Basel Art Fair Is Once Again Playing The "Cloud" Battlefield.

In June 6th, the Basel Art Fair issued an official statement, taking into account the risks of health and safety, the financial risks of exhibitors and partners, and the continuing obstacles to international tourism. After consulting various opinions, the Basel exhibition, which was originally postponed to September, was formally abolished. In from June 17th to 26th, the online exhibition hall of the second Basel art exhibition was created for the absent Basel Art Fair. It once again provided a platform for the world's gallery to connect with new and old collectors.

The second Basel art exhibition online exhibition hall. Data map

Upgrading digital experience

Despite many shortcomings and restrictions, the online exhibition hall of the first Basel art exhibition rushed to replace the exhibition three months ago. But for small and medium-sized galleries, because of their own number of online exhibition hall, sales are relatively sporadic and insipid.

In the online exhibition hall of the second Basel art exhibition opened on 17, there are 282 top international galleries from 35 countries and regions in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Middle East and Africa, including Gao Gu Hun, risen, Hauser and so on. The total number of galleries is 47 more than that of the first session, of which 10 are the first to participate in Basel Art Fair's "fresh blood". Compared to the first 2000 pieces of art, the number of exhibits on the second online exhibition hall has doubled, bringing more than 4000 pieces from modern to post-war and contemporary oil paintings, sculptures, installations, videos and digital works to the audience.

The second online exhibition hall was carefully divided into different exhibition areas, and each exhibition area has a specific focus. The main Gallery Gallery (Galleries) mainly displays the highest level of oil painting, sculpture, painting, installation art, photography, video and limited works; limited compilation (Edition) exhibition focuses on printing and reproduction; curatorial Exhibition (Feature) exhibits the curatorial exhibitions of artists' works in twentieth Century and twenty-first Century; and the Statements exhibition area focuses on the new Jin. Artist's expression.

It is worth mentioning that the second online exhibition hall is trying to upgrade the digital experience, adding more new interactive functions that fit the current social media dissemination. During the browsing process, the audience can "praise" and share their favorite works. At the same time, in the introduction page of art works, the function of film embedding is also added. The gallery can choose films such as close-up shots or artists to talk about their works as a supplement, enriching the understanding of the works and artists by the media and multimedia.

Leeson Gallery presents the works of Anish Kapoor (Anish Kapoor) at the second Basel art exhibition online exhibition hall. Data map

In terms of the content of the works, the works presented by many galleries are also very popular nowadays, reflecting on the current lifestyle and the impact of the global pandemic or discussing important social issues such as racial equality and justice. Jack Shainman Gallery exhibited Reach out and touch me, emphasizing the strength of physical intimacy at the moment away from public sphere and reducing crowd contact; the works exhibited by Simryn Gill, Mrinalini Mukherjee and the exhibition of Yan and Yu emphasized the natural state of occupying urban space during the lock up period of human society; Lawson's works explore the body expression of contemporary black people in the context of scattered life.

In addition to more yuan, clear zoning and details of the work, the online exhibition hall also brings live lectures, curator guides, and a series of online activities such as studio tours and performances organized by the gallery. "In addition to the excellent exhibition of the highest quality works presented by our gallery, the second online exhibition hall will also provide a series of projects to promote dialogue and provide a greater context for the gallery's exhibition." Marc Spiegler, global director of Basel art exhibition, said: "although we know that the digital platform can not completely replicate the experience of the exhibition, we hope that it will bring strong support to our gallery and artists during this difficult period in the art world."

Sales are gratifying.

A number of large galleries have brought a well planned thematic exhibition hall for this online exhibition. From the data collected on the first day of the exhibition, the sales are very active and many pieces of art are sold at the price of millions of dollars.

By the time of dispatch, Hauser Valley Gallery has sold 20 works, including Mark Bradford, a canvas mixed media work, The Press of Democracy, which sells for $5 million; Louise Bourgeois's fabric vulnerability (The Fragile) is priced at around 1 million 500 thousand US dollars. An abstract painting created by Ed Clark in 1972 was sold at a price of US $1 million 200 thousand, much higher than the $495 thousand auction recorded by the artist at Christie's auction in November 2019. The L e vy Gorvy gallery was also on the first day of the news. The online exhibition hall successfully sold 14 works, including Michelangelo Pistoletto, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol.

Gaofu has brought the largest online sales exhibition to date, bringing together works of contemporary and famous art masters such as Roy Lichtenstein, Georg Baselitz and Andy Warhol. As of press release, 9 works have been sold, of which Mountain and Line, the oil painting of Jia Li, has been sold for 350 thousand dollars. Alison McDonald, senior director of Gao Gu Shan publications, said in an interview that for highly skilled works, "just to provide the collectors with the works they want, they are willing to purchase works of art on the Internet as well as at the scene."

The long time deep ploughing line sold the Zhuo Gallery brought the theme "online Basel: 15 rooms", the total valuation is over 28 million US dollars. The gallery has designed an entirely new exhibition hall: through 15 independent online rooms, the audience can explore various artists and works in depth. The artists included JosefAlbers, Donald Judd, Giorgio Morandi, Kusama Yayoi and so on, many of which were exhibited for the first time to the public. At the end of the first day of pre-sale, 10 of the 15 collections had been sold successfully, with a total sales volume of $10 million. Among them, the highest price is Kerry James Marshall created in 2015, the title of the painting, which was bought at a price of US $3 million for a museum in the United States. Joan Mitchell, which was created in 1991, has been purchased for more than 1 million dollars. Elena Soboleva, director of online sales of Zhuo Gallery, told Artnews that the sales of the online exhibition hall was very steady. "I am glad to see that in a year, online showrooms can be practically applied in so many industries, both in necessity and in design. The online exhibition hall is a new norm. In the future, even if the physical exhibition is reopened, the online presentation will also become a key part of the experience.

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