Dealers said sales among the 250 international exhibitors last week ranged from poor for many big-ticket works to strong for younger artists. Attendance was down to 40,000 from 43,000 last year, but the serious collectors soldiered on: Billionaire Eli Broad, hip-hop artist Jay-Z and philanthropist Agnes Gund were among those making the rounds.
Eli Broad, Jay-Z Tour Slower Miami Art Fair, Collectors Haggle (Bloomberg)
On the second full day of Art Basel Miami Beach, exhibitors, collectors, art advisors, and general tire kickers received a clearer picture of a re-calibrated art market that shows a surprisingly steady and solid beat. "It's so much better for me," said New York real-estate developer Hadley Martin Fisher. "I don't have to make a split-second decision; now you have a day to decide as a collector."
A Surprisingly Steady and Solid Beat at Art Basel's Day Two (ARTINFO)
But at the top level, sales are still made whatever the economic situation -- at least enough to cover costs. As the daily art-fair edition of the Art Newspaper put it, aptly if without tabloid verve: "Loyal buyers secure a positive start." Throughout the sprawling fair, dealers speak of lowered expectations with resignation but without panic. They note moderate sales. "We're pleased," they say. It's a clear testimony to the power and status of ABMB, the best art fair in the U.S.
CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS? (Artnet)
"It's over," proclaims a skull-like grinning face formed of burnt paper, tattered dollar bills, flies, maggots and lottery tickets on view this week at America's top contemporary art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach. The work, by the young Canadian Aurel Schmidt, priced at $8,000 with Deitch, spelt out what many feared as the event opened its doors to VIPs at the private view on Wednesday - that the art party was truly over.
Strong voting for the art party (Financial Times)
Despite the gloomy global economic conditions, things seemed, rather improbably, to be chugging along over at the Scope fair and its new sister event, Art Asia. The 96 dealers in Scope, whose booths can run to $60-70,000, are in a new tent location this year among the cluster of fairs in the Midtown area, after moving from last year's spot in the Roberto Clemente Park in Wynwood. Sales were reported throughout the fair.
Confidence at Scope, Chutzpah at Art Asia (ARTINFO)
San Diego collector Julie Schrager, a newcomer to Art Basel Miami Beach making the rounds of the satellite fairs on Thursday, remarked at the "different feel" of Aqua Wynwood after a spin through Pulse. "That just seemed so raw, and this seems a little more refined," she said, admiring the high ceilings, permanent walls (enabled by a long-term lease on the facility), and mix of exhibitors.
Slow and Steady Keeps Aqua Afloat
Pulse was having its biggest and strongest show ever, according to Allen, and the vernissage on Tuesday night "had all the right people." By which she means people like Arnold Lehman, the director of the Brooklyn Museum; Laura Skoler, a collector from New York and vice president of the New Museum's board of trustees; and collectors Raúl de Molina and Lily Estefan, John and Julie Thornton, Tony Goldman, and Jean Pigozzi.
Pulse Quickens on Day Two (ARTINFO)
At the fair, it all comes down to place. Contra Dave Hickey's recent claims in Vanity Fair, an art fair is not so much about diminishing its participants outright as it is about putting them in their place. It may not be the right place, it certainly might not be the place one wants, but everyone--collectors, dealers, artists, press--has a position, and those that find order comforting might take comfort in that.
Fair Enough (ArtForum)
Coming close on the heels of the major New York auctions of Impressionist/modern and postwar/contemporary art, Art Basel Miami Beach is one place to look for the effects of these sales, where some masterpieces brought spectacular sums but many works went for fire-sale rates. Some market observers have predicted that dealers will be making price changes and other adjustments in response to the disappointing auctions, where prices in many cases returned to 2006 levels.
