Latest news with #DavidZwirner
Business Recorder
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
Art market banking on new generation of collectors
ZURICH: The global art market is not immune to current economic and geopolitical tensions, and is counting on a new generation of collectors to revitalise the momentum. Some big transactions were concluded last week during Art Basel, the world's top contemporary art fair, notably by London's Annely Juda Fine Art gallery, which sold a David Hockney painting for between $13 million and $17 million, without disclosing the exact price. The David Zwirner gallery sold a sculpture by Ruth Asawa for $9.5 million and a Gerhard Richter painting for $6.8 million. However, prices did not reach the heights achieved in 2022, when the art market was in full swing. Back then, a sculpture by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois was purchased for $40 million. 'The market is certainly softer,' Art Basel's chief executive Noah Horowitz told AFP, though major sales still happen at such fairs 'despite, somehow, all that's going on in the world'. Switzerland's biggest bank UBS and the research and consulting firm Arts Economics prepared a report for the fair. According to their estimates, the art market slowed in 2023, then fell by 12 percent globally in 2024, to $57.5 billion, with the decline particularly affecting works valued at more than $10 million. 'In the next six to 12 months, I don't see any changes on the horizon,' said Hans Laenen, an art market specialist at insurer AXA XL. In a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, 'investors are turning very strongly to gold', he told AFP. In the art sector, behaviour is 'more conservative' among both buyers and sellers, who prefer to wait before putting works on the market in the current climate, he continues. 'The number of transactions is increasing,' but in 'lower price segments,' he noted. According to the insurance firm Hiscox, the number of lots sold for less than $50,000 increased by 20 percent in auction houses in 2024, while very highly priced works saw a sharp drop, indicating a change in collector behaviour. New generation According to Jean Gazancon, chief executive of art insurer Arte Generali, a younger generation of collectors is entering the market. 'We are insuring more and more 30-somethings for collections of 300,000, 500,000, or a million euros,' he noted. 'These are successful start-uppers, investment bankers, lawyers, or sometimes people who have inherited,' and they begin their collections 'very young', sometimes making 'very radical' choices, he said. UBS expects that trend to increase. According to its projections, an unprecedented wealth transfer will take place over the next 20 to 25 years with the general ageing of the population. Globally, around $83 trillion in assets will change hands, it says, meaning 'there's a whole new generation of collectors coming to the market with different buying patterns', said Eric Landolt, global co-head of the family advisory, art and collecting department at UBS. The four-day Art Basel fair, which closed on Sunday, featured more than 280 galleries presenting works by around 4,000 artists. It is a must for collectors, who can buy everything from Pablo Picasso paintings to very recent works. The Thaddaeus Ropac galleries notably offered a portrait of Pope Leo XIV by the Chinese-French artist Yan Pei-Ming. It also highlights young artists, such as Joyce Joumaa, 27, who jointly won the 2025 Baloise Art Prize for her work focusing on the energy crisis in Lebanon.
France 24
14 hours ago
- Business
- France 24
Art market banking on new generation of collectors
Some big transactions were concluded last week during Art Basel, the world's top contemporary art fair, notably by London's Annely Juda Fine Art gallery, which sold a David Hockney painting for between $13 million and $17 million, without disclosing the exact price. The David Zwirner gallery sold a sculpture by Ruth Asawa for $9.5 million and a Gerhard Richter painting for $6.8 million. However, prices did not reach the heights achieved in 2022, when the art market was in full swing. Back then, a sculpture by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois was purchased for $40 million. "The market is certainly softer," Art Basel's chief executive Noah Horowitz told AFP, though major sales still happen at such fairs "despite, somehow, all that's going on in the world". Switzerland's biggest bank UBS and the research and consulting firm Arts Economics prepared a report for the fair. According to their estimates, the art market slowed in 2023, then fell by 12 percent globally in 2024, to $57.5 billion, with the decline particularly affecting works valued at more than $10 million. "In the next six to 12 months, I don't see any changes on the horizon," said Hans Laenen, an art market specialist at insurer AXA XL. In a time of economic and geopolitical uncertainties, "investors are turning very strongly to gold", he told AFP. In the art sector, behaviour is "more conservative" among both buyers and sellers, who prefer to wait before putting works on the market in the current climate, he continues. "The number of transactions is increasing," but in "lower price segments," he noted. According to the insurance firm Hiscox, the number of lots sold for less than $50,000 increased by 20 percent in auction houses in 2024, while very highly priced works saw a sharp drop, indicating a change in collector behaviour. New generation According to Jean Gazancon, chief executive of art insurer Arte Generali, a younger generation of collectors is entering the market. "We are insuring more and more 30-somethings for collections of 300,000, 500,000, or a million euros," he noted. "These are successful start-uppers, investment bankers, lawyers, or sometimes people who have inherited," and they begin their