Art Basel | Miami Beach 2008, the annual pilgrimage for buyers, sellers and lovers of contemporary art is now history. But the blogsphere continues to buzz with all manner of reviews and highlights, and lots of great images of the art.
So, if you’d like to visit the show from the comfort of your own internet tube I present below three of the best blogs for the serious ABMB art fair watcher.
Joanne Mattera does an outstanding job of reviewing the event and its many sideshows, complete with lots of gorgeous photos of, what seems like, all the art on exhibit!
Kimberly Brooks has a great sampling of images with no commentary.
I’m missing Art Basel | Miami this year. Last year’s event and surrounding shows displayed so much contemporary (and some modern) art, from so many artists and galleries that my head was buzzing for days afterward. This year I have our art251 gallery to co-run, so I’ve been visiting Art Basel virtually — reading the press releases, following the exhibitors and tuning in to the podcasts and vids, using the great tubes of the internet.
The best story by far to emerge this year from Art Basel | Miami is the continuing odyssey of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, their passion for contemporary art and their outstanding collection. On December 5, the documentary “Herb and Dorothy” was screened at Art Basel’s Art Loves Film night. And so their real-life art fairytale goes something like this…
Over the last 40-plus years they have amassed a cutting-edge, world-class collection of contemporary art. In all they have collected around 4,000 works. Over time they have crammed art into every spare inch of space inside their one-bedroom Manhattan apartment. In 1992 they gave around 2,000 important pieces — paintings, drawings and sculptures — to the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. Then, in April of this year the National Gallery announced that an additional 2,500 of Vogels’ artworks would go to museums across the country: fifty works for fifty States. The National Gallery simply didn’t have enough space to house the Vogel’s immense collection.
So, why is this story so compelling?
Well, it’s compelling because they are just like you and me. They are not super-rich, they have no condo in Aspen, nor do they moor a yacht in Monte Carlo. They’re not hedge fund managers. They didn’t make a fortune before the dot.com bubble burst.
Herb Vogel, 86, is a retired postal clerk and Dorothy Vogel, 76, a retired librarian. They started collecting art in the 1960s and continue to this day. Their plan was simple and guided by two rules: the art had to be affordable, and small enough to fit in their apartment. Early on they decided to use Herb’s income for buying art, and Dorothy’s to paying living expenses. Though now retired they still follow the plan. They collect art because they love art and finding new art. In Dorothy’s words,
“We didn’t buy this art to make money… We did it to enjoy the art. And you know, it gives you a nice feeling to actually own it, and have it about you. … We started buying art for ourselves, in the 1960s, and from the beginning we chose carefully.”
More telling is Dorothy’s view of the art world, and the New York art scene:
“We never really got close to other people who collect… Most collectors have a lot of money, and they don’t go about their collecting in quite the same way. My husband had wanted to be an artist, and I learned from him. We were living vicariously through the work of every artist we bought. At some point, we realized that collecting this art was a sort of creative act. It became our art, in more ways than one. … I enjoyed the search, I guess. The looking and the finding. When you go to a store, and you’re searching for your size, don’t you get satisfaction when you find it?”
And Herb adds the final words:
“The art itself.”
So, within their modest means and limitations they have proved to be visionaries; many of the artists they supported early on have since become world-renowned. And, they have taken their rightful place among the great art collectors of the world, such as Getty and Rockefeller, and Broad and Saatchi. The Vogels used their limitations to their advantage — helping them focus, rather than being a hinderance. Above all, they used their eyes to find and collect great art, not their ears.
In addition to Warhol’s print of Mao in my post about Art Basel | Miami Beach, I came across lots of other wonderful faces during my brief tour. I think it’s all in the eyes. A smattering below:
Where else in the United States could you find original Picassos, Warhols and Basquiats alongside thousands of works by emerging artists exhibited in shipping containers? Art Basel | Miami Beach, of course.
Now in its sixth year, Art Basel | Miami Beach is a 4 day long visual adventure through a vast and unprecedented collection of contemporary and modern art. In fact, the Miami Beach Convention Center is the anchor for a huge feast of art fairs, art expos and art exhibits that envelop the entire city. The catalog of galleries in the Convention Center alone, showcasing works from over 2,000 artists, is a 750 page tome comparable to a New York telephone directory!
Like most of the other attendees this year, I was there to soak in the amazing collections of art, not to buy. Unfortunately, for me, but not the artists, the prices for most art on display were well into five and six figures.
But all is not lost. Art Basel has opened up the world of contemporary art to art lovers (and buyers) beyond the previously impenetrable, sometimes elitist gallery scenes of New York, and London. and other cosmopolitan cities. As I strolled the exhibit halls, awestruck by much of the art, I could not help but be very encouraged by the record number of people doing the same - parents ambling with their kids in strollers, professionals, retirees, power couples, teenagers, groups of women, collectors from Asia and Europe.
So while Art Basel can be overwhelming, this annual event has started to crack open the doors of the contemporary art world, and the many talented artists, to the general public. Kudos Art Basel!
