringing together the artist’s own works along with those of fellow gallery artists Louise Nevelson, Kiki Smith, and Lucas Samaras.

“Paulina and I went to visit the Nevelson chapel in New York together, and Paulina was really taken with the sort of spirituality of the place,” explained Karine Haimo, vice president of the gallery. “Something that was very important for Paulina was to show with her idols and with people and artists that she greatly respects. So she kind of did a deep dive into our history and our roster, and decided to kind of curate a booth about the witches of Pace.”

The Whitney Show (After Diana MacKown), 2024
Paulina Olowska
Pace Gallery

Night Frost, 1968
Louise Nevelson
Pace Gallery

Louise at Claude Bernard (After Diana MacKown), 2024
Paulina Olowska
Pace Gallery

Cluster, 2021
Kiki Smith
Pace Gallery

Unknown (42 tree bark eyes), 2012
Kiki Smith
Pace Gallery

Focusing on the figure of the witch and the notion of sorcery in each of these artists’ practices, the booth is that rare art fair presentation which feels akin to a gallery show. Painted in black, the wiry, discombobulated “chairs” of Samaras lean into the perverse, while Nevelson’s black painted wooden wall pieces play with the notions of shadows, forms, and negation. Elsewhere, sculptural works by Smith include cats and branches, while four of Olowska’s paintings showcase the artist’s preoccupation with Slavic mythology and the natural world. All four paintings had sold within the first hours of the VIP preview, along with a trio of sculptures by Smith, and a slate of works by Nevelson.

And if visitors thought they saw a nun on VIP day, it was in fact Olowska herself in costume. “It’s a little different for Pace, but it’s nice to recontextualize these artists amongst themselves and with her,” Haimo added. Prices for works at the booth range from $25,000–$950,000.


WHATIFTHEWORLD

Booth K24

With works by Lungiswa Gqunta

In the fair’s Emergence section, focused on solo booths of younger artists, Cape Town–based gallery WHATIFTHEWORLD’s presentation of South African artist Lungiswa Gqunta is a powerful exploration of endurance and loss. Titled “Assemble the Disappearing, Site 1,” the works here probe the notion of the disappearance of humans and plants, placing the land as its witness.

These themes intersect in delicate and often surprising ways. In two of the fabric wall pieces draped on the booth, for instance, the printed image of what looks to be a sea of plant-like forms is populated by constellations of razor wires, a medium that holds a distinct personal resonance for the artist.

Qhumisa II, 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta
WHATIFTHEWORLD

The Onlookers, 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta
WHATIFTHEWORLD

Whisper I, 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta
WHATIFTHEWORLD

Qhumisa III, 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta
WHATIFTHEWORLD

Curtain , 2024
Lungiswa Gqunta
WHATIFTHEWORLD

“She works with razor wire, barbed wire, and fabric as a juxtaposition of the soft feminine touch with this hard, very violent material that’s used to keep people out,” explained gallery director Akshar Maganbeharie. “The razor wire comes from a usage of being a barrier. But when she was growing up, the people in her area where she lived used to hang laundry on it.”

Other works at the booth make similarly inventive use of materials. In the floor piece Onlookers (2024), for instance, a winding piece of wood is made to resemble a carcass, populated by stained glass panes that drift and cling onto its various parts. It’s the density of meaning in each of Gqunta’s works that makes it a rewarding experience for the close inspector—a refreshing experience during the brisk pace of a VIP day. The booth wasn’t going unnoticed by visitors, noted Maganbeharie: “The materials that we use are quite different, the presentation is quite clean, and we’re having a really good response,” he told Artsy. Prices at the booth range from €10,000–€30,000 ($10,862–$32,587).


David Zwirner

Booth B22

With works by Marlene Dumas, Gerhard Richter, Elizabeth Peyton, Lucas Arruda, Dana Schutz, Lisa Yuskavage, Josef Albers, Michaël Borremans, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Victor Man, Oscar Murillo, Luc Tuymans, and Andra Ursuţa.

As has become the norm with blue-chip art fairs, there was a point during the VIP day where walking into David Zwirner’s booth felt like an almost impossible task. With a crowd that was spilling into the concourse and Zwirner himself pacing around from client to client, it had the feeling more of a busy trading floor than an art fair booth (some might argue there is little difference between the two, after all).

Those who got a chance to take in the work displayed, however, were in for a treat—an impressive showcase of the strength and range of David Zwirner’s roster. Of particular note is a painting by the gallery’s new signee Victor Man: K (2014), a green-hued portrait of an ambiguous figure, which promptly found a buyer within the first few hours of the day, selling for €1.2 million ($1.3 million).

The Neighbor, 2024
Dana Schutz
David Zwirner

"Untitled" (Paris 1989), 1989
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
David Zwirner

Stubbornly Waiting, 2024
Mamma Andersson
David Zwirner

Also notable in the booth are outstanding new paintings by a slew of the gallery’s female artists: Dana Schutz (who has a solo show at David Zwirner’s Marais gallery), Lisa Yuskavage, Portia Zvavahera, Mamma Andersson, Suzan Frecon, and Elizabeth Peyton. On the more historical side, heavyweights such as Josef Albers and Gerhard Richter provide additional ballast to the display. The works by Richter, in particular, taken from the artist’s series of “family paintings” from the 1960s, still retain their powerfully haunting effect.