collections "very young", sometimes making "very radical" choices, he said. UBS expects that trend to increase. According to its projections, an unprecedented wealth transfer will take place over the next 20 to 25 years with the general ageing of the population. Globally, around $83 trillion in assets will change hands, it says, meaning "there's a whole new generation of collectors coming to the market with different buying patterns", said Eric Landolt, global co-head of the family advisory, art and collecting department at UBS. The four-day Art Basel fair, which closed on Sunday, featured more than 280 galleries presenting works by around 4,000 artists. It is a must for collectors, who can buy everything from Pablo Picasso paintings to very recent works. The Thaddaeus Ropac galleries notably offered a portrait of Pope Leo XIV by the Chinese-French artist Yan Pei-Ming. It also highlights young artists, such as Joyce Joumaa, 27, who jointly won the 2025 Baloise Art Prize for her work focusing on the energy crisis in Lebanon. © 2025 AFP
Hypebeast
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Huma Bhabha's 'Distant Star' Lands at David Zwirner Paris
Summary David Zwirner's Paris gallery is presentingDistant Star, a new solo exhibition by Pakistani American artistHuma Bhabha. Known for her eerie, hybrid forms, Bhabha debuts six sculptures and a group of large-scale drawings that explore themes of time, decay and transformation. At the front of the gallery stands the centerpiece sculpture, 'Distant Star' (2025). Cast in iron, the rust-toned figure resembles a watchful guardian. Its surface will continue to oxidize over time, reinforcing Bhabha's idea of time as a sculptural force. Inside the gallery, five sculptures made from cork, clay, Styrofoam and found materials stand on black plinths like unearthed relics. Bhabha carves and layers these forms, adding wet clay to enhance their rough, scarred surfaces. Some figures feature skeletal heads made from animal skulls and wire, evoking ruins both ancient and futuristic. Surrounding the sculptures are large drawings composed of ink and collage. Each features a hooded figure with cut-out eyes, referencing both medieval religious portraits and contemporary streetwear. These portraits, stripped of facial features, appear haunting yet human. Distant Staris Bhabha's first solo show in Paris since 2009. It runs alongsideEncounters: Giacomettiat London's Barbican Centre, where her work is on view in dialogue with the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti. David Zwirner Paris108 Rue Vieille du Temple75003 ParisFrance
The Guardian
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘You might find it scary': artist Huma Bhabha squares up to Giacometti with wellies, skulls and teeth
Two tonnes of Huma Bhabha's works greet you before you even reach the entrance of her new exhibition at the Barbican in London. They are four powerful ancient-looking giants, with rough-hewn surfaces, gouged and blackened (the effect achieved by first carving in cork, then casting in patinated bronze). With their enormous skull heads towering above you, baring pincers and rows of teeth, it's as if you've stumbled on the set for an apocalyptic sci-fi film. 'It seems they're suddenly here, as if they've just come out of the elevator,' Bhabha says affectionately. Bhabha is here to install her work alongside 10 sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, her first public display in the UK since 2020. 'Encounters: Giacometti' is the first in a three-part exhibition series organised with the Giacometti Foundation, bringing contemporary artists – Bhabha being the first – into dialogue with the 20th-century Swiss sculptor in a brand new gallery at the Barbican, once the centre's brasserie. It's a bright L-shaped space on the second floor with wide views across the Barbican estate's dyed-green waters. View image in fullscreen Magic Carpet, 2003 by Huma Bhabha. Photograph: Kerry McFate/Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery Bhabha first encountered Giacometti's work as an undergraduate at Rhode Island School of Design. Years later, when she made her first artwork sales, a Giacometti book was the first thing she bought with the money. 'I was nervous of course to be in the same room with Giacometti', Bhabha confesses, as we sit on the terrace talking, her works looking down on us. 'But the works seem to be compatible, they're enjoying each other's company.' 'Encounters: Giacometti' emphasises the shared sensibilities between the two artists: angry, angsty figures that evoke a sense of ruin, destruction and existential anxiety; rough, urgently worked surfaces; stretched, fragmented and dismembered body parts – harbingers of desolation in a horrible reality. 'Giacometti's work was like that because of what he had experienced and the times he lived in, and I'm also aware of similar things. It's interesting how times don't change,' Bhabha says. 'It's the world we live in, it's full of death. The amount of manmade destruction can really overpower you. It is hard to get away from it.' There is synergy between their ideas and responses to the horrors of the world, but the results are often radically different: Bhabha's dense, furious, cataclysmic; Giacometti's awkward, vulnerable, delicate. Both artists crib classical poses from traditional sculpture: standing, seated, and reclining figures, but experiment with non-traditional expressions for them, merging the human form with all the other stuff that surrounds life. As Giacometti once put it: 'I don't sculpt people, I sculpt solitude.' Though Bhabha has long acknowledged Giacometti as an influence, 'I'm not interested in re-doing another artist's work. It's an absorbed kind of influence – I might think of him when I'm making a nose, or a head, or opening up a chest cavity. I am very attracted to the way he applies the clay and his mark-marking, which is almost graffiti-like.' View image in fullscreen 'I'm not interested in re-doing another artist's work' … Special Guest Star by Huma Bhabha. Photograph: Kerry McFate/Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery Bhabha grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, and moved to the US to study art, encouraged by her parents – her mother was a talented but unrecognised artist and Bhabha grew up surrounded by her paintings and drawings at home. She initially trained as a painter and printmaker, but in the 1990s after graduating began to put found objects together into three-dimensional pieces. 