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Art 40 Basel: World Art Show Anniversary

Art 40 Basel: World Art Show Anniversary

In my mind Art Basel is the premier international art show in the world. And this year, on its 40th anniversary year, it will do doubt out-do itself in splendor.

As per usual, the 40th edition of Art Basel takes place in the culturally-rich city of Basel, Switzerland. The show will be on June 10 – June 14, 2009. Mark that week, and if you can, go there.

As the world’s most important art show, Art Basel is an annual reunion of the international art world. This year’s 300 exhibiting galleries from all over the globe were selected from a record number of more than 1,100 applications, and will be showing works by over 2,500 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Art Unlimited hall, with its 60 large-scale projects, and the Public Art Projects on the exhibition square offer further highlights.

One of the most spectacular events this year will be the presentation of “Il Tempo del Postino” at Theater Basel. Curated and directed by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno and co-curated by Anri Sala and Rirkrit Tiravanija, a group of leading visual artists will create a major experimental time-based presentation each using up to 15 minutes of exhibition time with the stage assuming the role of the gallery space. Participating artists will include Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick,Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

And Basel’s museums once again feature fascinating exhibitions plus a broad range of events.

Founded by a group of local gallerists, the first Art Basel took place in 1970 and has since then become the most prestigious art show worldwide. This 40th anniversary edition of Art Basel begins with a vernissage for invited guests on June 9 and opens to the general public from June 10 through June 14. This annual event regularly attracts some 60,000 artists, collectors, gallerists, curators, and art enthusiasts from across the globe, eager to see the most rigorously chosen overview of the international art market and to meet key movers of the international art scene. Covered by more than 2,300 media representatives, Art Basel enjoys a formidable reputation based both on the quality and diversity of the exhibited art works.

Over 300 of the world’s leading galleries will be exhibiting at Art Basel. The galleries were chosen by the Art Basel Committee, an international jury of renowned gallerists, in accordance with strict quality criteria.

Selected from a record number of more than 1,100 applicants, the sectors Art Galleries, Art Statements, Art Premiere and Art Edition includes 75 galleries from the U.S.; 56 from Germany; 33 from Switzerland; 28 from Great Britain; 26 from France; 22 from Italy; 9 from Spain; 8 from Belgium; 7 from Austria; 5 from Japan; 4 each from Brazil, China and Poland; 3 from the Netherlands; 2 each from Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Mexico, Norway and South Korea; and one each from Argentina, Finland, India, Israel, Russia, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, and Turkey.

Art 40 Basel will showcase all forms of artistic expression, including paintings, drawings, editions, and sculptures, installations, photography, performances, and internet and video art. Works costing a few thousand Swiss francs, by emerging artists, will be on display alongside museum-quality masterpieces priced in the millions.

Art Galleries

Once again more than 99 percent of last year’s exhibitors reapplied in the Art Galleries sector. This year’s strong roster of participants is reinforced by the additions of Johann König (Berlin), Dvir Gallery (Tel Aviv), Vitamin Creative Space (Guangzhou), Nils Staerk Contemporary Art (Copenhagen) and J Crist Gallery (Boise, Idaho, U.S.).

The line-up of galleries showing 20th-century classics is augmented by Knoedler & Company (New York), Galerie Zlotowski (Paris), and Galerie Susanne Zander (Köln). The specialists in Art Edition are joined by Galerie Helga Maria Klosterfelde (Hamburg) and Galerie de Multiples (Paris), and the roster of photographic galleries is enhanced by the return of the Galerie Zur Stockeregg (Zürich).

After a brief hiatus, David Nolan Gallery (New York), Galleria Raucci / Santamaria (Napoli), Greene Naftali (New York), Stuart Shave / Modern Art (London) and Team Gallery (New York) also rejoin Art Basel’s exhibitors.

Art Statements

A frequent site of discovery by those seeking emerging artists, Art Statements features 27 single-artist projects from rising galleries worldwide. The projects on display are new and often created specifically for presentation in this highly regarded sector for young artists. Since 1999, the Baloise Insurance Group has awarded its annual Baloise Art Prize of CHF 25,000 each to two outstanding Art Statements projects. This year the prize has been raised to CHF 30,000 for each artist, to a total amount of CHF 60,000. The company also acquires works by the prize winning artists and donates them
to two important museums in Europe.