Sales at the booth, unsurprisingly, were extensive. Along with the Man painting, works by Schutz, Peyton, and Albers were among those selling for high-six-figure sums.

The Gallery of Everything

Booth P8

With works by Janet Sobel

A self-taught artist and a self-proclaimed Surrealist, Janet Sobel is a painter whose career started at age 45 in 1938, where she would go on to have a direct impact on many prominent Abstract Expressionist artists: Her “drip painting” technique, in particular, was a formative influence on Jackson Pollock, for instance.

In London’s The Gallery of Everything’s thoughfully curated display, works from across the artist’s career are presented—from the artist’s more classical phases to more abstracted examples, where the paint appears to pulse with energy as it swirls and arranges itself around loosely constructed figurative elements. Taken as a whole, the display is a microcosm of an artist that experimented relentlessly and unexpectedly.

“We specialize in showing unusual people, artists, and makers on the edges,” said gallery founder James Brett. “She has a foot in both worlds, because she really was a self-taught artist [and] the art world really informed her work. And you can see it in this compressed period of time in which she works; it’s phenomenal.” Works at the booth range in works on paper from €20,000–€50,000 ($21,725–$32,587), with paintings priced upwards from €75,000 ($81,468).

Cardi Gallery

Booth D32

With works by Daniel Buren, Gianpietro Carlesso, Enrico Castellani, Dadamaino, Donald Judd, Jannis Kounellis, Giulio Paolini, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Mimmo Rotella.

Cardi Gallery’s ambitious presentation is also a very blue-chip one: crafting a dialogue between the post-war trio of Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Transavanguardia, three movements that owner Nicolò Cardi described as “the DNA and the pure identity of the gallery since the ’70s.”

Rather than feeling lofty, his presentation is in fact an elegantly cohesive display—a spacious and soothing booth that, in the context of the VIP day, was a welcome shift in atmosphere. From Bonalumi to Balliano, Carlesso to Castellani, works at the booth sit with each other in compelling fashion.

Blu, 2010
Agostino Bonalumi
Cardi Gallery

Piedistallo a sinistra, 1979
Michelangelo Pistoletto
Cardi Gallery

Il Traffico, 1965
Mimmo Rotella
Cardi Gallery

Interazione 2.3, 2024
Gianpietro Carlesso
Cardi Gallery

Senza titolo, 2023
Mimmo Paladino
Cardi Gallery

UNTITLED_0297, 2024
Davide Balliano
Cardi Gallery

One work attracting the most attention on the VIP day was Jannis Kounellis’s Senza Titolo (2013). The work, a dark shelf populated with empty glasses, is a deft display of the artist’s eye for classical composition using ephemeral pieces and material objects—a core facet of the Arte Povera movement that he helped pioneer.

If the gallery’s staff seemed unusually calm once morning turned to afternoon on VIP day, it was because the booth had sold out within the first two hours of the fair, with prices ranging from $50,000–$2 million.

A Gentil Carioca

Booth A4

With works by Agrade Camíz, Arjan Martins, Ana Silva, Denilson Baniwa, João Modé, Kelton Campos Fausto, Laura Lima, Marcela Cantuária, Miguel Afa, O Bastardo, OPAVIVARÁ!, Renata Lucas, Rodrigo Torres, Sallisa Rosa, Vivian Caccuri and Yanaki Herrera.

Music is the through line at this booth from São Paulo’s A Gentil Carioca. “We want to present works that align with the understanding that musical composition goes beyond its sonority, triggering aesthetic and symbolic developments that create new imaginaries and creative pluralities,” said a spokesperson from the gallery.

The result is a booth that pops with color and surprise. Music is explored here as it relates to a broad swathe of artistic practices, such as in Maria Nepomuceno’s use of fabric, beads, rope, and wood, playing with rhythm and concepts of structure, space, and form. Elsewhere, music is referenced more directly, such as with Vivian Caccuri’s abstract textiles painted on mosquito nets that use sound data from music tracks to inform the color, thread, rhythm, and length of the works.

Celula ovulante, 2024
Maria Nepomuceno
A Gentil Carioca

Pé-de-garrafa, 2024
Laura Lima
A Gentil Carioca

Sem título [Untitled], 2024
Ana Silva
A Gentil Carioca

Fantasia da Ordem - Dia, 2024
Vivian Caccuri
A Gentil Carioca

Let's dance, 2024
Rodrigo Torres
A Gentil Carioca

Visitors may also be alarmed by the masked, clown-like figure that appears to be sitting at the booth’s entrance: Laura Lima’s Monte de Irônicos: Palhaço com jarro de flores (2005/2024). At first glance it appears to be a floor sculpture, but occasionally it juts to life—startling more than a few fairgoers.

Jack Shainman Gallery

Booth C1

With works by Nina Chanel Abney, El Anatsuim Diedrick Brackens, Nick Cave, Hayv Kahramanm Jesse Krimes, Meleko Mokgosi, Odili Donald Odita, Rose B. Simpson, Hank Willis Thomas, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

Being positioned in the corner of a fair’s main section might not seem like the most optimal real estate for a gallery to occupy, but at Jack Shainman Gallery’s presentation, it’s a boon. Much of this is to do with the unusual layout of the booth (if it can even be called a booth). The first thing that visitors are likely to see as they enter is a clay sculpture of an elongated figure by Rose B. Simpson, Listen, A (2024), which sits on a column plinth of the Palais and appears to be surveying passersby.

