Cc. Art Basel
With American collectors making the trip despite the prospect of the elections and a high level of transactions, Art Basel Paris got off to the best possible start in a XXL Grand Palais and a spectacular nave that could accommodate an additional forty or so galleries. It is always revealing to see the stands on the front row (as at fashion shows): Pace, Sprüth Magers, Gladstone, Matthew Marks… with Nathalie Obadia the only French gallery in the front row. The space has been extensively redesigned, with a clearer presence for the brands and collaborations, visible from the corridors in a certain porous fashion, and the appearance of the Art Basel boutique by the former director of Colette. The poster that can be seen in Paris is taken from the work of Nina Childress, with the face of Dalida (Art: Concept gallery). The issue of the international presence of French artists is an unresolved one. This seems paradoxical at a time when the venue is being reorganised, despite what Clément Delépine, the fair’s director, said when I interviewed him when he was in charge of Paris Internationale.
One of the new features was the ‘Premise’ sector, dedicated to a more inclusive re-reading of art history and its margins.
While the general level of participation was already very high in previous editions, this year’s edition was exceptional, with a large number of solo shows. The waouh factor of the Grand Palais had a major impact on the overall vision.
General sector
Eva Presenhuber galerie (Zurich): Solo show by Tschabalala Self
The American artist has a militant approach to the representation of black women. I discovered her at the Rencontres d’Arles. Her project for the fair, entitled My House, is a tribute to Sarah Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’ whose skeleton and organs were exhibited at the Musée de l’Homme, even though her remains were not returned to South Africa until 2002. The artist transposes her silhouette into a Parisian and Francophile atmosphere.
BLUM: Asuka Anastacia Ogawa
For Art Basel Paris 2024, artist Asuka Anastacia Ogawa presents new vignettes in the ongoing narrative of her characteristically magical world. Guided by an interest in forms of animism in the many cultural contexts in which she has made her home, this new series of paintings deepens the typology of objects, animals and rituals that the artist likes to summon. Creatures and spirits command the gaze of Ogawa’s characters and their viewers. In other paintings, the artist’s figures share intimate moments of devotional action in which attention is offered equally to a companion and to the afterlife. Presented together, these works convey questions of the heart in a unique, dreamlike way that only Ogawa can.
Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Pauline Curnier Jardin Courtesy Art Basel
(untitled): an ode to laziness
In a society obsessed with action and performance, where the focus is always on being ‘the best version of yourself’, little attention is paid to bodies that produce nothing, or produce badly. The starting point for the exhibition is a monumental paper sculpture by Agnès Scherer representing the artist’s own four-poster bed, which is placed in the middle of the stand like a shrine. The representation of lying bodies is central to Scherer’s work, and she is fascinated by the direct link between sleep and death, both of which involve a loss of consciousness. For her part, Jessy Razafimandimby has devised a holistic installation made up of ghostly draperies, decorative domestic elements and paintings. These ensembles are at the heart of his practice and have been developed over the course of numerous exhibitions, such as the one that opened at the Dortmunder Kunstverein in February 2024.
P.P.O.W Gallery Cc. Art Basel
P.P.O.W: the ceramic table and environment by Ann Agee
The artist’s feminist approach uses the ceramic medium in an installation that re-enacts the prayers of good taste and offers a kind of bourgeois parody.
Galerie Allen: Boris Achour
The tee shirt ‘Rich women are beautiful’, a photo from the artist’s performances in front of luxury stores. Quite accurate here ! Sold very quickly.
WHATIFTHEWORLD
South African artist Lungiswa Gqunta explores relations of domination and the collective experience of a black person. The use of barbed wire and broken glass evokes the everyday life of townships and racialised people.
Cardi Gallery : Arte Povera for ever
As an echo to the celebration of the Italian Movement by Pinault Collection/Bourse de Commerce the selection includes Michelangelo Pistoletto, Jannis Kounellis.. in dialogue with Transavanguardia and Minimalism.
The entire booth was sold out at the opening !
Premise
The Gallery of Everything: solo show Janet Sobel
Janet Sobel, a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism who has remained invisible in art history, was included in the group exhibition ‘Elles font l’abstraction’ at the Centre Pompidou. Self-taught, she began painting in her son’s bedroom. It was Peggy Guggenheim who revealed her to the public.
Galerie Pauline Pavec : Juliette Roche
A painter and writer, she and her husband Albert Gleizes founded the ‘Coopératives artistiques et artisanales de Moly-Sabata’, which is still active today. In the wake of DADA, she experimented with advertising slogans before joining Duchamp in the United States. Too often overshadowed by her husband, she has finally been rediscovered. Her singular self-portraits and still lifes were a hit.
Public Program : Avenue Winston Churchill John Chamberlain
Courtesy of the artist @ Art Basel
Public program :
If the Basel team didn’t have the fertile playground of the Jardin des Tuileries because of the Olympics, we’re left wanting more when we see Carsten Höller’s ‘mushroom’ on Place Vendôme, which is giant in name only (we remember Alicja Kwade’s environment, which was a little more impactful!).
Niki de Saint Phalle’s l’Arbre à serpents, the film of which has just been released, seems a little lost on the forecourt of the Institut de France, as does Takis at the Hôtel de la Marine. Jean-Charles de Quillacq saves the day in the Chapelle des Beaux-arts, with a focus on funerary art and the finitude of the body, as does Jesse Darling at the Petit Palais, with his vanitas and urban art sculptures that have escaped from a car park and clash with the Art Nouveau architecture of the venue.
Off and satellites :
Among the myriad OFF offerings, special mention should go to the newcomer The Salon by NADA @newartdealers and @thecommunityparis. A very American cutting-edge panorama that gives Paris a new lease of life! It’s a far cry from the good post-confinement resolutions on the ecological footprint of such travel…
Infos pratiques :
Art Basel Paris
18/20 Octobre
Tickets
Full price 44 €
Evening 35 €
Permanent 115 €