Latest news with #ArtBasel
New York Times
5 hours ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A Lebanese Gallerist Marks 40 Years in the Industry With Three Shows
In 1985, Andrée Sfeir-Semler opened a small gallery bearing her name in the northern German city of Kiel. A Lebanese immigrant who had fled her country's 15-year-long civil war, Sfeir-Semler wanted to make her way in the European art world. Some 20 years later, during a visit to her home country as it was still healing from that war, she opened a second gallery among the bombed-out ruins of Beirut, Lebanon, the city of her birth, and began to embrace art and artists from the Arab world, having previously focused mostly on European artists. Now, Sfeir-Semler seems to be everywhere all at once. Her galleries will be a major presence at Art Basel this week, and, later this summer, exhibitions are planned at each location to mark their 40th and 20th anniversaries. Both venues will host a version of 'The Shade,' a show with works from 20 artists to honor the Beirut gallery, which has persisted even as Lebanon has fended off continued attacks from neighboring countries, dealt with an economic crisis and survived the Beirut port explosion in 2020. ('The Shade' begins Aug. 21 in Beirut and Sept. 4 in the German branch of the gallery; both iterations are currently scheduled to run until the end of the year.) Sfeir-Semler, 71, left Beirut with her family and immigrated to Germany in 1975. She studied at the University of Munich, the Sorbonne in Paris and Bielefeld University in Germany, where she earned her Ph.D., before opening her gallery in Kiel, with a focus on European artists. In 1998, she moved that gallery to Hamburg, continuing to work primarily with European artists. Her shift to representing mostly Arab artists came around the time that she opened the gallery's Beirut branch. This week at Art Basel, Sfeir-Semler Gallery's main booth will feature nine established and emerging artists from the Arab world, in what she described in a video interview as a 'dialogue between established voices and younger artists from my roster.' Also this week at the fair, two artists that the gallery represents, Walid Raad and Alia Farid, will be featured in the Unlimited sector, a portion of the fair devoted to large-scale work. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Forbes
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Highlight's From Art Basel 2025
Katharina Grosse's immersive artwork on the facade of Messe Basel Basel has returned to its most vibrant rhythm: museum openings, carefully curated satellite shows, and the flow of artists, collectors, and curators moving through the Swiss city that effortlessly hosts the global art world. At the heart of it all is Art Basel 2025, where over 290 leading galleries present works by more than 4,000 artists across the halls of Messe Basel - and beyond. Here are a my personal highlights from this year's edition. Before you even enter the halls of Messe Basel, one of this year's most striking works is impossible to miss: Artist Katharina Grosse sets the tone for the week. Her new site-specific installation unfolds across Messeplatz, wrapping the square and surrounding structures in sweeping fields of colour: bold, immediate, and impossible to overlook. Curated by Natalia Grabowska (Serpentine, London) the work transforms the public space into something between architecture and atmosphere. Katharina Grosse transforms Basel's Messeplatz into an artwork Also read: Standout Installations Art Basel's Unlimited, 2025 Made from glass and aluminum and measuring 218.4 x 279.4 x 6.4 cm, the work (made in 1967) features abstract gestural markings sandblasted directly into the glass surface. Installed as a full wall between the fair's corridor and the booth interior, the piece blurs the boundary between architecture and sculpture - typical of Heizer's explorations during the 1970s. Known primarily for his monumental earthworks, Heizer's glass works are rare and reflect his ongoing engagement with scale, space, and material. Originally created in 1976, this piece offers a rare chance to see his language applied to an interior, spatial context. Michael Heizer, Sandblasted Etched Glass Window, 1976 presented by Peter Freeman Inc. at Art Basel ... More 2025 FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder Presented by Helly Nahmad Galler, Concetto spaziale (Teatrino), 65 TE 4 (1965) by Lucio Fontana is a unique and striking example from his celebrated Teatrini series. Measuring 130 x 130 cm, the work combines water paint on canvas with a lacquered wood frame, creating a theatrical, dimensional border that enhances the iconic slashed surface. These pieces mark a pivotal moment in Fontana's evolution from monochrome spatial cuts to a more architectural framing of space and void. With its vivid chromatic contrast and sculptural presence, this 1965 Teatrino underscores Fontana's role in pushing painting beyond the canvas—into a spatial experience. Lucio Fontana, Concetto spaziale (Teatrino) 65 TE 4, 1965, water paint on canvas and lacquered wood ... More (130cm x 130cm) presented by Helly Nahmad Gallery at Art Basel 2025 This week at Art Basel, visitors will find a