ANDREW RUSSETH/ARTNEWS
Yes, there are a lot of things to dislike about art fairs. There are the crowds, the lines, the expense—one salad in the VIP lounge at Art Basel, which opened today, costs 45 Swiss francs, or about $48 (it includes edible flowers). And yet, one gets to see a breathtaking array of art in one convenient location, much of which one may never see again. There are 300 galleries at Basel this year, all stocked with some of their finest offerings. Surprises abound. Pleasure too. Below, some highlights from the aisles.
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This was an exciting surprise: a full booth of the Peruvian conceptual artist Teresa Burga (b. 1935), who is in this year's Venice Biennale, at Berlin's Galerie Barbara Thumm.
The Burgas ranged from punchy pop paintings, including some on shaped panels, to an incisive sculpture that took up the issue of body image.
Another excellent surprise. Can you guess who painted the self-portrait? I couldn't get it. It's Agnes Martin, whose retrospective at Tate Modern in London just opened. The painting is from around 1947, and was on offer at Cologne's Galerie Thomas Zander.
An untitled 1945 painting by Louise Bourgeois at New York's Peter Blum Gallery.
Robert Gober's Ear With Axe and Jasper Johns's Untitled (both works 2012) at Matthew Marks Gallery.
Cheim & Read, of New York, delivered no less than three Joan Mitchell stunners. Here are two, from left, Le Chemin Des Ecoliers (1960) and an untitled piece from 1977.
And the last of three, a super loose one from 1957, also untitled.
A great de Kooning, Untitled XII (1985), from that super late period when his work was getting sparer and sparer, red and blue lines doing strange dances, controlling white and sometimes yellow undulating fields of color.
Not a pairing that one sees every day: Cady Noland, Cowboy Bullethead Movie Star (1990) and Rudolf Stingel, Untitled, 2007.
One of the absolute highlights of the fair: Mike Kelley's Untitled (stuffed animal mandala), ca. 2004–6, which the artist had long hung in his living room. It came to Hauser & Wirth, which used it to front one end of its booth, from Kelley's estate, and was acquired by an American collection, so the hope is that it will be seen again in public soon.
On the other end of Hauser's booth, a Martin Kippenberger: Unidentified Object Discovered Through Selters (1984), it's called.
Xavier Hufkens had this Alice Neel, Ginny, which is dated 1984, the year that the artist died at the age of 84.
At Brussels's Jan Mot gallery, a sweet, sweet piece by Ian Wilson, who has devoted his career to having conversations as artworks. Here's a text noting one such discussion with Lawrence Weiner in 1968.
Also at Jan Mot is Robert Barry's 0.5 Microcurie Radiation Installation, 1969.
Raw power: a new chalk-on-blackboard piece by Tacita Dean at Marian Goodman. Sunset is its name.
A 1981 Sam Gilliam, acrylic on canvas, called Alphabet II (1968), at David Kordansky of Los Angeles.
These Jordan Wolfson wall works keep getting weirder. This is an untitled one from this year, at the booth of London gallery Sadie Coles HQ.
Pae White shining forth at Kaufman Repetto of Milan and New York. Its title: Lucky Charms (2014).
Berlin's Neugerriemschneider gallery has this Tobias Rehberger work, which comes complete with high-end sex toys.
Steven Shearer at Gavin Brown's Enterprise, with a triptych of portraits of people sleeping. It's funny, and oddly moving.
Sturtevant doing Duchamp and Beuys, in 1992 and 1988, respectively, at London's Anthony Reynolds Gallery. Those hungering for more Sturtevant can head to Air de Paris gallery, which is showing her three-channel video BLOW JOB (2006).
No words needed. Paweł Althamer, also at Neugerriemschneider.
One of Tabor Robak's latest, Toys to Life (2015), is at the booth of New York's Team Gallery, where his excellent sophomore show is on view through June 21.
Cory Arcangel has readymades on tap at Team.
London's Greengrassi gallery has photographs by Roe Ethridge, and leaves by Pae White.
Alex Da Corte at Milan's Gió Marconi gallery.
Alex Da Corte up front, Kerstin Brätsch in back, also at Marconi.
Brenna Youngblood, Simone Leigh, and Brenna Youngblood at New York's Tilton Gallery.
The heroic artist Judith Bernstein has a strong array of work with Zurich's Karma International.
Casey Kaplan has a bunch of nice Keavin Beasleys—here's one of the resin-covered acoustic mirrors he's been doing recently.
More from Kaplan: left to right, Sanya Kantarovsky, Beasley, and just a taste of a Giorgio Griffa.
A photo is not going to properly convey this, but this Karla Black at Gisela Capitain, titled No Steps (2015) and made of plaster, sellotape, cellophane, and lip liner, among other things, was incredibly delicate and beautiful—calming to look at.
Martin Kippenberger, Untitled (Maria Burgstaller) (1996) at Gisela Capitain. This is from one of the artist's final series, "Window Shopping," which he made based on fashion shots by his wife Elfie Semotan. The works were shown one at a time, one after another, at the Galerie Hubert Winter in 1997, the year that the artist died.
Camille Henrot, with a painting and a bronze, at Kamel Mennour, Paris.
Karen Kilimnik got a luxurious little room to herself at 303's booth for her paintings that include dashes of glitter.
A chandelier up above lit the room...
...and made those paintings shimmer.
Robert Overby's Clap (1975) at Andrew Kreps, New York.
Jack Shainman Gallery, which has spaces in Chelsea and Kinderhook, New York, gave over its booth to a miniature Carrie Mae Weems survey. Here, four works from her 1997 "Colored People" series.
At Kreps: One image in Darren Bader's Antipodes: celebrities 3: David Lee Roth, David Petraeus, David Villa, David Mamet, no date.
I'm having a particularly strong reaction to this work because I actually ate at Sammy Hagar's Beach Bar and Grill at JFK airport on my way to Basel.
Andrea Bowers and, of all things, a 1963 Yayoi Kusama at Kreps.
Fairly mind-blowing. This is an R.H. Quaytman, also at Buchholz.
Simon Denny at Buchholz at center. That wild dragon headpiece in back is a Lutz Bacher.
Wolfgang Tillmans at Galerie Buchholz of Berlin and Cologne.
Elie Nadelman—yes, that Elie Nadelman, the great American sculptor who was friends with Duchamp and lived from 1882 to 1946—at Buchholz.
A choice pairing: Zoe Leonard and James Welling at Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan.
Photographs by Talia Chetrit—street snapshots, of a besuited man nimbly crossing a cross walk with phone in hand, and of a young man dodging a car—at Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf.
Julia Rommel at Bureau, New York.
