46th Art Basel closes with excellent sales

Image courtesy of Art Basel

The 46th edition of Art Basel closed in Basel on Sunday, June 21, 2015, with gallerists reporting excellent sales across all levels of the market. The show attracted an attendance of 98,000 over the six show days.

The show, whose lead partner is UBS, presented 284 galleries from 33 countries, exhibiting the work of over 4,000 artists. A total of 14 galleries showed in Basel for the very first time, coming from China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Once again, Art Basel provided a platform for galleries to present both contemporary and historical material. This year a significant reconfiguration of the downstairs floor plan in Hall 2 moved 57 galleries to new positions – representing the biggest such shift at the show in the last decade.

Bringing galleries showing work from 1900 to 1970 in closer proximity to each other, it created a stronger focus for their historical material, which included pieces by Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Georg Grosz, Yves Klein, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Egon Schiele.

Alongside major private collectors from Europe, North and Latin America, and Asia, representatives and groups from over 80 museums and institutions from across the world attended the show.

“Business at this year’s Art Basel has been brisk and continuous,” said Iwan Wirth, president. Hauser & Wirth, Zurich, New York, London. “We are proud to have placed more works in museum collections than ever before in our history at the fair, including a significant piece by Mike Kelley.”