Now warm, now cold
These days the art market resembles a mysterious seabed crossed by currents of air, now warm, now cold, unsettling the navigator of contemporary creation. The warmth comes from the auction houses, which are proclaiming strong recent results, with more than $2 billion worth of modern and contemporary art sold in less than a week in New York. This means that art still attracts interest, and that the money is there. The cold current comes from galleries, which, regardless of their size, are announcing closures, staff cuts or drastic savings in response to the global economic and political crisis. In Paris, for example, Air de Paris, which discovered a number of artists in the 1990s who are now well established, such as Philippe Parreno, closed its doors in May.
Monetary value of art
While the American-born multinational Pace, a heavyweight in the sector, announced that it was parting ways with 50 of its artists and 50 of its employees. All this, as on the ocean floor, can generate turbulence caused by a feeling of insecurity in a psychologically sensitive field. After all, the monetary value of art is a relative notion, subject to the effects of fashion.
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It is against this broadly unsettled backdrop that the fair long regarded as the benchmark for all contemporary art fairs, Art Basel in Basel (ABB), opened. It runs for the public from June 18 to 21. Here too, change is in the air. Since last year, Americans — the world’s leading buyers — have tended to reserve their European trip en masse for October, for Art Basel Paris. The experience of staying there is more sophisticated and more pleasant.
Only in Basel
The organizers of Art Basel have responded with advertising slogans such as “Only one Basel.” Is it effective? They have also invented a new marketing strategy, which they have called “Basel Exclusive.” It should be remembered that before each fair, galleries send their best clients a list of works in an attempt to pre-sell them. With Basel Exclusive, galleries guarantee that they will reserve the first viewing of certain works for visitors who have made the effort to travel.
David Hockney
This is the case with Galerie Lelong in Paris, which, at the time of the opening, unveiled above the “Basel Exclusive” label a large Yorkshire landscape, an iPad drawing by David Hockney, who died on June 11, 2026. It has a powerful decorative effect, animated by the acidic colors characteristic of the maestro. It is for sale at 950,000 euros. This year, 290 galleries are taking part in Art Basel Basel.
Maike Cruse
Maike Cruse, its director, wants to sound optimistic: “The market is certainly fragmented, but last year we saw a 4 percent increase in sales.” It is clear that the art market is operating at two speeds, with, on one side, a sector driven by auction sales, and on the other, the gallery world.
Marc Glimcher
This was confirmed by Marc Glimcher, the head of Pace Gallery: “Yes, here the market is strong. We sold 20 pieces on the morning of the opening. But people, including young collectors, are interested in the great modern artists, such as Calder or Dubuffet. For the rest, you have to stay focused and not scatter your strategy.”
Indeed, the first floor of the fair, which generally presents younger artists, was far less crowded during the opening. This year, one is witnessing a show of strength by the powerful galleries.
A lot of Picassos
The aim is to offer exceptional pieces. Picassos from the artist’s final years are common currency from one stand to another, as at Nahmad, where a large 1972 painting of a Musketeer is being offered for $30 million. The champion of the genre, the multinational Gagosian, is showing, alongside Picasso, Warhol, de Kooning — sold as soon as the fair opened — and Koons, a monumental bronze by the British artist Henry Moore, one of his famous Reclining Figures from 1972-73. Prices are strictly forbidden to be disclosed. But rumors point to at least the $30 million range.
Wow effect
Very big names, or at least very large formats. This year, that is the strategy: to stun the potential buyer, especially in the large hall known as Unlimited, which is dedicated to monumental works. It is there that the visitor feels a “wow effect.” For the participants have pulled out all the stops. The works on view are not there only to be sold — although many museum curators visit the fair — but also to stake out territory in the global competition around contemporary creation.
Genzken, Burden
By the highly respected German conceptual artist Isa Genzken, born in 1948, one can see the reconstruction of an airplane interior — with original windows and seats — illustrating an immobile journey toward the faraway. It is for sale at $1.2 million.(Represented by Buchholz, Hauser&Wirth,David Zwirner).
If the subject is concept, one cannot miss, at the entrance to Unlimited, a series of 10 oversized American police uniforms that seem to form a security cordon. The ensemble was conceived in 1993 by the celebrated American artist Chris Burden (1946-2015) in reaction to the beating of a Black man by Los Angeles security forces. The police officers were acquitted.( Around $1 million. Represented by Gagosian). It is a work that resonates today, as immigration police crack down in the United States.
Oskar Schlemmer
One of the most beautiful pieces in the fair was designed by the German modern artist and performer Oskar Schlemmer (1888-1943) in 1930-31 and reconstructed in 1988. It is a monumental triple drawing in metal, illustrating the body in movement, which Galerie Ropac is offering for 1.6 million Swiss francs.
Woody de othello
Woody De Othello, born in 1991, known for his work in ceramics, did not hesitate to imagine a wall 12 meters long, in which he devised double-sided niches containing an infinity of sculptures representing various objects.
The American artist of Haitian origin was the subject of an exhibition last winter at the influential Perez Art Museum Miami. Othello believes that objects have a soul. The work is for sale at $1 million( represented by Jessica Silverman and Karma).
Timur Si-Qin
The German-Mongolian artist Timur Si-Qin, born in 1984, who is also in search of spirituality in his works, is known, among other things, for having created a 15-meter-high metal tree suspended in the atrium of Meta’s headquarters in New York. Timur combines ecological concerns with sophisticated technology.
Every year, he returns to the Peruvian Amazon to undergo the experience of Ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic preparation used in Amazonian rituals. In 2026, he took the opportunity to scan part of the trunk of a gigantic tree, from which he made a steel sculpture. Inside it, on the floor, he installed an LED screen showing a film. We see a watering hole, leaves, fish and even a butterfly passing through. The work is for sale at $650,000( represented by Société and Magician Space). The endangered Amazon rainforest is the heroine of this immersive installation, which reproduces reality with the tools of the 21st century.
www.artbasel.com / June 18 through 21.
