The 2023 Art Basel event came to a successful end on Sunday, with 82,000 visitors over the course of seven days, a long list of reported sales, and positive conversation among dealers and collectors.
In addition to the art fair itself, Art Basel is accompanied by a vast array of events, including dinners, openings, performances, parties, and dinners, as well as other art fairs like Liste, Volta, June, Basel Social Club, and Design Miami/Basel. Artsy asked five collectors to share their thoughts on the week’s events because it’s enough to confuse even the most experienced art world navigator.
Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, founder and president of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, has attended every Art Basel since I began collecting in 1992. It has consistently demonstrated that it is a fair of the highest quality year after year: a truly unforgettable event for collectors worldwide.
Both on the ground floor, where you can immerse yourself in the presentations by modern and contemporary art galleries, and the excellent and dynamic galleries located upstairs, this year’s edition was once again insightful and interesting. I bought pieces from both floors. This year’s fair featured a lot of painting, and Art Basel Unlimited, the section of the fair that is all about large-scale installations, was handled well, giving viewers a look at time-based media.
I enjoyed the Statements section, which always featured intriguing new work from upcoming artists from all over the world. Parcours, with its 24 works scattered throughout the city, was truly fascinating to me because I enjoy producing and commissioning site-specific works, including for outdoor spaces like our Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Art Park.
The museums showed wonderful projects, like the solo exhibition by Doris Salcedo at the Fondation Beyeler and “Dream Machines” by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller at the Museum Tinguely. In addition, it was amazing to witness the reopening of the Fondation Laurenz Schaulager’s spaces for the first time. Compared to previous editions, Basel is illuminated by a greater number of events and celebrations during the fair, which gives the entire city a new lease on life.
Chris Vroom
Prime supporter of Valence and Artadia
While the quantity of workmanship fairs all over the planet has developed altogether throughout recent years, Craftsmanship Basel stands separated for me not just for the degree of connoisseurship underway visible, yet in addition for the criticality of the crowd. Of course, there is a commercial goal, but there is also a stronger and implicit recognition of the significance of art to the world. I am able to learn something at every turn due to the seriousness of the situation.
The entire arc of artistic excellence is brought together by Basel writ large, which includes the fairs and institutions, events, conversations, and interactions with friends and colleagues; from the new talent at Liste Fair to the wonderful early Joan Mitchell picture I saw for the first time at Pace Gallery.
My favorites would be many of the amazing installations at Unlimited, including Evening (1994), Stan Douglas’s early riff on “fake news” that reconstructs newscasts on fictional television stations. Other highlights in the sector included monumental paintings by Thomas Scheibitz and Christian Marclay, as well as works by Artadia artist Mika Tajima.
Doris Salcedo has always been a favorite of mine. Her show at the Fondation Beyeler was exceptional, and her artist talk was one of the best ever. White Cube also included a piece from her “Tabula Rasa” series in the exhibition. I enjoy discovering new galleries and admire mother’s tankstation in Dublin, which featured the exquisite works of Prudence Flint. The overall normalization that has taken place since COVID makes it all the more satisfying to get back in touch with the things and people you love. This was clearly on display.
Giovanni Scarzella, co-founder of The Scarzella Collection, holds beautiful surprises and classic confirmations like every year. We were eager to see the solo show that was devoted to Doris Salcedo and the epic exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Fondation Beyeler, which left us breathless.
We thought that the Basel Social Club, which was held in a really cool industrial space with an absolutely perfect setting, was the most unexpected of the events that took place in the city. Some artists are already in our collection, we discovered: Daniele Milvio’s ceramics, Mandla Reuter’s inflatable, and Olivia Sterling’s painting are among the most admired pieces.
Also, Liste Fair is always exciting, especially for the conceptual cues like the talking sofa from Clima by Valerio Nicolai; the works of Ukrainian artist Daniil Galkin, which are on display at the Voloshyn Gallery; and Tarek Lakhrissi’s sculptures from Galerie Allen.
I would like to highlight the magnificent STRIP-TOWER (2023) by Gerhard Richter, an artist who, despite being 91 years old, still manages to inspire, as part of the must-see Unlimited section of Art Basel.
The main fair is always huge, and there are many amazing works for everyone. A stunning snow painting by Friedrich Kunath from Blum & Poe, in particular, captured ours; Alfonso Gonzales Jr.’s painting at Jeffrey Deitch; and a delicate work by Merlin James that Sikkema Jenkins & Co. displayed. As always, negotiations to expand the collection are underway!
Given the current state of the global market and economy, Evan Chow, deputy chairman of the Hong Kong Arts Centre and board member of the New Museum in New York, is pleased with this year’s attendance at Art Basel. The geographical diversity of the exhibitor lineup in this edition, which also spiced up the presentation, I believe, contributed to this.
I’m thrilled to see familiar faces from galleries and collectors all over the world, especially from Asia, at Basel as a Hong Kong-based collector.
The market for new talents is still expanding, but there is still a strong demand for works by established masters. There are a few works at the fair that are deeply reflective and elicit thoughts about memories and emotions in the midst of the commotion.
During Art Basel, British artist Sholto Blissett from Peres Projects ponders the relationship between humans and nature through his Thoreauvian paintings, while Ethiopian artist Merikokeb Berhanu from Addis Gallery conjures up a realm of otherworldly transcendence with her celestial shapes and organic forms.
I’m looking forward to the next Art Basel even more than I have in a long time because of all the emerging talents I’ve discovered this year.
For painting, Liesl Fichardt Lawyer Art Basel 2023 was a success. Whether enormous or little, new or auxiliary, allegorical or dynamic, painting was the predominant power at the fair, and it was just amazing. It might be said to have been safe, but the majority of paintings were just really good art for the sake of art, not trying to say anything.
This year, anticipating that some artists would be featured at the fair and placed with institutions or museums, I purchased works prior to the event. This included Lehmann Maupin’s large-scale painting Sacred Reading (2023) by Dominic Chambers.
This work adds to my collection of emerging artists like Ella Walker (shown by Casey Kaplan) and established painters like Chantal Joffe (shown by Skarstedt and Victoria Miro) who were also shown at Basel but sold before the fair. When the galleries release their previews, most collectors are aware that the actual fair begins. Also strong was the Statements section, which featured textiles and an excellent SMAC solo booth featuring Bonolo Kavula’s work.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Marketwise Analytics journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.