This presentation of the gallery’s vast and eminently impressive roster is set within fitting environs, with its own alcove and staircase. “We’re so excited to be showing at Art Basel Paris for the first time!” said Tamsen Green, the gallery’s executive director. “We appreciate how our booth highlights the unique and elegant architecture of the Grand Palais.”

Listen A, 2024
Rose B. Simpson
Jack Shainman Gallery

Arm Peace, 2024
Nick Cave
Jack Shainman Gallery

The Qing, 2024
Nina Chanel Abney
Jack Shainman Gallery

Timespace, 2014
El Anatsui
Jack Shainman Gallery

Mirrored Eyebrow Plants, 2024
Hayv Kahraman
Jack Shainman Gallery

Excellent new works abound at the booth. A painting by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye of a group at a dinner table is a charming display of the artist’s imaginative gift for depicting elusive scenes. Nina Chanel Abney’s sculpture The Qing (2024) depicts a figure balancing a vase of flowers on their foot and playfully peeks over at those below from its raised landing. And Nick Cave’s Arm Peace (2024) raises a fist in defiance from the other side of the booth, adorned in tole flowers. Along with other standout works by the likes of Hayv Kahraman, Meleko Mokgosi, and El Anatsui, this is a booth from a gallery shining a light on the strength of its program.

Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder

Booth A41

With works by Herbert Brandl, Heinrich Dunst, Helmut Federle, Bernard Frize, Katharina Grosse, Sheila Hicks, Imi Knoebel, Sonia Leimer, Isa Melsheimer, Miao Ying, Natasza Niedziółka, Walter Swennen, and Jongsuk Yoon.

Vienna stalwart Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder was the first gallery in Austria to focus on post-war avant-garde art when it opened as Galerie nächst St. Stephan in 1954. But as this booth shows, its founding commitment to art that is as intellectually stimulating as it is aesthetically engaging, is as alive as ever.

A case in point are paintings by Miao Ying—celestial, effervescent scenes that are simultaneously charming and elusive in form, made more intriguing by the artist’s process. Ying uses AI prompts to dictate the image’s form before sending these instructions to a production center in Shenzhen, tweaking and editing the result to produce the finalized image. Similar meditations on process are evident in works by artists from across the gallery’s booth, from the sculptural textiles of Sheila Hicks through to the intensely disciplined minimal abstraction of Bernard Frize.

Some of the booth’s standout works were borne as much from a practical consideration as a curatorial one—such as a bright textile piece by Isa Melsheimer, Curtain (If we dissolve now / We are more than we ever were) (2024). Melsheimer’s work—transposing a Polaroid image of a botanical garden amid bright shades of orange, red, and black—also happens to conceal the booth’s back room. “She loves to go to this botanical garden, and for her, it is like a mystical place,” noted gallery founder Schwarzwälder. “And of course, you go into the woods, and you go into the storage [area]. It’s a very nice metaphor, but also makes sense. We have a little cabinet here where you have all this intensity, but you have also a quiet moment.”

Prices for works on the booth range from $6,000–$360,000, and business was already strong early on during the VIP day for the gallery: A work by Hicks led the gallery’s ticket, selling for $360,000 to an Austrian collection.

Lia Rumma

Booth A2

With works by Enrico Castellani, Gino De Dominicis, William Kentridge, Joseph Kosuth, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Ettore Spalletti, Gian Maria Tosatti, Wael Shawky and Gilberto Zorio.

Milan gallery Lia Rumma uses its booth to create a succinct and sharp presentation that foregrounds the Arte Povera movement, currently the subject of a major survey at the Pinault Collection’s Parisian institution Bourse de Commerce.

“Lia Rumma, the gallery owner, is very much related to that exhibition, because she started her career with the Arte Povera exhibition in 1968 in Amalfi,” explained director Paola Potena. “That’s why you can see some historical works by Gilberto Zorio, who belongs to the Arte Povera movement.…It’s a kind of statement, so that the Italian artists can be seen.”

Ritratto #018, 2022
Gian Maria Tosatti
Lia Rumma

I Am Hymns of The New Temples: Pompeii glass amphora (#07), , 2023
Wael Shawky
Lia Rumma

Superficie bianca, 1983
Enrico Castellani
Lia Rumma

SENZA TITOLO (azzurro), , 2019
Ettore Spalletti
Lia Rumma

Porter Series: Carte de France Divisèe en 86 departements (Dancing Lady), ca. 2007
William Kentridge
Lia Rumma

Works from some of the major artists that both influenced and were part of the radical movement, such as Enrico Castellani and Michelangelo Pistoletto, are presented with potent examples of their oeuvres, a testament to the gallery’s rich history and thoughtful approach to presentation.

Also featured are works by contemporary artists from the African continent such as William Kentridge and Wael Shawky, the latter a standout artist of the 2024 Venice Biennale, whose brightly colored murano glass marionettes blur the line between the human and extraterrestrial.

A few hours into the fair, Potena struck a positive tone: “We have felt a high quality of visitors and collectors,” she noted.



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8 Korean Painters Pushing Feminist Art Forward https://ift.tt/4q2Rbav

All in Me, 2016
Wonsook Kim
Gallery Yeh

This edited excerpt is taken from Korean Feminist Artists: Confront and Deconstruct by Dr. Kim Hong-hee, with a contribution from Kim Hyesoon, published by Phaidon, £59.95 (Phaidon.com)

In Korean art today, women’s art and feminist art are more in the spotlight than ever before. While we cannot be sure if this is just a fad or a true feminist “reset,” a whole series of larger and smaller questions has occurred to me: what do female artists think about this phenomenon, what their visions are, how far feminist art has come, and how it is changing? Perhaps because I am someone who has been working with Korean feminist art since the early 1990s as a curator, critic, and art historian, I had long been wanting to make my own attempt to answer these questions and gain a full grasp of the current situation.

