In the past, the time of the Impressionists, Cubists, conceptual artists of the 60s too, in the early days of these movements, only a few enlightened and other fans defended what was then called the forefront. Today there is a mirage, a concept many dreams about: the young artist.
It was in Miami at the beginning of December that takes more aware of this global phenomenon. It is here that the mighty Swiss bank UBS is the main sponsor of Art Basel Miami Beach. In his super VIP lounge, a degree above the VIP lounge “normal” of the fair, free eat and drink but you can see some bits of the bloated collection of the bank. On the walls blockbusters of contemporary art such as the Italian conceptual artist Alighiero Boetti. The bank has no less than 35,000 works of art and sponsors an information platform on contemporary art, UBS Planet art even if it refuses herself to advise about artistic investments. The boss of the marketing of the banking firm gives no explanation of this hyper involvement in the art as a sponsor if not the current setting is “Art is challenging and our customers love it.
Similarly automaker BMW that has Miami’s new support program for young artists by funding a trip for them followed by an exhibition “BMW Art Journey” gives no official justification on this great involvement in that we call “young artists”.
In the list of companies sponsoring projects to ART Basel Miami at great marketing reinforcements there are also Audemars -Piguet, creator of exceptional watches at very high prices, Davidoff, which sells premium cigars etc …
Why all these companies want to associate their image so respectable to that young people with long hair, droopy pants and works that speak of sex, excrement, social criticism or nihilism?
Simply because the feeling is now widespread desire to be one or the Gertrude Stein of twenty-first century. Who will discover the next Picasso, the next cubist paintings or “Demoiselles d’Avignon” of the twenty-first century?
Clients of UBS, Davidoff, Audemars Piguet, BMW? It is in any case a very common fantasy in the global financial elite.
Obviously everyone is not as iconoclastic eye as the famous Gertrude precursor. So one can trust professionals.
To its market, expensive but certainly embodies a great potential, one way is to go to the fair considered the most serious of the world. Here you pay full price for young artists and in the wind or slightly less young who are part of the global cycle of creation in this view.
The names are whispered from Sao Paulo to Moscow and from Hong Kong to New York. Let’s put aside all those artists who embody passengers fashion phenomena that are no longer salable after 2 or 5 years although their side of a time have exceeded several hundred thousand dollars.
Let’s talk about plastic with content. the Swiss Urs Fischer who lives in New York was born in 1973. He is a multifaceted artist of extreme creativity as he showed during his retrospective at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice in 2012. ArtBasel Miami Beach’s gallery London, Sadie Coles shows including what he calls a “Green Rain”. Thousand giant metal drops in a green declination are hung and invade the space hypnotically. The work was sold immediately for about 500,000 dollars. But these drops might as well be flakes of any kind. A nightmare of rain. Every one can use his imagination … His last huge paintings that are actually confounding the eye, which give the illusion of relief, kind of grimaces of abstract paintings printed on aluminum in a sophisticated way sell at Gavin Brown New York 950 000. Urs is one of the most acclaimed and sought-after talents of today. His creations are often technically sophisticated. They also cost a recognition that costs in the circle of wealthy collectors in the world.
Mention may also be among the most valuable names in contemporary art American painter John Currin (born in 1962). It is in delicate figurative paintings, a female universe extremely decadent. Faces marked by a cosmetic surgery outrageous, angelic figures crossings unsuspected erotic dreams or fantasies stereotypes magazines … He produces only 5-6 works annually negotiated for significantly more than a million dollars through his gallery, Gagosian (photograph a work of his last exhibition in Paris).
ArtBasel Miami Beach is an upscale fair with galleries that make a presenting and supply as required by the organizers.
We can rant about so high price of these artists, but so goes the world. The rich are very rich and they buy to the extent of their bank account.
However, in the shadow of Art Basel Miami Beach there are also other art markets, I mean other fairs also allow all potential real Gertrude Stein to buy works for less prohibitive tariffs .There are 16 other art fairs in Miami Art Basel time. Certainly the most promising is that NADA in a chaotic context of a kitsch hotel on Collins Avenue allows more or less known galleries to exhibit more or less known artists. It may be this year that the new Gertrude find in NADA the preliminary works of next “Demoiselles d’Avignon” of 2014 (Two examples of works in photo). For less than $ 10 000 in any case.
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