Art Premiere

The Art Premiere sector, which focuses on the curatorial aspects of the gallerist’s practice, this year presents 19 gallery projects, featuring either an artistic dialogue juxtaposing two artists from all generations, a presentation by a single artist of any age or exceptional art historical material – a new possibility within the sector.

Art Unlimited

Art Unlimited will spotlight approximately 60 ambitious works. The platform enables artists to exhibit works that do not fit in standard display booths due to spatial, temporal, technical, financial, contextual, or conceptual constraints. With the accent on innovative and large-scale works, everything from outsize sculptures and installations to video projections, wall paintings, and performances will be on show and for sale. Many of the exhibited pieces are created especially for Art Unlimited. The exhibition has once again been devised in collaboration with Geneva curator Simon Lamunière.

Public Art Projects

The exhibition area on the exhibition square in front of the buildings hosting Art Basel will again serve as an arena for art projects in public space. Displayed in the public space, the sector places art in the urban context and encourages interaction with the general public. Many of the projects are being created especially or installed site-specifically for Public Art Projects. The sector is again curated by Basel curator Martin Schwander.

Il Tempo del Postino

One of the most spectacular events this year will be the presentation of Il Tempo del Postino at Theater Basel. Curated and directed by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno and co-curated by Anri Sala and Rirkrit Tiravanija, a group of leading visual artists will create a major experimental time-based presentation each using up to 15 minutes of exhibition time with the stage assuming the role of the gallery space. Participating artists will include Doug Aitken, Olafur Eliasson, Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, Koo Jeong-A, Philippe Parreno, Anri Sala and Rirkrit Tiravanija.

By focusing on time-based work, this group show aims to redefine how visual arts can be experienced. Within up to 15 minutesof exhibition time, each artist creates their own distinctive work. Set in a classic theater architecture, it transforms the established gallery exhibition model into an exhilarating, shared audience experience. Il Tempo del Postino is organized by Art Basel, Theater Basel and Fondation Beyeler and was originally co-commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris for the World Premiere in Manchester in July 2007.

Art Basel Conversations and Art Lobby

Staged every morning (June 10 to June 13), Art Basel Conversations bring together prominent members of the international art scene. Topics include “Artistic Production: Collecting Performance,” “The Future of the Museum: Digital Frontiers” and “Public / Private: Institutions: A Time of Crisis – and Opportunity?”. Additionally, a daily program of artist conversations, book signings, discussion forums, and other presentations will take place in the Art Lobby forum in the afternoons.

Art Film

The Art Film program once again features an outstanding program of films, screened at the Stadtkino Basel. This Brunner, a collector with profound knowledge of the international film scene, and artist John Armleder will each organize an evening with special guests, while the rest of the Art Film program, including many shorter artist films and videos is curated by Berlin-based film scholar Marc Glöde.

Art Basel Weekend

On the weekend of June 12 to June 14, 2009, Art 40 Basel will celebrate the Art Basel Weekend, highlighting special activities (solo shows, performances, book signings etc.) at the booths of the participating galleries. A variety of panels and presentations geared to art professionals will also be held during the weekend in the context of Art Basel Conversations and Art Lobby.

Art Basel Catalogs

Art 40 Basel is accompanied by a lavish catalog published by Hatje Cantz in May 2009. The richly illustrated publication contains reproductions of approximately 600 works, from Modern classics to the latest in cutting-edge art. The separate catalog, published to accompany the Art Unlimited exhibition, will be available at Art Basel.

Museums in Basel

The museum exhibitions in and around Basel are again exceptional this year.

On show at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel: “Giacometti”; at the Kunstmuseum Basel: “Vincent van Gogh, Between Earth and Heaven: The Landscapes”; at the Schaulager: “Holbein to Tillmans”; at the Museum Jean Tinguely: “Armor and gala dresses”; at the Kunstmuseum Basel – Museum für Gegenwartskunst: “Little Theatre of Gestures”; at Kunsthalle Basel solo exhibitions with Danh Vo and Lucy Skaer titled “A Boat Used as a Vessel”.

Design Miami/Basel

Design Miami/Basel, the global forum for collecting, exhibiting, discussing, and creating design runs June 9 – 13 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and is this year located in hall 5 of the Basel fairgrounds.

Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Basel’s sister event in the USA, takes place December 3–6, 2009, in Miami Beach, Florida.

