Sunday, July 14, 2013

Art attains an added glamour quotient

True glitz and glamour associated with today’s top-end art milieu descended on Basel in Switzerland. A slew of private jets happened to line up at the airport; leading hedge fund honchos conducted business under giant uvulas as part of the event, invariably bringing the best of international art. Art Basel undoubtedly, is among the most important and largest art fairs across the globe, with art worth almost $2 billion estimated to be on sale, making it a perfect window to peep into the market.

As lively and large as ever, with over 300 galleries showing from 39 nations, Art Basel drew several big-money investors, renowned museum directors and art aficionados including New York financiers Leon Black and Donald B. Marron; Roman A. Abramovich, the Russian oligarch; collectors Donald and Mera Rubell; Richard Armstrong of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; president of the Paris –based Pompidou Center, Alain Seban; and the director of the London Tate, Nicholas Serota. 

An elaborate New York Times news report quoted as gallerist as saying that collectors are looking these days for artists with strong museum and curatorial support. An experienced art adviser from NY quipped galleries bring ‘what they know the market wants’.

The report stated: “The cavernous convention center that houses the fair has booth after booth filled with blue-chip masters like Warhol, Picasso, Bacon and Calder, or artists who have been the subject of recent museum exhibitions or are featured at the Venice Biennale. There are also examples of works similar to those that brought enormous prices at the May auctions in New York. Just weeks after the buoyant May auctions, collectors still appear to have money to spend.” Art Basel again demonstrated this year a resounding emergence of art among the most lucrative and visible exemplars of some major economic trends.

Even during a phase when financial instability prevails, joblessness persists and stock markets struggle, the art market today is booming, observes Katherine Boyle in the Washington Post. In backdrop of another successful showcase, the writer underlines trends that denote exactly what’s happening to wealth as well as consumption among those perched right at the pinnacle of global wealth creation.

No comments:

Post a Comment