Art Basel

Two days at Art Basel make you know what an amazing scene the art world is. The art consists of more than 200 art galleries from around the world--with many from Germany as well as from the US, and even some from China.

We were amazed at how much Blue chip art there was. Would you like to buy a Rothko, a Miro, a Picasso? They were all there. Of course many other artists as well. For my Corcoran buddies, there were several pieces by Jessica Stockholder, some Rudolf Stingl works, etc.

The audience included gallerists, shoppers, dealers, owners, and a few people like us who were just looking. We saw many older couples with notes, etc.

Now here are our impressions of the most amazing things. An old bmw car filled with water, with its lights on. Inside was the artists submerged in water and gurgling. Periodically he gasped for breath using some scuba gear. I have a picture, although I can' quite figure out how to get it on the computer. Will keep working on that. About 50 people watched and wondered if he was going to make it. Reminiscent of Chris Burden having someone shoot him in the arm.

A gigantic canvas--4 sections--with sort of a rising son of heads of Chinese men coming up over the horiyon. The rest was blue sky. (if you have not used a kezboard in another country, zou might not know this, but some keys are located in different places than what we are used to and i find mzself making some simple typos.

Many larger than life photorealist pictures bz Thomas Struth. Saw an installtion of what looked like a bathroom from a public space. The large figure looking over one of the sinks was supposed to be spraypainting grafitti on the mirror. It took a while to discover he was not real.

Much more painting than I expected. I will comment at length after I have a chance to review my notes.

We also attended one of the alternative art venues called Scope. It was about 3 blocks away from the main location. Smaller galleries were represented there. The people were much more accessible and even friendly. At the end as we were having a coffee, the rains came down in buckets and we waited it out for some time.

The train back and forth between Zurich where we are staying and Basel took about an hour and was perfectly easy to do.

Now we are in for a train trip to Frankfurt. I hope that works as well. Tonight we expect to go to the opening of documenta which begins late this evening.

Staz tuned.

Hello from Zurich

We arrived uneventfully here yesterday. Today was spent looking at this pretty town. Tomorrow we take the train to Basel and begin our looking at art.

Look for our posts and photos then.

On the way to Zurich and Basel

All the hype in the papers has been about the Venice Biennale. While the official opening is June 10, previews have been available and led to many articles. But Basel does not officially open until June 13 with hours 11am to 7pm. We will arrive in Zurich on June 11 and have a day or so to look around Zurich. We are staying in Zurich because hotels in Basel were completely booked even in January. We plan to be at Basel on June 13 and 14 and then leave by train and car for Kassel, Germany.

Basel is for art dealers and shoppers. Since I am neither, I will have to settle for looking at the art and the people. Both should prove very interesting.

Anticipating the Venice Biennale

I have been reading much about this. Some of the best info can be found at the New York Times blog by Randy Kennedy.

Three Days to Go

Almost all plans are in place. We leave on Sunday and will visit Art Basel first. Most of what I have been reading online is about the Venice Biennale since that just opened. That is last on our adventure and so look for pictures and comments around June 18 when we fly there from Frankfurt.

In the meantime, you will have to be satisfied with getting ready for Art Basel. In a way this venue is not like the others since it is primarily about sales, galleries, etc. But most importantly it is in operation for only a few days. The other three exhibits are around all summer. I expect the crowds in Basel to be enormous.

I'll try to post some photos as soon as we arrive.

Posting to the Blog

Hi All,

If you are following my preparations for getting ready to go on the Grand Tour, you will know I have been trying to figure out how to post to my blog and to send photos from a location other than my home computer.

Well, the problem is solved. Blogger makes it extremely easy to do. All you need is to follow directions. My new cell phone arrives shortly and it will work in all countries we are visiting. So I expect to post some fabulous photos from Basel, Kassel and more.