More Information re Art 40 Basel

For the latest information on Art 40 Basel, stay tuned, as we’ll provide more details closer to the event, as well as offer videos of the event.

Art School

Can you get a decent art education on the web? The answer is a qualified ‘yes’, …. if you do your homework, and if you select a reputable art school.

The internet is actually a good way to find out about various art programs around the country, around the world. First you have to select an art school which has a good reputation.

Many of the benefits to online education have to do with added flexibility:
1. Ability to stay home and study with a college or school whose base is at a different location.
2. Ability to study when it suits you. You can work around your day job or the busy routine of a family life with children.

Challenges of online education for art schools are generally:

1. student interaction with other students, teachers and tutors.
2. student interaction with teachers and tutors
An online art school should contain just about the same as a “live” education, depending on how long and intense it is. you should be able to learn different techniques, take idea and concept based courses, at least one course in art theory and history. Personal tutoring from teachers is important as well. You have to be able to get response and feedback on your progress, otherwise it’s hard to develop your skills and ideas.

Challenges of online education for art students are generally:
1. the required discipline to ‘keep going’ when the going gets tough’ and to see coursework through to the end. Some people simply need a physical teacher around, who could frown to you if you’d tell her you didn’t complete your art project.
2. certain students need to hear or see things to be able to learn, while others are brilliant at learning through books.

What you’d get in the end

Some educations offer a degree and some just diplomas. It depends on the level on it, and how much time and money you are able to put in. if you are aiming on a degree in fine arts on a professional level, you have to take a college course and that will cost more for you in time and money investment. If you want to take some courses to learn new techniques or just for a hobby, you can take shorter single theme courses. It all depends on your needs.

The one thing to keep in mind is to fulfill your dreams. A fine or graphic art education can be something many people would advice against, but I’m of the opposite opinion. You have to try out your dreams how else would you know what your purpose in life is?

As an aid in this process:

Timeline of Art History: United States & Canada, 1900 ad – present

List of significant American art, artistic events and influences that mark the last century of American art.

ARCHITECTURE
1900 In the design of the Ward W. Willitts House in Highland Park, Illinois, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) creates the “Prairie Style,” a modernist aesthetic for architecture and design that complements the Midwestern landscape.

DANCE
1903 San Francisco–born expatriate Isadora Duncan (1878–1927) delivers a lecture in Berlin entitled “The Dance of the Future” and is soon hailed in the U.S. and Europe as the founder of modern dance.

ART PHOTOGRAPHY
1908 Lewis Hine (1874–1940) becomes staff photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), traveling through the United States documenting child labor in various industries. Designed to evoke the sympathy of viewers and mobilize activism, Hine’s images are circulated by the NCLC via exhibitions and pamphlets. His last large-scale documentary project will be a record of the construction of the Empire State Building in New York (1930–31), in which workers and labor itself share the spotlight with the awe-inspiring structure.

FINE ART PAINTING
1908 A group of eight realist painters of urban life, later known as the Ashcan School or “The Eight,” including William Glackens (1870–1938), Robert Henri (1865–1929), George Luks (1867–1933), and John Sloan (1871–1951), organize an exhibition at Macbeth Gallery in New York.

WRITING
1909 Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) publishes Three Lives, a character study of three women. A native of Pennsylvania, Stein is for many years a prominent member of avant-garde artistic and expatriate circles in Paris.

ART ENVIRONMENT
1910s Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan emerges as an enclave of bohemian and radical culture, home to irreverent small presses, avant-garde art galleries and studios, and experimental theater groups.

ART ENVIRONMENT
1912 New Mexico and Arizona become the forty-seventh and forty-eighth states of the U.S. The unique landscape and culture of the American Southwest will attract many artists, including Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), who will travel to New Mexico for the first time in 1929 and reside there permanently from 1949.

Farbstudie Quadrate, c.1913 Wassily Kandinsky Buy From Art.com

ART MOVEMENT
1913 The International Exposition of Modern Art (the “Armory Show”) is held at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York and introduces Americans to the modernist work of Matisse, Kandinsky, Brancusi, Picasso, Braque, and others on a large scale. Nude Descending a Staircase, a Cubist canvas by Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), creates a public sensation. Theodore Roosevelt labels the Futurist and Cubist artists in the exhibition “the lunatic fringe.” Smaller versions of the show subsequently travel to Chicago and Boston.

