Highlights from Art Basel 2021

At its 2021 edition, the Art Basel fair opened its physical doors once again at the Messe Basel from 24 – 26 September.
Traditionally planned for June, but postponed due to the ongoing pandemic, this was the first major in-person international art fair to be held in Europe since March 2020.

A paramount to the art world, the event which was founded in 1970 by Basel gallerists Ernst Beyeler, Trudl Bruckner and Balz Hilt, today stages art shows for Modern and contemporary art, sited in Basel, Miami Beach and Hong Kong.
Each show is unique and that is reflected in its participating galleries, showcased artworks, collaboration with local institutions for each edition, and the content of parallel programming which this year includes an online initiative ‘’Art Basel Live’’, a hybrid platform blending the fair’s physical and digital elements to engage with a broad international audience, or with the missing wealthy collectors from America and Asia which couldn’t take the risk to travel.
Beyond being an established marketplace, where top dealers offer museum-quality pieces, Art Basel has become a cultural incubator, a magnet for celebrities, and a seedbed for lush parties with the most radical events in the history of contemporary art.

From a line-up of 272 new and returning exhibitors from across the globe, 24 galleries like Galerie Jérôme Poggi from Paris, New York-based Kasmin Gallery, LambdaLambdaLambda from Pristina or Lars Friedrich Gallery in Berlin, are participating for the very first time.

In addition to showcasing works across all media, from historical masterpieces to emerging artist in the Galleries sectors: Feature, Statements and Edition, the Basel show returns with captivating presentations across its special sectors – Unlimited, curated by Giovanni Carmine, director of the Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen featuring 62 large-scale projects that transcend the traditional art fair stands by renowned and emerging artists including Urs Fischer, Etel Adnan, Frank Bowling, VALIE EXPORT, Marion Baruch, David Hockney, Kris Lemsalu, Elmgreen & Dragset and Ryoji Ikeda; Parcours, curated by Samuel Leuenberger  showcasing 20 site-specific works throughout the city of Basel, Responding to the theme, ‘’Can We Find Happiness Together Again?’’, works include 12 large-scale paintings and performances by Claudia Comte at the Stadtcasino, and a public walk by Hamish Fulton titled ‘’Walking in Every Direction’’ on Basel’s Marktplatz; Film, curated by Filipa Ramos and Marian Masone ; and Conversations, programmed in collaboration with Berlin-based artist Julieta Aranda – while the city’s Messeplatz will present two performative interventions by artists Monster Chetwynd and Cecilia Bengolea. 

The Scandinavian artist duo Elmgreen & Dragset installation ‘’The Outsiders’’ (2020) part of Art Basel’s Unlimited, was the first  work to be shown outdoors from the art fair’s section. Incorporating a vintage Mercedes Benz estate car from 1982 and two half-naked sleeping art handlers who have driven from Moscow to Basel, this piece aims to draw attention to the hard work of people who make these fairs run.

Besides the art fair, Basel is home to 37 museums, and most of the leading art intuitions are hosting major exhibitions during Art Basel: At Fondation Beyeler, a group exhibition called ‘’Close-up’’ showcases the work of prominent  women artists from 1870 to the present day. Focusing on depictions of the human figure, featured artists include Berthe Morisot, Cindy Sherman, Marlene Dumas and Elizabeth Peyton.

Museum Tinguely celebrated its 25th anniversary with a series of workshops, exhibitions, performances, DJs sets and concert, Kunsthaus Baselland presented a first institutional exhibition in Switzerland of the Italian-born Brazilian artist, Anna Maria Maiolino, Kunsthalle Basel’s highlight is the group show titled “INFORMATION (Today)”, including artists like Marguerite Humeau, Gabriel Kuri or Nora Turato, Kunstmuseum Basel revealed world-famous American artist, Kara Walker’s personal archive that she has closely guarded for the past twenty eight years, Vitra Design Museum celebrates women who have had a crucial contribution to the development of modern design with an exhibition titled “Here We Are! Women in Design 1900 – Today”, while Historisches Museum Basel was part of Art Basel Parcours this year.

For the first in person Art Basel since the pandemic, given the fact that we all got used to the new normal, not so much has changed besides wearing face-masks, COVID-19 certificates and digital entry tickets. The effort shown by each gallery in curating their individual booth space was a joy for the eye and often a surprise at every turn. There was a wide-range of art to take in, from old masters to today’s artists, and so many works caught my eye or made me stop to look at:

On the ground floor works like Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1983 painting, Hardware Store at Van de Weghe Gallery from New York caught my attention. Worth about 40 million dollars, it was apparently one of the most expensive of all at the fair.