Of crucial note is that while Korean feminism outwardly shares certain aspects with global trends, it also exhibits autogenous characteristics born out of Korea’s particular context. Starting with Minjoong feminism in the 1980s, which emerged from a specific Korean political and social climate, through to the “young feminist” activities of the 1990s and 2000s, to the Net Femi of post-2010, Korea’s feminism is now making significant progress domestically with practical results, such as legalizing abortion and strengthening punishments for digital prostitution. Moreover, contemporary Korean feminism, including Net Femi, still inherits the basic tasks of previous feminism, such as the dissolution of the patriarchy, raising expectations for the future of feminist art that can develop as a series of changes rather than with disconnection. Strengthening the capacity of meaningful exchanges, mutual hospitality and feminine solidarity of the new and old generations is a task that the women artists and the feminist community should continue to pursue.

Below, we highlight eight Korean feminist painters in the book.


Jang Pa

B. 1981, South Korea. Lives and works in Seoul.

Jang Pa has been among the most prominent figures in the so-called “feminist reboot” that occurred in the wake of the #MeToo movement in the mid-to-late 2010s. In terms of her attitude, however, her painting appears to have less to do with contemporary “net feminism” and more of an essentialist quality akin to the preceding generation’s postmodern feminism.

Jang’s artistic body of work can be divided into her early period, consisting of a trilogy realized between 2009 and 2014, and her later work, as exemplified by the “Lady-X” series she began in 2015. The former focused on a narrative of cultural critique, assessing the logocentrism that represents the origin of Western civilization and a mainstay of modern subjectivity discourse. The latter examines women’s issues through questions pertaining to differences stemming from gender and sexual orientation, raising objections to patriarchally defined concepts of “femininity,” while offering psychoanalytical reinterpretations of female sexuality and eroticism.

Through her series that emphasize liquid textures, such as “Fluid Neon” (2016) and “X-Gurlesque” (2017)—“gurlesque” being a portmanteau of “girl,” “grotesque,” and “burlesque”—or the womb motif and imagery in her “Brutal Skins,” Jang’s canvases are dominated by abject bodily orifices, fetuses rebelling against the mother, incomplete bodies replaced with floating eyes, and carnivalistic, decadent female bodies.


Lee Soon Jong

B. 1953, Seoul. Lives and works in Seoul.

Rather than regarding eroticism as a sexual urge or carnal love, Lee understands it as an instinct and primal life force. As an extension of this, she views erotic art as a cultural struggle and a creative mental activity.

While hair is a symbolic signifier of female sexuality, Lee’s “Beauty” works emphasize the sensuality of hair via fine-grained techniques and exaggerated depictions that undulate across the entire picture plane, simultaneously stimulating and repressing male desire through the power of their delicacy and intensity. Lee’s aesthetic and political message of hair as a physical weapon is made clear in her series “Four Noble Men” (2001), the title of which is a reference to the “four noble plants”—plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum—that are commonly found in aristocratic literary painting tradition because of their associations with traditional virtues.

By deploying the inherently erotic medium of hair—a female weapon on par with the needle—Lee has situated her own history as a woman at the place where feminism and eroticism intersect.


Lee Eunsae

B. 1987, Seoul. Lives and works in Seoul.

Staring Woman, 2018
Lee Eunsae
Hakgojae Gallery

Lee Eunsae is a young painter, yet a mature form of painterly reflection can be discerned in her plastic language of abbreviated yet vibrant shapes, unique colors, and free-flowing brushwork.

The most common motifs in Lee’s work are mass media, anecdotes, or taboo incidents uploaded to social media; stray thoughts she has experienced or imagined; and quick impressions of people around her. The artist decontextualizes these themes through abstraction or caricature, rendering them non-realistic and informal.

Lee’s work is divided into two phases: before and after 2015. The first phase is defined by caricatures of specific incidents, while the second is distinguished by character portraits that capture everyday people in her life and, in particular, the eccentric behavior of women. A number of paintings from the earlier phase were included in the 2015 exhibition “Crack; Interference; Witness” at Gallery Chosun, Seoul. These works appear to be representing something, although it is impossible to know exactly what it is. They transmit a mystery associated with something actively happening and the circumstantial changes this produces: images of the ground collapsing, holes spontaneously forming, or a rippling water surface, as in Stone Throwing (2013). The artist paints a momentary action with the use of snapshot-like, impromptu methods.


MeeNa Park

B. 1973, Seoul. Lives and works in Seoul.

Using color rather than shapes to represent the visual impressions that she experienced in nature and cities, MeeNa Park’s “color landscape” series [created while studying in the U.S. in the 1990s] took on a pure form of abstraction. Upon returning to Korea in 2000, Park began transforming indoor settings into colored landscapes. For the monochrome abstract work Orange Painting (2002–03), she acquired all the orange that she could get her hands on and began applying the unmixed paints line by line on the canvas to form horizontal bands.