CONTROVERSIONAL ART
1917 Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) exhibits his first readymade, Fountain, an upturned and signed urinal, at the Society of Independent Artists in New York. This work questions what it means to be an artist and what constitutes a work of art.

ART MOVEMENT
1920s–early 1930s Literary, visual, and performing arts flourish in Harlem, the African-American enclave of New York City, spurred by the mass migration of blacks from rural areas to northern cities. Poets, novelists, painters, and musicians of the “New Negro Movement“—later called the Harlem Renaissance—search for new forms of expression to convey their racial experiences and celebrate African-American cultural identity. Major figures of the Harlem Renaissance include poets Langston Hughes (1902–1967) and Countee Cullen (1903–1946), novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), jazz composer Duke Ellington (1899–1974), political activists W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) and Marcus Garvey (1887–1940), photographer James Van Der Zee (1886–1983), and artists Aaron Douglas (1899–1979) and Archibald Motley (1891–1981).

ART SCHOOL
1928–41 The Cranbrook Academy of Art is designed and constructed in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, by Finnish-American modernist Eliel Saarinen (1873–1950), who also serves as president of the Academy.

ART MUSEUM
1929 The Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens.

ART MOVEMENT
1930s The Regionalist movement is embodied in the paintings of Grant Wood (1892–1942), John Steuart Curry (1897–1946), and Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975). Rejecting the tenets of modernist art and theory, the Regionalists depict indigenous American subjects in a realist mode, often in murals commissioned for post offices, schools, libraries, and other public buildings under the auspices of the Federal Art Project, a Depression-era government program.

ART MOVEMENT
1932 The International Style exhibition opens at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Curated by architect Philip Johnson (born 1906) and art historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987), it introduces an American audience to recent developments in European modernist architecture.

ART PHOTOGRAPHY / ART MOVEMENT
1932 Eleven West Coast photographers, including Ansel Adams (1902–1984), Imogen Cunningham (1883–1976), and Edward Weston (1886–1958), hold an exhibition in San Francisco at which they announce the formation of Group f/64, dedicated to a “pure” photography that captures the world “as it is,” and opposed to the aesthetic manipulations of Pictorialism.

ART SCHOOL
1933 A liberal arts college is founded in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and becomes a locus for the dissemination of Bauhaus ideas through its European émigré teaching staff, including the German Josef Albers (1888–1976). Black Mountain College remains a site for the production of experimental multimedia work until it closes in 1957.

CONTROVERSIAL ART
1933 Mexican muralist Diego Rivera (1886–1957) is commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller (1908–1979) to create a mural for the RCA Building in New York’s Rockefeller Center. Because the painting, entitled Man at the Crossroads, contains a portrait of Lenin, Rivera is prevented from completing it, and Rockefeller later has it destroyed. The leftist politics and social content of Rivera’s work, along with that of his compatriots José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1975), who also spend time in the U.S. during the 1930s executing various public commissions, influence many American artists employed in government-sponsored New Deal projects during the Depression.

ART SUPPORT
1935 The federal government launches the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which, like other New Deal programs, provides employment for artists. Ben Shahn (1898–1969), Stuart Davis (1892–1964), and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), among thousands of other artists, produce murals, sculptures, posters, and other graphic materials for public buildings and for exhibitions held in dozens of community art centers established across the country by the Federal Art Project. Photographers document the living and working conditions of Americans during the Depression with the support of the Resettlement Administration (later called the Farm Security Administration). Among the photographers is Dorothea Lange (1895–1965), whose images of the Dust Bowl exodus become symbols of the migrant experience.

CONTROVERSIAL ART – ART PHOTOGRAPHY
1936 The Photo League, committed to a documentary photography allied to progressive political and social movements, establishes a school in New York under the directorship of Sid Grossman (1913–1955) and begins publication of its provocative journal Photo Notes. Among the League’s projects is Harlem Document, supervised by Aaron Siskind (1903–1991), which records life in New York’s African-American community. In the late 1940s, the League is declared a “subversive” organization by the U.S. Attorney General and many of its members are blacklisted.

LANDMARK ART
1942 Edward Hopper (1882–1967) paints Nighthawks (Art Institute, Chicago), an iconic depiction of loneliness and isolation in contemporary American life. Hopper maintains allegiance to a harsh realist mode throughout his life, creating stark urban and rural scenes scored by bright artificial light and deep shadows.

