Does showing at Venice affect sales in Basel? “Yes, totally,” says Rachel Lehmann of Lehmann Maupin (H3). She is showing works by Tracey Emin, who the gallery represents in the US and who was chosen for the British pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Everything except one drawing has been sold, including a large appliqué hanging, Hotel International, 1993, which came back to the gallery from a client and was priced between $600,000 and $1m and a neon, Sleeping with You, 2007, priced at £35,000 ($70,000).
“Emin is representing a country, she has been chosen by a committee of the country, and Britain is one of the most prestigious pavilions,” said Ms Lehmann. And she confirms Venice had an impact on prices.
Indeed the selling started in Italy: Emin’s British gallery, White Cube (E5), was openly selling pieces from the pavilion for between £3,000 and over £100,000 ($6,000-$200,000). Although her show was poorly received critically, 75% of the available art found buyers.
Another talked-about pavilion was Russia’s. Interest focused on Last Riot (2007), a gigantic, three-channel work by the collective AES+F Group combining animation, androgynous adolescents engaged in mock battles and a Wagnerian soundtrack. The videos all sold ($200,000 for the three-channel edition of three), one to an Australian museum. At Art Basel, stills from the work have been popular at Noire (C7) with some still available at €15,000 ($19,500) each (edition of ten).
Over at Volta, the Brazilian Galerie Leme is showing works by the British artist Neil Hamon, who makes photographs re-enacting historic wars. Hamon was included in the Robert Storr curated Arsenale show, “Think with the Senses, Feel with the Mind”. Many of his photographs, in editions of three, have already sold out, at $7,000 each.
However, Biennale exposure does not guarantee sales at Art Basel. Sophie Calle was praised in Venice for her Take Care of Yourself, (2007), in which a range of people comment on a break-up email she had received. But at the stand of Cooper (Q4) none of the three works by her had sold. At Perrotin (M4), her Journey to California, (2003), priced at €120,000 ($156,000) and only available for sale to a museum or a foundation, was unsold yesterday. Other pieces at Perrotin however, from her 1984-99 Exquisite Pain, are selling well at €45,000 ($58,500).
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper Art Basel Daily as 'Venice boost for Basel sales'