After first gaining attention with her orange paintings, Park began emerging as a new face in abstract painting with her aforementioned “dingbat painting” series. Park transformed Korean swear words, such as gaejiral (“a mean and nasty act”) or gaejasik (“son of a bitch”), into dingbat characters. The result was a variety of adorable symbols, such as people, trains, guns, and houses, that she transformed into paintings marked by winsome images and soft colors and titled with the original Korean words. As if to remind the viewer of the nature of homo ludens—the playful human being—Park’s lighthearted exploration of the dingbat’s linguistic system humanized dry, abstract concepts with humor and poetic sentiment.


Myong Hi Kim

B. 1949, Seoul. Lives and works in New York and Kangwon Province, South Korea.

Myong Hi Kim began producing allegorical portraits of women in the mid-to-late 1980s and they had already formed an important feminist strand within her work. These early portraits drew analogies between contemporary women and mythical female figures from art history. The Abduction of the Sabine Women (1986) juxtaposes a white woman in contemporary New York with one of the victims of abduction shown in the 17th-century painting by Nicolas Poussin of the same title; Running Women (1987) placed a female marathon runner next to Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s image of the nymph Daphne.

The juxtaposition-based double-painting approach that Kim utilized in her early portraits of women would be formalized into a painting-within-a-painting style in her self-portrait series from the 2000s onwards. In Preparing Kimchi (2000), she juxtaposes her self-portrait with a moving video image within a frame of a willow swaying in the wind and a quote from the “Virtuous Woman” chapter of the Oryunhaengsildo (a Korean text from 1797 containing pictures and stories of loyal subjects, filial sons, and virtuous women worthy of imitation). In the self-portraits, which are also portraits of women in general, we discover Kim the feminist: someone who dreams of female solidarity with her feelings of kinship towards the displaced girls of Central Asia.


Wonsook Kim

B. 1953, Busan. Lives and works in New York.

Notably, most of the figures appearing in Wonsook Kim’s images are either herself or women like her. They appear alone or with a man who is an object of love/hate. Kim lampoons the male/female gender hierarchy and inequality by representing the women as frail, submissive wives under the protection of an exemplary strong and adventurous male.

In Night Drive (1987), the woman naps in the back seat while the man drives along a dangerously rainy road with lightning flashes; in Under the Cliff (1993), Kim contrasts a man crossing the sheer drop of a valley over a rickety single-log bridge with a woman who is contemplating flowers beneath it. Balancing Act (1991) shows a couple walking a tightrope over a raging river with the woman balanced upside down on the man’s shoulders, giving a sense of how difficult it can be to achieve balance between a wife and husband.

Kim also summons the forgotten female heroes of Korean history and allegorizes them in the present tense with her own artistic language, including the legendary goddess Saso, Queen Seondeok, Madame Suro, and the gisaeng (Korean geisha) Hwang Jini. The artist rewrites a new history of women by depicting these “problematic” figures as pioneers, vigorous and bold, and by lauding them as liberated individuals who actively practiced love.


Jung Jungyeob

B. 1962, Gangjin, South Korea. Lives and works in Anseong, South Korea.

Jung Jungyeob of the Ipgim group is a “life feminist” who has personally witnessed and experienced the realities of women in their daily lives and their working sites. She produced woodcut portraits of the female laborers who worked with her at the industrial complex. Using woodcut as her medium since it was more transportable than oil painting, allowing for easier creation and reproduction, she created various works, such as Sewing the Blanket (1988), which shows images from the daily experiences of women who continued wearing upbeat expressions even as they went on strike and demonstrated for higher wages, and Cotton Gloves (1987), depicting these essential workwear items hanging on a wall.

Jung also presented a series entitled “First Dinner” at an exhibition of the same name, which was held in 2019 when she received the Lee Ungno Award. The centerpiece of the series was The First Dinner 2 (2019), which referenced the title and composition of Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper (1495–98). In contrast with Western counterparts that have parodied The Last Supper, such as Mary Beth Edelson’s Some Living American Women Artists (1972) or Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party (1974–79), Jung’s work uses an idiosyncratic folk flavor with an everyday quality and autobiographical elements to alleviate the weight and prestige not only of the Renaissance master, but also great women who have left their mark on “herstory.”


Na Hye-Sok

B. 1896, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. D. 1948, Seoul.

Na Hye-Sok’s attention-grabbing debut as a female artist came with her first solo exhibition in 1921, which took place at the Kyungsung Ilbo newspaper’s Naecheonggak venue. The event, which included around 70 landscape works, such as New Spring, was reportedly visited by around 5,000 people and she sold approximately 20 paintings. After that, Na would present her work at the Chosun Art Exhibition almost every year where she earned multiple prizes.

The 1930s marked Na’s downfall, as a period marred by various unsavory incidents. Divorcing her husband in 1931 after a love affair, she transformed into an unrestrained, transgressive liberal. In her essay “Divorce Confession,” originally published in Samchunri magazine in 1934, she called adultery an “emotion that should properly be present in the most progressive individuals.” She shocked her contemporaries with inflammatory statements rebelling against androcentric society, including her advocacy of a “new chastity theory” and a male and female public prostitution system. She vowed to make a comeback following the 1933 establishment of the Women’s Art Institute, but this was unsuccessful, and her painting career entered a decline, too. As if to presage the end of her heyday, her work was rejected by the 1933 Joseon Art Exhibition, and an artistic career lasting around two decades came to an end with a little-noticed solo exhibition at the Jingogae Joseongwan venue in 1935.



