Day: 19 June 2019

Art Basel is one of the most influential art fairs in the world and is represented by 290 galleries from 34 countries. Almost 100,000 people headed to Basel in Switzerland to find out what the best world galleries had to offer.

Among the names at the 50th edition of Art Basel VIP opening was singer Rihanna, megacollectors Leon Black, Eugenio López Alonso, Jean Pigozzi, and Monaco based art collectors Laurent Asscher and Maurice Amon.

The most scale-striking and discussed artwork was the massive Jeff Koons stainless steel sculpture Sacred Heart (magenta/gold) with an asking price of $14.5 million. The artist has proven to be the most expensive living artist at auction with his $91 million Rabbit sculpture, which was sold at auction last year by mega-collector Steven Cohen.

Art Basel recorded a new record sale with David Zwirner Gerhard Richter’s 1966 photo painting Versammlung, which sold for $20 million. The piece has been in a private collection since 1970 and is fresh to the market. The gallery also sold a large 1967 painting by Joan Mitchell for more than $6 million.

Landau Fine Art from Montreal represented one of the most affecting masterworks of the fair, Alberto Giacometti’s ‘Caroline’ 1963, with an asking price of $18.5 million.

Hauser & Wirth representing the John Chamberlain estate sold its sculpture for $3 million and a Louis Bourgeois sculpture for around $2 million. The most expensive works presented at their booth was by Cy Twombly and Lucio Fontana (no official report on the sales of the latter).

The Art Basel fair opened just a few weeks after the 58th edition of the Venice Biennale, and one art-market adage is “See in Venice, buy in Basel”, as many works featured in Venice appear in the booths at Basel.

The #MeToo Movement has been widely represented at the art fair, with the Unlimited section focussing heavily on sexual harassment at work place, which sparked numerous negative and positive reactions. Many women who were the collective image in artworks at Unlimited were survivors and had been through a lot before they decided to come forward. Andrea Bower’s work Open Secret documented international movements against sexual harassment and assault based on approximately 200 photographic prints on a red background listing the name and occupation of the accused person.

Another strongly representational work was ‘Sex Doll’ by Hans-Peter Feldmann with the Mehdi Chouakri (Berlin) gallery and an asking price of 100,000 euros.

‘Gender pay gap’ was another topic discussed at the fair. Living female artists are nowadays making the historical correction of underrepresentation of female artists throughout art history and it was clearly seen at the fair from mega galleries like David Zwirner to smaller ones.

Mary Weatherford has been extremely contested among 20 to 30 collectors at Gagosian gallery who sold it to a distinguished European collector for just under $500,000.

Another painting was also sold for $400,000 to a foundation in Asia at David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles). Hauser & Wirth represent approximately 30 to 40 female artists in their gallery, similar to the David Zwirner gallery which has 50/50% gender representation of both living artists and the estates that the gallery represent.

However, on average across all galleries the gender representation is 30% women and 70% men. Of the 100 top-selling artists, only five are women.

By Liliya Tippetts

The incredible work of bees, their protection and the role of beekeepers were all on the agenda as APIdays celebrated its 10 year anniversary with local school kids.

Launched by the National Union of French Apiculture (UNAF), the APIdays® are part of the national program ‘Bee, Sentinel of the Environment’, of which the Principality has been a member since 2011. The APIdays® facilitate the organisation of events in the 130 partner sites, including the Principality of Monaco.

Every year in June, the Urban Planning Department organises an information day by offering educational and fun workshops and an exhibition to raise public awareness about bees, wild pollinators and beekeeping.

Several classes of schools in the Principality were welcomed to attend the honey harvest of the Monégasque apiary located on the roof of the Museum of Stamps and Coins in Fontvieille, and also to participate in various awareness workshops.

This year the exhibition took place outdoors on the terraces of the UNESCO Garden, in an effort to ecourage young students to adopt concrete measures in the protection of bees and the development of beekeeping.

The 10th edition was held under the theme ‘The Bee: Best Worker of France’, highlighting the multiple skills of the bee.

The Mayor of Monaco has announced that a Street Art Challenge for students in the Principality will be taking place as part of the upcoming Urban Painting Around the World (UPAW) event.

Created by students from Charles III College, the first edition of the Street Art Challenge Junior contest will take place from 25th June at the UPAW event at Stars’N’Bars, with an awards ceremony on 27^th June at 5pm, just ahead of an auction of the exhibition at 5.30pm.

The challenge is being implemented thanks to the participation of Alberto Colman, director of WSM Events.

Considering art is also about procuring and producing emotions, students will have the opportunity to show their talent and use the same type of canvas as the international artists who will also be present.

The jury, which is composed of UPAW street artists, elected municipal officials, Willem Speerstra, artistic director, José Giannotti and Paolo di Nola will award a prize to the winning student group.

The aim of the event is for young people to present their work and to meet artists, perhaps even unveil future talents.