quiet, living intervention rising in the heart of the fair: Flora Renaissance, an open-air installation conceived by landscape architect Enzo Enea, presented on the terrace of Messe Basel. The work is part of the 15-year anniversary of the Enea Tree Museum near Lake Zurich, an ongoing project that fuses landscape architecture with contemporary art. With Flora Renaissance, Enea turns his focus to the high-stem orchard—a once-iconic element of the Swiss landscape, now largely erased. Fruit trees, vegetables, perennials, and a long communal table (tavolata) are brought together in a space that invites reflection on biodiversity, cultivation, and connection. Enzo Enea at Enea's Nature Installation Flora Renaissance at Art Basel 2025 Historically, Switzerland's orchard culture spanned millions of trees; by the mid-20th century, many were lost due to political shifts and agricultural policy. Enea's installation doesn't attempt to recreate the past, but proposes a future: rooted in ecological awareness, community, and the quiet strength of trees. By bringing nature into the context of Art Basel, Flora Renaissance expands the fair's vocabulary In the Premiere sector at Art Basel 2025, Cairo-based gallery Gypsum presents Dimitra Charamandas. Charamandas' large-scale paintings and low-lying sculptural panels, such as Mineral Bonds II and Carapace (both 2025), explore the geological language of landscapes - layered, sedimentary, almost tectonic in their stillness. Working with acrylic and shellac, her textured surfaces evoke both scientific cross-sections and dreamlike terrains, drawing viewers into a suspended moment between erosion and emergence. The presentation reflects Gypsum's continued commitment to thoughtful, process-driven practices from the Global South. Dimitra Charamandas works presented by GYPSUM at Art Basel's Premier Sector At Perrotin Gallery's booth during Art Basel 2025, two works by Julian Charrière stand out for their quiet intensity and conceptual depth (Midnight Zone - 98 Fathoms, 2025 and Midnight Zone - 152 Fathoms, 2025). Both pieces are part of the Midnight Zone series, which is the name of Charrière's larger solo exhibition at Museum Tinguely (currently on view, till November 2, 2025). That's where he traces the Rhine's flow into global maritime routes and examines water as a carrier of ecological memory, movement, and consequence. Seen together, the works move between poetic and unsettling, offering a striking reflection on our entanglement with the natural world. Julian Charriere, Midnight Zone at Perrotin Booth at Art Basel 2025 Friedrich Kunath's Tonight I Will Retire (2025), shown by Galerie Max Hetzler, brings his blend of melancholy and humor into a new landscape. An oil on canvas measuring 152.5 × 122.5 cm. The painting brings together Friedrich Kunath's signature mix of idyllic landscapes and quiet unease. Set against a twilight backdrop, a solitary cute ghost appears almost out of place, an image both understated and unresolved. Kunath's work often draws from German Romanticism, West Coast pop culture, and personal memory, using these references to explore themes of distance, longing, and contradiction. The result is a mood that feels familiar but never entirely understood - one that leaves space for reflection without insisting on it. Friedrich Kunath's Tonight I Will Retire (2025), shown by Galerie Max Hetzler at Art Basel 2025 Marianne Boesky Gallery presents Black Suzy (2025) by Ghada Amer. The work, made from cotton appliqué on cotton duck and measuring 152.4 × 114.3 cm, continues Amer's practice of using embroidery as a primary medium. By working with materials traditionally associated with domestic craft, she challenges the historical marginalization of textile arts and repositions them within the context of contemporary painting. In Black Suzy, fine black thread outlines the figure of a woman in a pose that resists passive representation. Amer's work often centers on female identity and agency, subverting the conventions of the male gaze through a technique that is as political as it is aesthetic. Black Suzy, 2025 by Ghada Amer, Marianne Boeksy Gallery at Art Basel 2025 Located in Hall 1, the Art Basel Shop is open to the public (free entry) to explore a curated mix of artist editions, rare collaborations, and fair-exclusive design. Katharina Grosse debuts hand-painted soccer balls and translucent bags, while limited pieces by Kasing Lung, Sasha Stiles, Daniel Arsham, and Amoako Boafo offer something truly collectible. You'll also find playful new takes on the Art Basel logo across apparel and accessories, along with talks, signings, and in-store moments that bring you closer to the artists. Curated by Stefanie Hessler, Director of the Swiss Institute in New York, this year's Parcours places over 20 works throughout Basel's city center, including along the riverfront and in everyday public and semi-public spaces. Under the title Second Nature, the exhibition explores how we relate to repetition, interruption, and perception - blurring distinctions between the organic and the constructed. Many of the works are newly commissioned for the setting, offering a quiet yet powerful dialogue with the city. Parcours invites you to encounter art beyond the fair halls. Hylozoic Desires; Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser as part of Art Basel Parcours in Basel