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Wednesday, October 16, 2024

$9.5 million Julie Mehretu painting leads Art Basel Paris opening sales. https://ift.tt/FX9GoqK

On October 16th, the 2024 edition of Art Basel Paris opened at the newly renovated Grand Palais for its first of two VIP days. At the end of the opening preview day, White Cube’s sale of Julie Mehretu’s Insile (2013) for $9.5 million led the sales.

The third edition of the fair—the first under the name Art Basel Paris, after two previous editions billed as Paris + par Art Basel—welcomed 195 galleries from 42 countries, including 53 first-time participants. Amid a crowd of excited collectors, numerous institutional curators, and directors from museums such as M+, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Tate Modern were spotted. Other notable attendees included actors Chloë Sevigny, Natalie Portman, and Owen Wilson; artist KAWS; and several members of Middle Eastern royal families, including Queen Rania of Jordan.

Here, we round up the top sales reported during the first VIP day of Art Basel Paris. Check back on Tuesday for the full sales report.


Top sales at Art Basel Paris

White Cube reported the VIP day’s headline sale with Mehretu’s Insile (2013), which sold for $9.5 million. The gallery also made two other seven-digit sales: Howardena Pindell’s Untitled (1975), which sold for $1.75 million, and Lucio Fontana’s Concetto spaziale, Attese (1964–65), which sold for €1.3 million ($1.44 million). Other reported sales included:

  • David Hammons’s Untitled (Body Print) (ca. 1974) sold for $750,000.
  • Josef Albers’s Study for Homage to the Square: Terraced (1954–56) sold for €570,000 ($618,990).
  • Antony Gormley’s STRAIN III (2023) sold for £500,000 ($649,230).
  • Etel Adnan’s Untitled (2016) sold for $300,000.
  • Three editions of Tracey Emin’s Ascension (2024) sold for £245,000 ($318,000) each.
  • Christine Ay Tjoe’s The Model of Plasma Species (2024) sold for $190,000.
  • Marina Rheingantz’s Pink Panther (2024) sold for $160,000.
  • Mona Hatoum’s Basket V (2024) sold for £110,000 ($142,700).
  • Julie Curtiss’s Whisperers (2024) sold for $90,000.
  • Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’s Deep Dive (2024) sold for $85,000.
  • Alia Ahmad’s Finood 2 / فنود | Branches of a tree 2 (2024) sold for $70,000.
  • Isamu Noguchi’s Nature is the true art (1966) sold for $28,000.
  • Salvador Dalí’s Croquis d’homme (ca.1942) sold for €15,000 ($16,288)

A week after leading sales at VIP day of Frieze London, Hauser & Wirth secured several seven-digit sales. These were led by Mark Bradford’s Not Quite in a Hurry (2024), which sold for $3.5 million. Other sales include:

  • Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Numero Noir #2 (2021) sold for $2.2 million.
  • Louise Bourgeois’s La Forêt Enchantée (Up and Up!) (2006) sold for $2 million.
  • Ed Clark’s Red, Blue, & Black (Paris Series #4) (1989) sold for $950,000.
  • Avery Singer’s Gigabyte (2024) sold for $800,000.
  • George Condo’s Abstract Figure in Space 1 (2024) sold for $600,000.
  • Jeffrey Gibson’s I will continue to change (2024) sold for $500,000, and Your spirit whispering in my ear (2024) sold for $400,000.
  • Jenny Holzer’s inclined (2024) sold for $400,000.
  • Nairy Baghramian’s S’éloignant (2023) sold for €180,000 ($193,400).
  • Thomas J Price’s Time Unfolding (2024) sold for £135,000 ($175,000).
  • Sonia Boyce’s Circular Plait with Multi-Coloured Hair Clips (1993–2024) sold for £30,000 ($38,950).

Kukje Gallery’s reported sales were led by Lee Ufan’s Response (2022), which sold for a price in the range of $900,000 to $1.8 million. Additional sales are as follows:

  • Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 22-87 (2022) sold for a price in the range of $230,000–$276,000.
  • Jean-Michel Othoniel’s Sauvage (Wild Knot) (2024) sold for a price in the range of €110,000–€132,000 ($119,440–$143,330).
  • Kyungah Ham’s Phantom and A Map / Poetry 01WBS01V1 (2018–24) sold for a price in the range of $75,000–$90,000.
  • Lee Kwang-Ho’s Untitled 4819-11 (2023) sold for a price in the range of $11,000–$14,000.

New York–based gallery Karma reported selling Jonas Wood’s Momo, Kiki, and Me in Mungo’s Time Mirror (2024) for $1.6 million. Other reported sales include:

The top sale at David Zwirner’s booth was Victor Man’s K (2014), which sold for €1.2 million ($1.3 million). Additional sales include:

Xavier Hufkens’s sales were spearheaded by Alice Neel’s Irma Seitz (1963), which sold for $1.2 million. The gallery sold out editions of works by Mark Manders and Thomas Houseago for €120,000 ($130,000) and $250,000 apiece, respectively. Other sales include:

  • Joan Semmel’s Turning (2012) sold for $225,000.
  • Qiu Xiaofei’s An Ancient Evening Just Before the Fall (from David Sylvian) (2024) sold for $190,000.
  • Thierry De Cordier’s Autoportrait (en mots) (1985, 2019–24), sold for €160,000 ($177,600).
  • McArthur Binion’s Sketch (Looking for Grey):For: Three Movements of Sunlight (2014) sold for $140,000.
  • Willem de Kooning’s Untitled (1965–80) sold for $45,000.


