Art Basel has grown with Paris – Newspaper Kommersant No. 197 (7398) of 10/22/2022

Paris hosts the first edition of the new French contemporary art fair Paris+, a new project of the intercontinental giant Art Basel. She replaced the FIAC, which died last year, and provoked a vigorous stir in the Parisian and even the world art community. The state of affairs at the fair stands investigated Maria Sidelnikova.

Last year, the main contemporary art fair in France FIAC ordered a long life in the forty-eighth year of life. At least in its previous form and on the same site, that is, in the historic Grand Palais (or the temporary Grand Palais Ephemere on the Champ de Mars, where gallery owners are waiting for the repair of the venerable old man until 2024), it will no longer be held. Behind the outward suddenness of this decision lay a long-standing friction between the Reunion des Musees Nationaux (RMN), which manages the Grand Palais, and the RX France group, owner and organizer of FIAC and Paris Photo. Therefore, in early December 2021, when the contract expired, RMN announced an open tender for the next seven years for the use of two sites for a contemporary art fair in October and a photo fair in November. Applications were accepted quickly, there were only two applicants. The world art giant Art Basel, the main competitor of FIAC, won. Paris Photo left behind RX. Coup, capture, fraud, staging – as soon as the exiled owners of FIAC did not call what happened, but there was no turning back. The agenda for the Parisian contemporary art market is now set by Art Basel, for whose empire the French capital has become the fourth city after Basel itself (1970), Miami (1993) and Hong Kong (2013). However, while the rules of the game and the Fiakov vector remain the same.

Paris + takes place exactly on the same dates, from October 20 to 23, in the same place – Grand Palais Ephemere, with the same participating galleries (more than 150 from 30 countries), according to the same patterns (section of sculptures scattered throughout the city – from the Tuileries Garden to Place Vendôme; a section of young galleries, doubled in size, and partner stands) and with the same orientation in the offer to the Parisian exhibition agenda and local tastes – with a pronounced emphasis on the 20th century. Although there are more and more works that have just left the workshops and have not had time to dry, especially in sculpture.

But against the backdrop of recent sluggish FIAC releases, the debut Paris + really seems to be seething. Art Basel brought all their international heavy artillery to Paris – top collectors, mainly American ones, curators of collections from the world’s leading museums and foundations. After the COVID-19 lockdown, the Asians are also slowly returning — their presence is noticeable at the fair. All the gallery owners interviewed by “Kommersant” unanimously spoke about “energy, crowds and general revival”, and not only directly in the “Ephemeral Palace” itself on the stands, but also in Parisian galleries.

The price range of works presented at Paris+ in the main program ranges from $10,000 to $6.5 million: this is how much Skarstedt Gallery Paris asked for Martin Kippenberger’s 1992 self-portrait. It was reserved for the museum collection on the first day. The lower bar has been raised – if at FIAC it was possible to find works of several thousand, this time the gallery owners hid all their “budget” artists, rolling out heavyweights: more than 30 works start from a million.

“Katastrophentheorie IV” (1983) by Sigmar Polke ($4-5 million) from Thaddaeus Ropac also got into the top three most expensive works on Paris+. The Austrian gallerist knows that great collectors of the German artist are found in Paris. Among them, for example, Francois Pinault, founder of the luxury giant Kering, owner of Christie’s and Bourse de Commerce. According to Kommersant’s information, his collection was also replenished on Paris +, but whether Polke is reserved for him is not to be asked. The American Frenchwoman Joan Mitchell performed in the same price category. By the way, another French art lover, Bernard Arnault, has a retrospective of her at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The David Zwirner Gallery sold her painting “Border” (1989) for $4.5 million to a private collection. The compact square picture “Untitled” (1963) by the American minimalist Robert Riemann ($3 million), and with it “Bouhouche” (2007) by Luc Teymans, a Belgian artist, to whom the same Francois Pinault is not indifferent ( $1.35 million). The millionth barrier was also taken by the transparent, as if water-filled sculpture-washer Roni Horn (surprisingly, also an artist from the Pino collection): $ 1.3 million went to the Brussels gallery Xavier Hufkens.

On the first day of Paris+, reserved for VIP visitors, heavyweight gallery Hauser & Wirth did the box office. For the freshest “Dream” (2022) in the form of a twisted muzzle, in which the hand of the American George Condo is instantly recognizable, – $ 2.65 million. For “Pink Paris” (1966) by the African-American abstract artist and expressionist Edward Clark (after his death in 2019 prices for his work are only growing) – one and a half million. Plus a million for the rapidly rising star of the American art scene, Rashid Johnson (“Sanctuary”, 2022).

The real capital of contemporary art (unlike, say, London) Paris has never been before and has not played a key role in this sector of the art market. But now, with the advent of large galleries in recent years, the development of private funds, the opening of the new Francois Pinault Museum – the locomotive of these transformations, everything is changing. Who knows, maybe with the help of Art Basel’s “fraud” the French capital will break out into real leaders.