ART BASEL

Jun 22

Back in June, Art Basel 2022 welcomes more than 250 international galleries from 40 countries, including the record sale for Louise Bourgeois and works by the late Paula Rego.

Louise Bourgeois (France, 1911-2010). *Spider*, 1996. Installation View. Hauser & Wirth. Steel. 326.4 x 757 x 706 cm / 128 1/2 x 298 x 278. Courtesy of Louise Bourgeois, Photo by Jon Etter.

Paula Rego (Portugal, 1935-2022). *Dream of Paradise*, 2015. Pastel on paper on aluminium. 119.2 x 160.2 (cm). 46.9 x 63.1 (inch). Victoria Miro. Courtesy of Paula Rego.

This year’s edition, the first in June since 2019, has gathered works by established artists like Jesús Rafael Soto, Emilio Vedova, or Simone Leigh, emerging artists like Catalina Ouyang or Dominique White and first-timers like OH Gallery or Jahmek Contemporary Art.

Last week was hectic, starting with the record sale of the work Spider (1996) by the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois for 40 million USD. Those of us who have been lucky enough to stand under a Bourgeois’ spider know that you don’t feel frightened, endangered, or threatened. You feel the embrace; you feel, in a way, protected. The artist chose the spider as the subject of many of her works because they are hardworking and look after their offspring, which reminded Bourgeois of her mother. An apparent duality: a caring mother who is fierce when protecting her children.

Other noteworthy sales have been an Arshile Gorky work on paper for $5.5 million and a Francis Picabia for $4 million, both represented by Hauser & Wirth. Hannah Wilke’s sculpture for $1.5 million, Lynda Benglis’s large-scale abstract sculpture for $1.2 million, or Jeff Koon’s NFTs sold for $2 million each.

Dream of Paradise (2015) by the late Paula Rego, based on the novel Cousin Bazilio by the Portuguese writer Eça de Queiroz. Puppet-like figures, as if we are in the middle of a theater play surrounded by these inanimate objects meant to be for children but look disturbing and unsettling. Paula Rego, who passed away earlier this month, was interested in depicting the harsh reality we live in, covering controversial topics such as abortion, sexual trafficking, and female genital mutilation.

Among the following selection, we’ll find works like Untitled (2022) by the Spanish artist Secundino Hernández, where we see glimpses of color all over the surface, trying to break free from the heavy black paint dominating the canvas, so much so that we see large parts of it completely covered. The artist works with subtraction technique, removing paint with a palette knife, a brush, a cloth… Hernández is known for his large-scale paintings and has become an important figure on the international scene. In Rashid Rana’s works, we see the deconstructions and reconstructions of existing pieces, like in Two Ways to a View IV, 2017 - 2018, using a still life by Jan Davidsz. de Heem (c. 1660). Rana divides the original work and puts back the pieces in a new order, creating a new understanding of it, a reinterpretation that gives the piece a space to exist in the contemporary scene. In Don't Give Up (Mary Cassatt, Mother and Child, c. 1889, & The Family, c. 1886), 2022, Ei Arakawa chooses works by American painter Mary Cassatt (1844-1926), among others, and represents them using 4500 LEDs on hand-dyed fabric with grommets, where he opens a conversation around being an artist but also a parent and how both can coexist. Artists we’ve seen at the Biennale di Venezia like Simone Leigh with Akimbo, 2022, Cosima von Bonin with WHAT IF IT BARKS 4 (GERRY LOPEZ SURFBOARD VERSION), 2018 or Rebecca Horn with Love and Hate. Knuggle Dome for James Joyce, 2004, which are part of this year’s edition.

Here is our full selection of works.