Art Basel Miami Beach 2014: big-ticket artists and collectors bring the Floridian fair to the fore

Visitors to Art Basel in Miami this week didn’t have to walk much beyond the entrance to get the message that the fair was taking its art seriously. On the left, at Helly Nahmad’s booth, an enormous black Alexander Calder mobile, 'Rouge Triomphant' (1959 -1962), was elegantly housed in its own white space – a spectacular piece with an equally spectacular $35million price tag.
Straight ahead, at Galerie Gmurzynska, a $1million Picasso fresco was attracting attention. The Swiss gallery, celebrating 50 years in the business, had brought in Baz Luhrmann (much in evidence, and looking joyfully younger as the years go by) to curate its birthday exhibition. The Australian director had made some classy choices, including a delicate Yves Klein 1961 fire painting where the trace left on the paper had an almost Brâncuși-like form.
After these grand gestures, the fair returned swiftly to the present day. At Sadie Coles, a ceiling installation comprising 1080 plaster 'raindrops' by Urs Fischer filled the booth with drops of colour graduating from green to yellow. At Gavin Brown Enterprises, eight garish paintings by the ever-eager-to-shock Bjarne Melgaard – all punkish voodoo faces and big dicks – had sold in the show’s opening hours at $45,000 a pop. (Melgaard had gone and spent a share of the profits at the Mr Nobody and Mr Somebody pop-up store in the Design District where fashion designer Bernhard Wilhelm’s back catalogue was on sale.)
Meanwhile, Swiss gallery Hauser & Wirth made a tactical nod to North America, where it will open a dazzling new space in Los Angeles sometime next year. 'We’re showing America at its finest,' said Iwan Wirth, of Los Angeles artists Diana Thater and Mark Bradford, while Paul McCarthy’s 'White Snow, Bambi' eclipsed the lot – a three-metre high tangle of pigs heads, hooves and human faces telling a hallucinatory X-rated fairy tale.
Over at Kavi Gupta Gallery, one of Mickalene Thomas’ fanatically detailed 1970s room sets was functioning as an artwork/resting place for tired visitors. 'Bringing this to Miami was a labour of love,' said Gupta surveying the scene. Thomas’ mission is to tell the story of Black America, and to freeze frame the minutiae of daily life. These included a pair of Crocs in highly polished cast bronze – quite possibly the first time that this footwear has looked even vaguely desirable.
'Rouge Triomphant',1959 -1962, at the Helly Nahmad booth
Over at Galerie Gmurzynska, a $1million Picasso fresco (second from left) was attracting attention
The Swiss gallery, celebrating 50 years in the business, had brought in Australian director Baz Luhrmann to curate its birthday exhibition
At Sadie Coles, a ceiling installation comprising 1080 plaster 'raindrops' by Urs Fischer filled the booth with drops of colour graduating from green to yellow
‘Melodrama’, 2013, at the Sadie Coles booth
Meanwhile, Swiss/London gallery Hauser & Wirth made a tactical nod to North America, where it will open a dazzling new space in Los Angeles sometime next year
'Peonies', 2011. 'We’re showing America at its finest,' said Iwan Wirth, of Los Angeles artists Diana Thater and Mark Bradford
Paul McCarthy’s 'White Snow, Bambi' eclipsed the lot – a three-metre high tangle of pigs heads, hooves and human faces telling a hallucinatory X-rated fairy tale
‘Untitled’, by Mark Bradford, 2014, at the Hauser & Wirth stand.
Kavi Gupta Gallery presented one of Mickalene Thomas’ fanatically detailed 1970s room sets, which functioned as an artwork/resting place for tired visitors, complete with a pair of Crocs in highly polished cast bronze
'Bringing this to Miami was a labour love,' said Gupta surveying the scene. Thomas’ mission is to tell the story of Black America, and to freeze frame the minutiae of daily life
Elsewhere, Locust Projects unveiled 'Welcome to the Future', a major site-specific installation by Daniel Arsham. For the installation, Arsham transformed the gallery into an excavation site, digging a trench in its floor and filling it with calcified 20th century media devices
The pit held mounds of boom boxes, electric guitars, SLR cameras, Blackberries, Nintendo controllers, VHS tapes, Walkmans, film projectors, and portable televisions, rendered in crystal, volcanic ash, and other minerals
As a child, Arsham survived Hurricane Andrew huddled in a closet of his family’s Miami home. The wreckage he encountered in the storm’s aftermath influences his perception of architectural spaces
At the Bass Museum of Art, architect Peter Marino’s multifaceted ouevre is explored through art at the Jerôme Sans-curated retrospective
Presenting the architect’s work alongside pieces from his personal art collection and a series of cast-bronze chests (pictured), the exhibition also includes new work commissioned by Marino from artists Gregor Hildebrandt, Guy Limone, Jean-Michel Othoniel and Erwin Wurm.
Detail of site-specific commission 'Black Rosaries', by Jean-Michel Othoniel, 2014, at the Bass Museum of Art. Courtesy of Jean-Michel Othoniel.
'Red, Black And Grey-White Tapestry', 2014, frames Andy Warhol's 'Human Heart', circa 1979, at the Bass Museum of Art. The exhibition runs until 3 May 2015
Argentinian Paris-based artist Julio Le Parc kicked off proceedings in Miami at 444 Brickell Avenue with developer and collector Jorge Perez during a private unveiling of two sculptures, 'Sphère Rouge' (pictured) and 'Torsion 1'
'Torsion 1', 1999-2014
Ryan McNamara’s restaged his immersive performance 'ME3M 4 Miami: a Story Ballet About the Internet', which explores web surfing.
Liz Glynn and Dawn Kasper peformed 'cosmo[il]logical', reflecting on the origins of the universe.
This year's public commissions included Ryan Gander's 'Never has there been such urgency, or The Eloquent and the Gaga – (Alchemy Box #45)', 2014, shown by Lisson Gallery.
'Mirror Angle Fragments (3x60°)', by Jeppe Hein, 2014, presented by Berlin gallery Johann König.
'GOD 5', by Florian & Michael Quistrebert, 2014, at the Galerie Juliette Jongma stand.
Paul Scholper Gallery exhibited various works by Damien Hirst from his recent 'Schizophrenogenesis' series.
'Untitled', by David Shrigley, 2014, at the BQ stand. Courtesy of BQ, Berlin, and Stephen Friedmann Gallery, London
'Homesick', by Hrair Sarkissian, 2014, at the Kalfayan Galleries stand.
'Great Nymph mother', by Mike Bouchet, 2014 at the Peres Projects stand.
ADDRESS
Miami Beach Convention Center
1901 Convention Center Drive
Miami Beach
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