The Block and the Booth (ARTINFO)
Actress Faye Dunaway, surrounded by a pack of photographers, posed yesterday at Art Basel Miami Beach, part of a weeklong art fair that even a brutal recession can't kill. As Dunaway, in tight pants and high-heeled boots, played the sex kitten for the flashing cameras, big-money art collectors strolled the Miami Beach Convention Center, air kissing and relishing the slower pace and reduced prices of the new buyer's market in modern and contemporary art.
Miami Art Fair Sports Slower Pace, Lower Prices, Careful Buyers (Bloomberg)
"I look at this downturn as opportunity time," said seasoned Miami collector Norman Braman. "I've had works of art that have been offered to me that are very exciting, but no one knows how serious the downturn is. As I told one dealer, 'The problem is, I don't know what the bottom is, so I don't know what's reasonable.'" And make no mistake, it's not just the atmosphere and prices that have changed.
A Kinder, Gentler Art Basel (ARTINFO)
For its 19th edition, Art Miami, the city's oldest art fair, is sporting a grand facelift and embracing the latest art forms, all the while retaining its signature accessibility. On the evening of December 2, the fair welcomed loyal locals and visiting collectors into the six connected tents that form its sprawling new structure, which, at 125,000 square feet, is the largest of the Art Basel Miami Beach satellite fairs; several of the others are clustered around it on the grounds of the mixed-use development dubbed Midtown Miami.
New Space, New Focus at Art Miami (ARTINFO)
Amid speculation about its financial health, Art Basel Miami Beach has announced that its main sponsor, Swiss investment bank UBS, has signed up for a multi-year renewal of its patronage. Fair organizers also announced that they have booked another three years at the Miami Beach Convention Center. It had been rumored that they might leave the venue for one in Los Angeles.
Art Basel Miami Beach Renews its Ties (ARTINFO)
Still, even a subdued start to Art Basel offers sequins and spectacle. Last night, private-plane giant NetJets saluted Alex Katz at the Raleigh with dancers carrying fire batons; Swiss bank UBS offered a gyrating brunette in a feather headdress and G-string at the Delano; Takashi Murakami, in a giant flower-ball costume, was the hit of the Raleigh, though a group of class-conscious fashionistas protested as he and Simon de Pury were led to the front of the long line for the elevator to the penthouse.
Art Basel Miami Kicks Off Cautiously, Optimistically (The New York Times Magazine)
From December 4 through 7, 2008, Miami Beach, Florida, USA, will host the seventh edition of Art Basel Miami Beach the celebrated international art show. More than 250 leading galleries from the USA, Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Asia will be taking part. Chosen by the Art Basel Miami Beach Selection Committee from over 800 applicants, the galleries - which include 25 new participants - will be showing works by more than 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Most Important Art Fair in the US - Seventh Annual Art Basel Miami ... (Art Daily)
Although the crowds weren't huge at GEISAI Miami during the V.I.P. vernissage on Tuesday night, the excitement was palpable for the 21 artists who were selected to show off their work. Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki studios served as the sponsor, while the panel of jurors included Matthew Higgs, the director and curator of White Columns in New York; Bonnie Clearwater, the director of the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
Art Basel Miami | Homegrown Talents (The New York Times)
When the seventh annual Art Basel Miami Beach opens Thursday, AXA Art Insurance Corp. will host tours, dinners and a $25,000 artist award with the upbeat theme "The Thrill of Collecting" -- in the same week U.S. officials announced that the country entered a recession last December. The fair's main sponsor, Swiss bank UBS AG, has recorded about $50 billion in writedowns and losses.
Glitz Meets Grim as Miami Basel Fair Opens in Pallid Art Market
This year, Art Miami is facing several challenges. Like ABMB and many of its other satellites, Art Miami is dealing with a loss of participants, with -- not surprisingly -- the highest dropout tally coming from Europe. New director Nick Korniloff admits that many exhibitors are gone and may not be replaced, but insists nonetheless that the fair "will probably have 100 galleries exhibiting."
Art Miami Feeling Lucky (ARTINFO)
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