ART MUSEUM
1942 Peggy Guggenheim (1898–1979) opens the gallery Art of This Century in New York. Romanian-Austrian architect Frederick Kiesler (1890–1965) designed the interiors that were intended to complement the Surrealist and abstract art on display.

ART & DESIGN
1944 The American Society of Industrial Designers is founded to advocate high-quality design of industrial products, a larger concern at mid-century. Among the most advanced designers of the period is Norman Bel Geddes (1893–1958), whose work encompasses the practical design of everyday commodities such as typewriters and radios, and large-scale visionary projects such as the Futurama exhibit at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.

ART MOVEMENT/ ART GENRES
1945 The conclusion of World War II begins a prolonged period of economic expansion in the U.S. Among the postwar American art movements that receive popular and critical attention worldwide is Abstract Expressionism, which includes two subgenres: action or gesture painting, associated with the work of Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), Lee Krasner (1908–1984), Willem de Kooning (1904–1997), Franz Kline (1910–1962), and others, and color field painting, represented by the work of Mark Rothko (1903–1970), Barnett Newman (1905–1970), and Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967). Although Abstract Expressionism is mostly thought of as a movement in painting, it has some correlation to the sculpture of David Smith (1906–1965).

PRINT MAKING
1957 Tatyana Grosman (1904–1982) establishes Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), a printmaking workshop, in West Islip, New York. ULAE sets the standards for a postwar printmaking renaissance in the United States.

ART MUSEUM
1958 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959), opens in New York. Wright had begun working on the commission for a building to house the Guggenheim’s collection of modernist art in 1943. The museum represents a sculpturally and spatially rich use of concrete.

ART HAPPENING
1959 The first public “happening” is produced by Allan Kaprow (born 1927) at the Reuben Gallery in New York. Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg are among the performers. Influenced by Jackson Pollock’s process of action painting, the teachings of John Cage on chance and indeterminacy in art, and ultimately Dadaism, Kaprow defines a happening as a choreographed event that facilitates spontaneous interactions between objects—which include performers—and visitors.

ART MOVEMENT
1960 The Minimalist movement begins and maintains an important place in the art world for about a decade. Practitioners include Carl Andre (born 1935), Robert Morris (born 1931), Dan Flavin (1933–1996), Brice Marden (born 1938), Robert Ryman (born 1930), and others.

ART MOVEMENT
1961 The phrase “concept art” is first used by Henry Flynt (born 1940). It comes to have a more general application to the work of artists Sol LeWitt (born 1928), Joseph Kosuth (born 1945), and others. During the following decade, Conceptual and performance art demonstrate the possibilities of making art without producing saleable objects.

ART MOVEMENT
1962 Andy Warhol (1928–1987) paints Campbell’s Soup Cans, a key work of the Pop Art movement. Warhol and other artists associated with the movement, including Claes Oldenburg (born 1929) and Roy Lichtenstein (1923–1997), satirize Americans’ voracious consumption of manufactured products in the postwar period.

ART STYLE / MOVEMENT
1962 Yale University’s Art and Architecture Building, designed by Paul Rudolph (1918–1997), opens. It is an important monument of New Brutalism, a style that—in contrast to the trim and sleek aesthetic of 1920s modernism—emphasizes the tactility and roughness of its materials, often poured-in-place concrete.

ART MOVEMENT
1964 The term “optical art” is coined in Time magazine to describe painting and sculpture that makes use of optical effects to evoke physiological responses in the viewer. Proponents of Op Art include Bridget Riley (born 1931), Larry Poons (born 1937), and long-time practitioner Victor Vasarely (1908–1997).

ART MOVEMENT
1969 A group exhibition devoted to Conceptual art, entitled January 1–31: 0 Objects, 0 Paintings, 0 Sculptures, is mounted by New York dealer Seth Siegelaub and features the work of four artists: Joseph Kosuth (born 1945), Lawrence Weiner (born 1940), Robert Barry (born 1936), and Douglas Huebler (1924–1997). As a movement, Conceptualism critiques the political and economic structures that sustain Western art forms, and Conceptual artists produce works intended to convey ideas—often through the use of text alone—rather than to be appreciated as precious commodities.