Galerie 1900-2000 devoted primarily to Surrealism, while continuing to champion the art of the 20th Century and the emerging art of the 21st Century presented among other works a poetic object by Marcel Broodthaers.

 Inspired by the collective American imagination, Tom Sachs’s Prada Double Cheeseburger 1999, at Acquavella Galleries captured my interest. The American artist repurposes consumer goods, borrowing his subjects from among the status symbols of mass culture and consumerism. He fabricates new versions of them with the representations of wealth associated with contemporary society.

Kamel Mennour gallery, representing over 40 artists showed at the fair various works by Daniel Buren, Petrit Halilaj, Camille Henrot, Anish Kapoor, Tadashi Kawamata, Alicja Kwade, Ugo Rondinone, Lee Ufan, alongside historic works by Günther Forg, Yves Klein, Louise Nevelson, Gina Pane, Andy Warhol and Zao Wou-Ki, among others.

The gallery was part of Art Basel Unlimited with a project by Tadashi Kawamata comprising immersive wall-sized panels from his Destruction series.

Tornabuoni Art presented a solo booth by one of the precursors of minimalism, Enrico Castellani. The Works created between 1958 and 1968, were not necessarily for sale, but served more as a statement, explained the gallery dealer.

David Zwirner Gallery booth included works by Josef Albers, Diane Arbus, Lucas Arruda, William Eggleston, Liu Ye, Kerry James Marshall, Oscar Murillo, Bruce Nauman, Alice Neel, Sigmar Polke, and Wolfgang Tillmans, among others.
Also a work by Dan Flavin was presented in Art Basel’s Unlimited section.

Moving on to the 1st floor one could walk across Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, featuring new and iconic works by Tauba Auerbach, Judy Chicago, Cady Noland, Karon Davis and Kara Walker, one of the most prominent artists working in America today, among others.

The neighbouring booth, Galerie Perrotin declared: “Art Basel 2021 started spectacularly for us. We sold important works by Maurizio Cattelan — included in this exhibition Smoke, which took place across three gallery booths: MASSIMODECARLO, Marian Goodman Gallery, and Perrotin, as well as works by Claire Tabouret, Hernan Bas, Tavares Strachan, Gregor Hildebrandt, Daniel Arsham, Elmgreen and Dragset, Klara Kristalova, Izumi Kato, Otani Workshop, and Jean-Michel Othoniel, amongst others.”

The Berlin based KOW Gallery displayed Anna Boghiguian’s work, an Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian origin. Her practice is often referencing the relation between ancient history and contemporary transformation of Egypt, as well as her Armenian heritage. Boghiguian translates her nomadic experiences into colorful, free standing cutouts which weave together motley images.

On the same floor other Berlin based galleries, such as carlier | gebauer, Wentrup or Galerie Neu returned to business as usual.

The Roman gallery, Magazzino prepared a special project Italian Influences, conceived specifically for Art Basel 2021, aimed to present a non-linear history of tendencies and influences in over a century of Italian and international arts. Starting from the historical avant-garde, throughout its Postwar reformulation and exploring a series of look-backs by contemporary artists, including: Giacomo Balla, Massimo Bartolini, Elisabetta Benassi, Alighiero Boetti, Enrico Castellani, Mircea Cantor, Francesca Leone, Piero Manzoni, Cabrita, Alessandro Piangiamore, Daniele Puppi, Vedovamazzei, Ettore Spalletti, Mario Schifano, Namsal Siedlecki.

Part of the Future galleries section I was pleased to discover the gallery P420, representing for the very first time, Ana Lupaș (b. 1940), artist from Cluj, Transylvania. Her conceptual approach has strongly influenced a whole generation of Romanian artists, with a clearly avant-garde approach, she developed performative and conceptual practices, some ephemeral, direct interventions, mainly in nature. Created towards the end of the 1980s, during the dark period of communism in Romania, the Coats to borrow work provides a variety of messages by following the major themes of Ana Lupaș’s work – identity, the collaborative component of the creative process and the social therapy design of her works.

Last but not least in the Future section, Ellen de Bruijne Projects showcased works by Pauline Curnier Jardin, a Berlin-based artist working across installation, performance, film, and drawing, winner of the 2019 Preis der Nationalgalerie.