Business Times
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Business Times
At Art Basel, dealers reap rewards by sidestepping politics and war
ABOUT halfway through the opening day of Art Basel's fair in Switzerland, the dealer Larry Gagosian was sitting on a bench near his booth. Crowds—incredibly thick when the art fair opened to VIPs at 11 am —had dispersed a bit as grandees shuffled into the convention centre courtyard for lunch, queuing up for sausages, oysters and ice cream cones. Gagosian, though, seemed content to stay inside, overseeing a presentation that included an early Cy Twombly painting priced at over US$30 million. 'We've sold quite a few things, considering the state of the world,' he said. 'I'm encouraged that initially we've been doing quite a bit of business. We live in a crazy time, and I think that a lot of people want to take refuge in some other universe.' (Art Basel's VIP days ended June 18; public days are June 19–22.) It's true that Basel's week of dinners and cocktail parties and talks and openings have felt a world apart from the current geopolitical realities plaguing most of the globe. That was the case at Unlimited, an exhibition sector adjacent to Art Basel's main fair where many of the massive artworks on display were pleasantly inoffensive; and it was particularly true in the main fair, where gorgeous abstract paintings sat easily alongside landscapes and portraits. Expensive or cheap, new or historical, it didn't matter: Nearly every artwork on offer at the fair was lovely and apolitical. Playing it safe 'I think people brought fairly safe material,' said the American adviser Suzanne Modica, who was walking down the aisles of Art Basel to meet a client. 'Obviously, people are bringing things to sell.' That's in large part because the art market slump has lasted so long that it's arguably a permanent condition. As such, dealers, seemingly desperate to turn a profit, appeared just as reticent to go out on a limb as their collectors. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself. Sign Up Sign Up 'There's a severe correction currently in the market, meaning that everybody just wants to keep it running,' said Loa Haagen Pictet, the chief curator of Collection Pictet, who observed a preponderance of feel-good paintings and sculptures. 'There's a lot of colourful and exuberant art, a lot that's sort of surrealist but joyful,' she continued. 'It's out there, trying not to bring us down.' As a result, the few artworks that took an overtly political stand stood out starkly. At the Liste fair, which traditionally has cheaper work from smaller, younger galleries, the Dutch artist Jonas Staal had filled Laveronica gallery's booth with pictures of burning yachts. Price: 10,000 euros (US$11,480) for smaller work; 19,000 euros for a larger light box depicting a fake still of CNN whose chyron read 'Jeff Bezos' Super Yacht Set On Fire'. 'It's a political statement,' said the gallery's owner Corrado Gugliotta. 'But on the other hand, I have understood after the many years that I've done things like this, the market is able to absorb everything.' And in the main fair, Sprüth Magers had a large piece by American artist Barbara Kruger titled Untitled (WAR TIME, WAR CRIME), which included the phrase, among others 'CLASS WAR, BIDDING WAR, TRADE WAR, COLD WAR' and sold on the first day for US$650,000. 'We didn't go the route of other galleries and bring safer works only,' said senior director Andreas Gegner. 'It's always tempting to do that, but I think it's more important to stick to your identity and bring works that are maybe, on the face of it, more difficult.' A very good start Before the first day was over, it seemed that for many galleries, a less combative strategy had paid off. David Zwirner sent out a release that it had sold 68 works ('so far'), including a hanging mesh sculpture by Ruth Asawa for US$9.5 million. Hauser & Wirth reported selling 33 pieces, including a mixed media work by Mark Bradford for US$3.5 million. Thaddaeus Ropac gallery reported more than 20 sales, including a US$1.8 million painting of two upside-down figures by Georg Baselitz. 'We've had a very good start,' says Hauser & Wirth's partner and president Marc Payot. 'It's fantastic to see such a resilient market in what's all and all difficult times.' But if you looked closely enough, reality had seeped ever so quietly into the fair after all. 'There are certainly clients of our clients who've not been able to travel in the last 48 hours from Lebanon and Israel, who'd been intending to come,' said Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz, speaking in a conference room above the fair. 'So that's material. But on the other hand, we've seen, yet again, the global art world coming around an event like Art Basel and celebrating art, and celebrating the privilege of being in this community.' BLOOMBERG
Mid East Info
12 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Mid East Info
RM of BTS Becomes Samsung Art TV Global Ambassador - Middle East Business News and Information