'Even now technically my work is assemblage, I put different objects together from different places, and somehow they feel they have always been together.' After 13 years living in New York, Bhabha and her husband (the artist Jason Fox) moved upstate to the more affordable Poughkeepsie, a small town in the Hudson River Valley region, where she still lives. When she first moved there, she worked for two years as a finisher for a taxidermist. It proved to be an important time. 'The way they construct their dioramas and build armatures was very influential on my work at that point. I adapted how they used chickenwire and built armatures with wood.' She also amassed a collection of skulls, horns, and bones destined for the dump that still appear in her works today. 'They thought it was funny that I collected that stuff. 'I've been collecting stuff for a long time – I don't go out looking for a specific thing, I have a lot of chunks of wood, pieces of rusted metal, I'm very attracted to stuff like that. In America you find all kinds of things – people just take off their clothes and leave them there.' This mashup of materials is what gives Bhabha's work its contemporary beat, while still incorporating traditional bronze, plaster, terracotta and clay. A pair of black rubber boots she found abandoned behind her first home in Poughkeepsie became the earliest work included in the Barbican show: a sculpture made for her first solo exhibition in 2004. The artist recently purchased it back at an auction. To the thick, industrial boots she added truncated legs, sculpted intuitively with foam spray then plaster, painted in contrasting skin tones. The boots appear to levitate on a raised plexi platform; under the feet is a remnant of a carpet from her childhood home in Pakistan. 'It's very much about being in love.' View image in fullscreen 'I've been collecting stuff for a long time' … Nothing Falls by Huma Bhabha. Photograph: Kerry McFate/Courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner Gallery 'My work is very emotional and emotive,' Bhabha says. A work titled Special Guest Star lies on a tilted platform. It too represents a body, reclining or crawling up from the ground along a plywood plank. Its head consists of the inside of deer's horns (from the taxidermy days), the body is Bhabha's old scrunched-up T-shirt. In a 'nod to Jasper Johns' a paintbrush is intended as a vagina; ornamental tin scraps a roof are slippers. 'I'm trying to make my own language.' A large seated figure, Mask of Dimitrios, almost collides with the low ceiling. Its clay legs are a direct reference to Giacometti's mottled, pock-marked textures; two plastic bags are suspended in a void where the chest should be. 'Initially I thought of them as breasts, but they also could be lungs'. It's humorous, and gnarly, but Bhabha has become the queen of the grotesque. 'I don't see the grotesque as a negative, it's fine!' The mask-like face is in fact a mould for a different work, salvaged from the foundry which cast Bhabha's sculptures. Works are often spawned from each other, adding to the unpredictable evolution of Bhabha's work. Another important reference for Bhabha is cinema – especially the handcrafted special effects of 1980s horror films, though she doesn't like 'camp'. 'Sci-fi and horror is a genre I've enjoyed most of my life, I guess I have a high tolerance for it – and there's not much else to do where I live. It's all CGI now which is OK, but there's a bit of that density lost, it feels hollow.' Her monstrous, hybrid forms are freighted with heated desires and dark humour, collecting in serried layers of materials. It's an intense viewing experience. 'You might find it scary or too confrontational, but you're still attracted to it, you can't just walk away from it – that's important for me, to keep you coming back.'
South China Morning Post
26-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
US-linked galleries at Art Basel Hong Kong unfazed by potential trade war impact
Galleries with links to the United States that are taking part in Art Basel Hong Kong have said they are unconcerned by the trade war potentially affecting business, adding that they expect sales to improve from last year's event. Advertisement The city's edition of the international art fair welcomed 240 galleries from 42 countries and regions, a slight drop of two participants from last year. It is among a string of government-sponsored mega-events grouped under the city's 'Art March' promotional drive. The event at Wan Chai's Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre opened to VIPs on Wednesday. Patrons holding public day tickets will be able to attend from 2pm on Friday, before the art fair wraps up on Sunday. David Zwirner, founder of his eponymous gallery, which operates in New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris and Hong Kong, said he had not observed any effect on business resulting from the US-China trade war. Advertisement 'All the tariff talk can affect us, of course, but since it's all been talk so far, nothing has really bitten,' the regular Art Basel Hong Kong participant said, adding that the trade war had also not affected the potential buying sentiment of collectors.