More reported sales at Art Basel Paris 2024

Mennour sold Lee Ufan’s Response (2024) for $900,000. This sale was accompanied by several six-digit sales, including Domenico Gnoli’s Neapolitan Bed (1960), which sold for €290,000 ($314,880), and Ugo Rondinone’s The Jolly (2018), which sold for €220,000 ($238,800). Other sales include:

  • Ryan Gander’s A Biography (They will only encourage you to perform the script) (2024) sold for £185,000 ($240,000).
  • Bertrand Lavier’s Boulevard Haussmann, N°3 (2013) sold for €130,000 ($141,100).
  • Sidival Fila’s Senza Titolo Lino Antico 13 (2024) sold for €120,000 ($130,300).
  • Camille Henrot’s Sagacious and Saggy (Sagesse) (2024) sold for €95,000 ($103,500).
  • Dhewadi Hadjab’s Untitled (2024) sold for €90,000 ($97,000).

Lisson Gallery ended VIP day with Olga de Amaral’s Viento Oro (2014) as its leading sale. The work sold for $800,000 to a private collection in the U.S. The gallery sold two additional works by de Amaral, including Nudo 23 (plata 5) (2014) for $400,000 and Lienzo 29 (2001) for $350,000. Other sales include:

  • Carmen Herrera’s Untitled (Habana Series) (1950) sold for $380,000 to a private collection in the U.S.
  • Jack Pierson’s SILENCE (2023) sold for $150,000.
  • Hugh Hayden’s Fusion (2024) sold for $120,000 to a private collection in the U.S.
  • Li Ran’s There Is A Degenerate In Bed (2024) sold for $56,000 to a private collection in South Korea.
  • Kelly Akashi’s Cultivator (Regeneration) (2024) sold for $55,000.
  • Pedro Reyes’s Azomalli (2024) sold for $50,000.
  • Van Hanos’s Y (2024) sold for $45,000.
  • Otobong Nkanga’s Two States (2024) sold for €15,000($16,200).

Sprüth Magers’s first-day Art Basel Paris sales were led by Rosemarie Trockel’s Untitled (2000), which sold for €600,000 ($651,000). The gallery also reported selling an edition of Jenny Holzer’s Truisms: DO NOT PLACE TOO MUCH TRUST IN EXPERTS (2013–22), from “Truisms” (1977–79) for $400,000. Other sales include:

  • John Baldessari’s Two Basketballs (Balanced) (1990) sold for $375,000.
  • Salvo’s Una sera (1990) sold for $220,000.
  • Mire Lee’s Untitled (burlap body piece with many holes) V (2024) sold for €25,000 ($27,100).
  • Oliver Bak’s Satyr (2024) sold for €15,000 ($16,200).

By the end of VIP day, David Kordansky Gallery reported several significant sales from its group presentation. These were led by Jennifer Guidi’s A Fleeting Dance of Day and Night (2024), which sold for $450,000. This sale was accompanied by several other six-digit sales, including:

  • Lucy Bull’s 15:27 (2024) sold for a price in the range of $170,000–$220,000.
  • Shara Hughes’s Wide Net (2024) sold for a price in the range of $150,000–$200,000.
  • Joel Mesler’s Untitled (Night Life) (2024) sold for $155,000.
  • Chico da Silva’s Untitled (1967) sold for $125,000.
  • Huma Bhabha’s Untitled (2024) sold for a price in the range of $50,000–$80,000.
  • Maia Cruz Palileo’s Earth to Limbs to Hair to Split (2024) sold for $68,000.

MASSIMODECARLO’s VIP sales were also led by a painting by Jennifer Guidi, Kaleidoscope Array (2024), which sold for $400,000. Other sales include:

  • Yan Pei-Ming’s Virginia Woolf (2024) sold for €300,000 ($325,700).
  • Maurizio Cattelan’s A Perfect Day (1999) sold for €250,000 ($271,400).
  • Etel Adnan’s Untitled (2018) sold for €220,000 ($238,800).
  • Tomoo Gokita’s Queen of Witches (2021) sold for €120,000 ($130,000). Entrance to Hell (2024) sold for €35,000 ($38,000).
  • Elmgreen & Dragset’s Il Cielo Sopra Firenze (2024) sold for €115,000 ($124,800).
  • Alvaro Barrington’s Paul Klee’s Garden with a Rose, September 2024 (2024) sold for $95,000.
  • France-Lise McGurn’s Soulblade sold for £80,000 ($103,000). Welcome Disorder and Feather Lite (all 2024) sold for £45,000 ($58,400) each.
  • Jean-Marie Appriou’s Fantastic Garlands (2022) sold for €60,000 ($65,000). Cosmic Clock (Big Bang), Cosmic Clock (gravity),Cosmic Clock (quasar), and Cosmic Clock (worm hole) (all 2024) sold for €15,000 ($16,200) each.
  • Lenz Geerk’s Hiker (2024) sold for $60,000.
  • Lily Stockman’s Pale Yellow Shade and TBT (both 2024) sold for $60,000 each.
  • Dominique Fung’s A Horse isn’t always a Horse (2024) sold for $36,000.
  • Skyler Chen’s See and be Seen (2024) sold for €35,000 ($38,000).
  • Thomas Grünfeld’s Gummi (1999) sold for €15,000 ($16,200).