RM, a global icon and a widely respected art connoisseur, has become the official face of Samsung Art TVs. As an ambassador, he will share his commentary on artwork via Samsung Art Store, inviting users and fans to explore the world of art through his unique lens. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announced RM of 21st century pop icons BTS as the official ambassador for Samsung Art TVs.[1] The appointment is one of RM's official activities following his highly anticipated return from mandatory military service in Korea. As a globally recognized art connoisseur, RM has made headlines for his deep appreciation of the arts, including visits to leading museums and his private collection of contemporary art work. Now, in his role as Samsung Art TV ambassador, RM will bring his distinctive voice and passion for visual art to Samsung TV users around the world. 'RM's passion for art and culture deeply resonates with our vision to make art more accessible through technology,' said Hun Lee, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display (VD) Business at Samsung Electronics. 'We're thrilled to welcome him as the ambassador for Samsung Art TVs, and we believe his voice will inspire a new generation to explore the world of art in meaningful, personal ways.' Samsung Art TVs, known for their fusion of advanced display technology and artistic expression, serve as immersive platforms where art comes to life. Through Samsung Art Store[2] — a subscription-based service featuring over 3,500 high-resolution artworks in 4K — users can now enjoy curated content with insights from RM himself. His personal reflections and commentary on select works will be accessible directly on Samsung Art Store, providing fans and art enthusiasts with a unique window into his aesthetic sensibilities. 'As someone who finds deep inspiration and comfort in art, I'm honored to partner with Samsung to share my journey and love for visual creativity,' said RM. 'Through this collaboration, I hope more people can connect with art in their everyday lives — just like I do.' As part of his new role, RM will appear at Art Basel, which is one of the world's premier international art fairs and is held in Basel, Switzerland. There, he will host a special session to share his thoughts on contemporary art, collecting and the cultural significance of visual storytelling. Highlights from this event, including exclusive insights and behind-the-scenes moments, will be published on the Samsung Global Newsroom. RM's partnership with Samsung Art TVs sets the stage for a new dialogue between art, technology and global pop culture. Through this collaboration, Samsung continues to elevate its commitment to making world-class art more accessible and personal — now with RM as the bridge between fans and the art world. [1] Samsung Art TVs include MICRO LED, The Frame, The Frame Pro, Neo QLED 8K, Neo QLED, and QLED models starting from Q7F and above. [2] Samsung Art Store is an art subscription service available on Samsung Art TVs, including The Frame, NEO QLEDs and QLEDs. Currently available in 117 countries around the world, Samsung Art Store offers over 70 partners and 3,500 artworks in 4K quality. Through Samsung Art Store, subscribers can enjoy artwork from world-class galleries and masters at home and use it to create new interior designs every day.
Business Recorder
13 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Art Basel shows more mid-priced art to a sombre market
BASEL, Switzerland: The world's biggest art fair takes place in Switzerland this week, with global crises creating a more sombre mood, according to participants, and galleries showing less expensive works amid a slump at the top end of the art market. A fixture since 1970, Art Basel is widely viewed as a key barometer for the health of global art sales. Works by over 4,000 artists are on show, including a Pablo Picasso painting valued at over $30 million shown by US gallery Pace. Global art sales fell 12% last year, the second annual decline in a row, according to a report by UBS. The drop was particularly sharp at the top end - defined as works selling at auction for over $10 million - where sales tumbled by 39%. 'It's true the galleries are bringing material that is in a different price point to what it used to be,' said Vincenzo de Bellis, Chief Artistic Officer and Global Director of Art Basel Fairs. 'And it's natural, there's a different expectation.' One artwork had sold for between $13-17 million by Wednesday, the only one to fetch at least $10 million over the first two days, sales confirmed by exhibitors show. Last year, four pieces worth $10-20 million sold during the same period. 'I think the mood is very subdued,' said Gaurav Madhok, a visitor from London who has been going for over 12 years. More than five gallery representatives said there were fewer American clients at stalls than in previous years. A separate UBS report showed a 4.6% jump in private individuals' wealth in 2024, with the U.S. faring especially well, creating over 1,000 new dollar millionaires daily. 'We've seen a lot of European curators,' said Georgia Lurie, a director of the Pippy Houldsworth gallery. 'But Americans are thin on the ground, both collectors and museum people.'