ART MOVEMENT
1970 Environmental awareness spawns earthworks, sculptural projects on the scale of the landscape itself. Perhaps the best-known example is Robert Smithson’s (1938–1973) large-scale Spiral Jetty, built out of rock and earth in the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

ART MOVEMENT
1971 The term “Post-Minimalism” is used by critic Robert Pincus-Witten (born 1935) to describe the contemporary work of Richard Serra (born 1939) and Eva Hesse (1936–1970).

LANDMARK ART
1976 The avant-garde opera Einstein on the Beach, by Robert Wilson (born 1941) and composer Philip Glass (born 1937), premieres.

ART INSTALLATION
1977 Walter De Maria (born 1935) installs The Lightning Field near Quemada, New Mexico. In the same year, he re-creates his 1968 Earth Room, a gallery filled with dirt, at the Heiner Friedrich Gallery in New York. With the latter work, De Maria becomes prominently associated with the earthworks movement.

CONTROVERSIAL ART
1979 Artist Sherrie Levine (born 1947) rephotographs images by Walker Evans as a means of making art that questions the notion of originality. Over the next decade, Levine, Dana Birnbaum (born 1946), Barbara Kruger (born 1945), and others will become prominent in the Appropriation Art movement.

ART MUSEUM
1985 The Los Angeles County Museum of Art organizes an exhibition of works by Barbara Kruger (born 1945), which combine found photography and succinct, humorous slogans deconstructing the representations of power inherent in mass-media imagery. Kruger is one of many artists of the 1980s, sometimes dubbed the “pictures generation,” who explore the coercive and seductive dynamics of the media.

ART MOVEMENT
1991 The “grunge” style, originating in Seattle, Washington, becomes nationally fashionable and has an impact on popular music and clothing.

source:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/11/na/ht11na.htm

No Name For Art Carnival #3

Art 39 Basel – Art Unlimited – 2 part video

ON NOW! Have a look at this inspirational, two-part video series of the international fine art fair, ART 39 BASEL.

Part one of the VernissageTV’s walkthrough of the Art Unlimited sector with large-scale installations, video projections, and massive sculptures at Art 39 Basel International Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland. June 2, 2008.

Part two of VernissageTV’s walkthrough of the Art Unlimited sector with large-scale installations, video projections, and massive sculptures at Art 39 Basel International Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland. Art 39 Basel, Art Unlimited section. Impressions from the preview. Basel, June 2, 2008.

Art 39 Basel: THE International Art World Fair

Tomorrow, Art 39 Basel kicks off with a vernissage for invited guests. The 39th edition of Art Basel takes place in the museum-rich city of Basel (Switzerland) from June 4 through June 8, 2008. As the world’s premier art show, Art Basel is the annual meeting place of the international art world. This year’s 300 exhibiting galleries from all over the world were selected out of a record number of over 1,000 applications and will be showing works by over 2,000 artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Art Unlimited hall, with its 60 large-scale projects, and Art Basel Conversations, featuring internationally respected panelists, represent further highlights. The Art on Stage platform (presented in association with the Theater Basel) will provide the framework for the performance Drama Queens by artists Michael Elmgreen (Denmark) and Ingar Dragset (Norway). The local museums also have fascinating exhibitions (including Chaim Soutine, Andrea Zittel, Monika Sosnowska, and Fernand Léger) and a broad range of events in store.

This annual reunion of the international art world regularly attracts some 60,000 artists, collectors, gallerists, curators, and art enthusiasts from across the globe, who come to see the largest, most rigorously juried overview of what the international art market has to offer and to meet the stars and insiders of the international art scene.

Presenting Art Galleries

Once again, the world’s leading galleries will be exhibiting at the show, for which 99% of last year’s exhibitors reapplied. This year’s unrivaled roster of participants will be enhanced by a number of distinguished dealers of classical modern art and photography, and diverse young galleries.

Features Art 39 Basel

This art fair is well-known for its many specialty exhibits and happenings:

• Artistic Expression
  Art 39 Basel will be showcasing all forms of artistic expression, the repertoire extending from paintings, drawings, editions, and sculptures to installations, photography, performances, and internet and video art. Works from a few thousand francs by young emerging artists will be on display alongside museum-quality masterpieces priced in the millions.

• Art Premiere
  This year’s special Art Premiere sector will be running under the heading of «Artists in Dialogue». Each of the 16 curated projects showcases a fascinating juxtaposition of works by two artists.