Headlining Jessica Silverman’s VIP sales were two paintings by Loie Hollowell, Around the clock in the flesh red and purple and Around the clock in flesh yellow and orange (both 2024), which sold for $170,000 each. Additional sales include:

  • Judy Chicago’s Childhood’s End #1 (1972) sold for $90,000. Additionally, Potent Pussy / Homage to Lamont 1, Potent Pussy / Homage to Lamont 2, and Potent Pussy / Homage to Lamont 3 (all 1973) each sold for a price in the range of $25,000–$45,000.
  • Woody De Othello’s Greener green, still blue sold for $75,000. Meanwhile, Thirds and fifths sold for $30,000, and Seasonschange Seasonsgrow (all 2024) sold for $20,000.
  • Clare Rojas’s Bathing in the Misty Rainbow sold for $68,000. Rojas’s Red Wing Black Lightning, Hydrangea, The Still Ones, Open Arm Embrace, and Hiding Spot for Spiders (all 2024) each sold for a price in the range of $14,000–$16,000.
  • Hayal Pozanti’s Heart’s Fragrance (2024) sold for $65,000.
  • Julie Buffalohead’s The Ash Harvest (2024) sold for $55,000.
  • Masako Miki’s Persevering Daruma Doll (Blue and Brown) sold for $46,000, Prayer Beads and Flying Hands Spreading Empathy sold for $36,000, and Grandpa’s Lacquer Bowls and Fox Conspire Under Dusk Sky (all 2024) sold for $18,000.
  • Margo Wolowiec’s The Light of the Sun (2024) sold for $40,000.
  • A 2023 work by Rupy C. Tut was acquired for $35,000.
  • Two hand-poured resin works by Beverly Fishman sold for $7,500 each.


Other sales at Art Basel Paris

  • Almine Rech reported selling a unique ceramic by Pablo Picasso for a price in the range of $600,000–$700,000. The gallery sold one sculpture by Claire Tabouret for a price in the range of $95,000–$100,000, as well as a painting by the artist for a price in the range of $70,000–$75,000, and two additional paintings for a price in the range of $60,000–$65,000 each. Additionally, one painting by Zio Ziegler sold for a price in the range of $60,000–$65,000, a painting by Sasha Ferré sold for a price in the range of €35,000–€40,000 ($38,000–$43,000), and a painting by Jameson Green sold for a price in the range of $15,000–$20,000.
  • Cardi Gallery reported selling two untitled Jannis Kounellis paintings from 1994 for €600,000 ($651,000) each.
  • GALLERIA CONTINUA sold Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Buco Nero (2010) for a price in the range of €200,000–€600,000 ($217,000–$651,500), Adel Abdessemed’s Nature Morte (2023–24) for €190,000 ($206,000), Pascale Marthine Tayou’s Colorful stones (2024) for €90,000 ($97,000)), and Eva Jospin Rocaille (2024) for €75,000 ($81,400).
  • Paula Cooper Gallery reported selling Rudolf Stingel’s Untitled (1995) for $450,000 to an American collector, Claes Oldenburg’s Fagend Study (1968) for $150,000 to a European collector, and Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s Maquette of the Giant Switches in the Lobbies of the CBS Building (1978) for $200,000.
  • Casey Kaplan sold Igshaan Adams’s Manon-Lee, Georgia (2023) for $95,000, Amanda Williams’s What Black Is This You Say?— ‘I learned the word monsoon from LL Cool J’ —black (06.09.20) v1 (2024) for $50,000, and Johanna Unzueta’s Nel pomeriggio non ci serà la luna (2024) for $45,000.
  • Lehmann Maupin reported selling Billy Childish’s western moon set (2024) to a collector in New York City for a price in the range of $50,000–$100,000. The gallery also sold Arcmanoro Niles’s I Am Happier with Nothing (Will I Find the Time I Lost) (2024) for a price in the range of $50,000–$70,000 and two editions of Alex Prager’s Twilight (2021) for a price in the range of $35,000–$55,000 each.
  • Pace Gallery reported selling Louise Nevelson’s Untitled (1968–72) for $750,000 and Paulina Olowska’s Laura with Wolves (2024) for $250,000.
  • Perrotin sold Hernan Bas’s Can you hear my teeth cracking? (2024) for $350,000, Emma Webster’s Prufrock (2024) for a price in the range of $160,000–$170,000, two works by Lee Bae Brushstroke-A44 (2024) and Brushstroke J-2 (2023) each sold for a price in the range of $120,000–$150,000, and Cristina BanBan’s Baby Doll (2024) for $115,000.
  • Templon sold Chiharu Shiota’s State of Being (Children's Chair) (2024) for €120,000 ($130,200). Two works by Hans Op de Beeck sold for a price in the range of €35,000–€80,000 ($38,000–$86,860). Alioune Diagne’s Senegalese delivery man on 5th avenue - Tiak Tiak ba Yuzba (2024) sold for €65,000 ($70,000), two works by Abdelkader Benchamma sold for a price in the range of €23,000–€35,000 ($24,980–$38,000), and two works by Prune Nourry sold for €32,000 ($34,700).
  • Michael Werner Gallery reported selling Meret Oppenheim’s Anatomie d’une femme morte (1934) for $1.5 million and Per Kirkeby’s Untitled (2013) for $450,000.


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The 10 Best Booths at Art Basel Paris 2024 https://ift.tt/GLctJVm

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