As America’s top contemporary art fair opened its doors to the 8,500 VIP invitees on 6 December, there were the now customary scenes: people running down the aisles, stands stripped in an hour and dealers refusing to reserve works on show for more than “the time to have an espresso”.
The New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch, placed at the entrance to the fair held in Miami Beach’s vast conference centre (6-10 December), had sold virtually everything on display within one hour of opening: “From 12 to 12.15, we had every major curator and collector standing in the booth: the first half hour was astonishing,” he said. He sold works in the $2,500-$3,500 range by Ted Mineo, as well as Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Dos Cabezas, 1982, (created as a present to Andy Warhol) which went to the trader Alberto Mugrabi for $5.5m.
Among the collectors at the art-mart extravaganza were Eli Broad, Marie-Josée Kravis, the president of the board of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, local collectors Mera and Don Rubell, David Teiger, Douglas Cramer and Rosa and Carlos de La Cruz. Joining them was a smattering of celebrities including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Dennis Hopper, Keanu Reeves, Steve Martin and Calvin Klein.
Some of the visitors were coming from far afield, with collectors from countries including Turkey and Indonesia. An Armenian museum was the buyer of Jaume Plensa’s Sitting Tattoo, IV, 2006, sold by the Richard Gray gallery. Among the countries with well known collectors, the numbers were also up.
“We’ve seen 20 collectors from Japan; last year it was only ten,” said Tokyo dealer Tomio Koyama. “There’s a new group of young rich people in Japan who became interested in the art market.” These included several officials from the Hara Museum plus major collectors Yoshiko Mori and Takeo Obayashi.
Two groups of Chinese collectors were also present, including film producer Yu Tianhong, Mercedes-mogul Yang Bin and Shanghai real-estate king Dai Zhikang. “We sold a higher percentage to new people. Seventy per cent of sales went to new clients, including Americans, Dutch, Japanese and Belgians,” said Marianne Boesky.
Then there were the Russians: Sergei Khripoun of XL gallery said just five collectors attended last year, whereas this year a much larger contingent arrived to visit Modus R, an exhibition of artists from Moscow and St Petersburg (see p46). The number of French, Belgian and German collectors was also up.
As the buying abated, mainly for a want of anything available, dealers observed a new trend: increased interest from Latin American collectors. Jose Kuri, of Kurimanzutto, said: “They have been coming since the beginning but now they are starting to expand their horizons.”
Buying was going both ways. “In the past, we sold to Latin Americans and Spanish clients,” said Ricardo Trevisan of São Paulo’s Casa Triangulo. “Now sales are to Americans with important collections.”
The success of Art Basel/Miami Beach has spawned a host of subsidiary fairs, from an enlarged Scope to the tiny Bridge art fair. Scope has morphed from a downmarket fair taking place in scruffy hotel rooms into an upmarket venture, boasting 99 dealers from 14 countries. Top collectors were also attracted to the Nada fair (New Art Dealers’ Alliance), and within minutes of its opening, collectors were putting second and even third reserves on some works. There was also Ink, the print fair, Aqua, a fair with mainly West Coast dealers, Pulse, Photo Miami, Frisbee and others, 13 in all.
“It felt like a sunny Saturday in Soho in May 1988—on steroids,” said a beaming Mary Boone, as Art Basel/Miami Beach ended. It was the first time the Manhattan dealer had ever participated in a fair.
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'Art Basel/Miami Beach: more international than ever'