• Art Statements
  This year’s Art Statements sector will expand to include 31 solo exhibitions of young artists. The projects on display are new and often created specifically for presentation in this highly regarded sector for young artists. Since 1999, the Baloise Insurance Group has awarded its annual Baloise Art Prize of CHF 25,000 each to two outstanding Art Statements projects. The company also acquires works by the prizewinning artists and donates them to important museums such as the Kunsthalle in Hamburg and the Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation in Vienna.

• Art Unlimited
  Art Unlimited will spotlight approximately 60 unconventional works. The platform enables artists to exhibit works that would ordinarily be subject to spatial, temporal, technical, financial contextual, or conceptual constraints. Art, with the accent on innovation.

• This is just a handful of features and events at the art fair; it has many more: Art magazines, Art Conversations, Public Art …

In Conclusion

Art Basel is the art world’s most important annual marketplace and offers its visitors the most extensive temporary museum of our day. Art experts and enthusiasts alike can come here to find works they have been looking for, discover new talents, compare prices, and scent out trends. For the artists themselves, it is a prestigious platform with worldwide impact. The intimate atmosphere of the beautiful, art-loving city of Basel adds to the appeal of the event.

Special exhibitions and social functions at the local museums provide further attractions and meeting places. And in the evening, the place to go is the Art Club at the Kunsthalle, featuring DJs flown in by Carhartt from all over Europe.

FINE ART FAIR CATALOG

The art fair is accompanied by a lavish catalog, as it was last year.

ART 39 BASEL CATALOG

for more info: ~ see other articles at eArtfair.com/blog

Art and Form

Oh, it is not always easy to decide what is art, why art is art, and how art comes about being art.
This article discusses the relationship between art and form.

Defining Art from Form
“Any work that aspires, however humbly, to the condition of art should carry its justification in every line.” – Joseph Conrad

When you finally decide on a course of action, all the usual psychological blocks are bound to occur. Where shall I begin? Have I a right to make a choice, based on any sensible guides? Is a piece of ceramics a work of art? Is a piece of Tiffany glass? Is a rug designed by Matisse? Should I buy a painting… a print… a drawing?

There is no crystal-clear answer. As I have tried to indicate in foregoing chapters, you are dealing with your own personal reactions, as well as with certain rules and laws which are vague, at best.

One of the first muddles that need clarifying is the sharp line often drawn to set off arts from crafts. I cannot see why these two should be so summarily opposed to each other. How can anybody decide at first blush that a man who has a sense of form, an eye for color, and a definite quest for the beautiful is producing only a vessel – if he spins a lovely pot on his wheel, applies glowing glazes, and fires his work to produce a handsome jar glowing with a jewel-like finish? Yet there are critics and collectors who would dismiss the man’s work with a snobbish shrug that it is a fine example of the potter’s craft… but as a work of art there is no room for it.

Why, I ask, this strange, if fine, distinction? Is it because the jar is intended for functional use and the higherbrows believe such a pragmatic approach precludes it from joining the upper world of “fine arts”?

Let us go back almost 3,000 years to a Greek potter in his workshop as he formed a vessel for oil or wine. The term “vase” is now applied to most of the early Greek ceramic pieces; but their original purpose was functional… for everyday use. On such vases we see indications of an entirely new way of looking at things by the artist. He was no longer hidebound by the old style he had inherited from earlier Egyptian forms. Yet there was still the same regard for a sharp outline and exact symmetry. So vases from this period are not only valuable for their beauty of color, dimension, and proportion; they are esteemed for their obvious role in shaping a new course for the artist to follow as he broke the shackles of a hardened past. Yet it is clear that the objects as originally created had a humble purpose indeed. Such intent has not lessened their artistic validity or value.

Let us go even farther back into history. Museums which own objects from the Sumerian period display them proudly. In the University of Pennsylvania Museum there is a gold cup used by Queen Shu-Bad of Mesopotamia. It has a graceful form, a delicate gold color, and intricate decorative fluting. Obviously it was designed to provide the queen with a drinking vessel. Is it therefore less beautiful than it would have been had it lacked practical purpose?

The same will naturally apply to the pottery tomb figures of the Ming dynasty in China… to T’ang glazed pottery… to the heroic bronze cats and baboons of the Egyptians. Recently I saw a cover design for the bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, showing a drawing of an Incan Empire Poncho, made about 1500. It was an almost pure design… with cubes of black and white. At the top was a reverse triangle of deep brown. I have seen many paintings of the abstract school which could have hung side by side with this poncho reproduction.

So I say: judge by the results and forget the notion that one can always erect a false fence to separate the beautiful from the functional. If the object is beautiful to you, then it is worthy of your collector’s eye and instincts. This attitude can open up many new fields to you – for example, the folk arts.

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Moscow World Fine Art Fair’s Art valued at $1.6b

6,000 artwork and 60 galleries – strong, the Moscow World Fine Art Fair is in full swing. It started May 28 and will go on till June 2. There are fine art works by famous European artists like Marc Chagall, Leger, Magritte, Picasso, Renoir, Egon Schiele, Nikki the Ste Phalle, and of worthwhile Russian artists such as Stephan Kolesnikov (1879-1955). The total value of the works in the show is said to be around $1.6 billion.

Now a Forum in Eastern European for Fine Art of the World

The Fair is in its fifth year, and has grown into one of the biggest art world meeting places in Eastern Europe. It attracts dealers and art collectors from Russia and around the world. Well-known represented art galleries, art dealers and art auction houses include Jane Kahan Gallery (NYC), Steinitz (Paris), Hotel Drouot (Paris), Sotheby, Tri Veka and others.

Nearly 30 dealers specialize in 20th- century and contemporary art, while others offer Old Master paintings, 18th-century furniture, silver, porcelain, sculpture, and Asian art. The fair is known for its exquisite jewelry, and another 500 million euros of jewelry is also on sale by 18 vendors, such as Harry Winston, Moussaieff, and Bulgari.

La Branche Marc Chagall

Why Moscow’s Art Scene is Mushrooming

With a history and culture honoring the finest of art, it is completely understandable that the Nouveau Riche of Moscow are eager to acquire luxury items and are fashionably becoming fine art collectors. Moscow has a growing number of millionaires (plus quite a few billionaires), who collectively have in the last few years become a strong force into the Western art buying market. The Russian economy has grown annually for the past 12 years, partially driven by oil and gas exports. This economic growth has realized a new emergence of wealthy Russians. It is said that the new Russian elite is interested in top-end European art for decoration and status before investment purpose.

The Moscow World Fine Art Fair is organized by Geneva-based Art Culture Studio.

For information, click http://www.Moscow-faf.com.

no name for ART #2

Art Education @ Art Schools in the US

I’m often asked what in my opinion the best art schools are in the United States. So, I researched the topic before making my careful selection. Of course, some schools are better for film and others for fine art/paintings, and others again for art history. And this list is no more than my opinion after research. All rankings are subjective, and there is more to selecting the university that is best for you, beyond its general ranking.

Art Education Stimulates Exploration of New Media
It is important to know that art school is to push your artistic abilities and interests further. So, you may end up graduating from your art school in an other art discipline that what you initially signed up for. So, no matter what your art medium of choice is when going into art school, consider the list below of art colleges and universities.

Art School Personality & Academic Objectives Must Match
Schools like people have personalities. First, the selection criteria for new art students vary from art school to art school. although all want what they call a ’strong portfolio’, a ‘passion for art’, and a ‘good ability to draw from life’.

Approaching it from the other side, prospective art students must research the academic and artistic achievements of faculty and graduates. Do you like what they produce? Does it feel like great art? Inspirational? Also consider if the school’s faculty has strong connections into various art industries. Are they typically the ones who win national awards?

These and your own personal considerations will help you select the fine art school that is best for you.

Ranking US Art Schools

• Academy of Art, San Francisco, CA
• San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
• California College of Arts & Crafts, Berkeley, CA
• California Institute of Arts, Los Angeles, CA
• Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA
• Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
• NYU Tisch School of the Arts, New York, NY
• School of Visual Arts, New York, NY
• Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
• Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
• Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
• Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
• University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield hills, MI
• Maryland Institute College of Art, Est.1826

According to the 2004 ranking by USNews, for the art specialty of Painting/Drawing, choose
• Yale University, CT
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
• University of California–Los Angeles, CA

According to the 2004 ranking by USNews, for the art specialty of Printmaking, choose
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• University of Iowa
• Arizona State University
• University of Georgia
• University of Tennessee–Knoxville

According the 2004 USNews rankings, for the art specialty of Sculpture, choose
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• Yale University
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Copyright 2008 Astrid Lee – all right reserved.
Do not reproduce article nor list without written permission.

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