Art Basel Discoveries

Until June 18, a premier selection of 291 galleries from 35 countries and 6 continents are presenting works ranging from the early 20th century to contemporary artists at the world’s leading art fair.

Among my 2017 Art Basel discoveries are the artists Maha Maamoun, Huma Bhaba, Martha Atienza and Carol Rama.

Maha Maamoun

The Egyptian photographer, video and filmmaker Maha Maamoun (*1972) opened the Art Basel film program, which presents a total of 34 film and video works. Her short film, exploring the theme of phantom pain, was screened on Monday before my arrival.

In general, Maha Maamoun’s videos and photos address the form and function of images found in mainstream culture. Her works acts as a lens through which wee can see familiar images in novel and insightful ways. She has reflected on generic and overused Egyptian national symbols and the ways in which they have been appropriated to construct personal narratives and collective histories.

On Wednesday, at Art Basel Statements, I had the chance to talk to the artist who normally lives and works in Cairo. The section of the the art fair was well chosen because she really had something to say, a statement to make through her photographs taken at various public notary offices across Cairo. She explained to me her 2017 photo cycle entitled The Subduer — a reference to one of the 99 most beautiful names of Allah in Islamic tradition. The photographs contain plenty of signs and paper notes in Arabic.

In the Cairo public notary offices, state functionaries and citizens meet on a daily basis. They work with and against each other. Maha Maamoun’s photographs were taken secretly with her cell phone while waiting for some paper work to be done. She noticed on the walls of the archaic administration offices — which reminded of revelations about the Greek administration at the beginning of the still ongoing economic and financial crisis — not only administrative info and red tape but, in addition, words of wisdom, sayings, prayers and other religious texts referring to the transience of life, requests for forgiveness and feelings of frustration; the officials are and consider themselves both part of a corrupt and inefficient system as well as victims of it. Maha Maamoun’s The Subduer cycle touches man’s fate as well as social and political criticism.

Here a few of many lines in Arabic Maha Maamoun found on her journeys into the labyrinths of the Egyptian bureaucracy: “O God teach me that forgiveness is the highest degree of power…”; “By My might, I shall surely aid you even it it should be after a while”; “O self do not feel aggrandized, The Day will come when you will leave, Time will be short or long, Then you will be carried away, You will visit the house of worms, And in the earth you will be buried”.

Maha Maamoun’s photographs drawn from her visits to various Cairo public notary offices are presented by Gypsum Gallery, Garden City, Egypt.

David Strauss et al.: Huma Bhaba. Salon 94, hardcover, 2016, 206 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.

Huma Bhabha

The Pakistani sculptor, photographer and draughtswoman Huma Bhabha (*1962) is based in Poughkeepsie, New York. Her body of work is eclectic and varies from haunting, sci-fi inspired photographs to sculptures inspired by Giacometti, Brancusi and African art, often with an unfinished touch.

At Art Basel 2017, the New York gallery Salon 94 presented, among many other of her works, three large scale-photographs by the Karachi-born Huma Bhabha depicting sculptured feet photographed in the desert in a way that they look like giant monuments, reminding me of the twin statues near present-day Luxor known as the Colossi of Memnon.

The three photographs all were made in editions of 3 and priced at $32,000 each.

Thomas McEvilley: Huma Bhabha, Peter Blum Edition, New York/ Salon 94, New York, hardcover, 2011. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr.

Martha Atienza

The Manila-born Martha Atienza (*1981) is the daughter of a Filipino father and a Dutch mother. She lives and works on Bantayan Island in the Philippines and in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.

Together with Sam Pulitzer, she was rightly awarded the 19th Baloise Art Prize at Art Basel. Her award-winning, single-channel HD video installation Our Islands, 11°16`58.4″ 123°45`07.0″E is presented at the Statements section of the fair.

Martha Atienza’s 72-minute loop with no audio is presented by Silverlens Gallery. It shows the traditional Ati-Atihan procession in honor of a child saint — supposedly the infant Jesus — from her native Philippines. She alienates it by placing it under water. Cross-dressing males, male dancers painted in black, and a slew of impresarios and impostors take part in a strange, visually appealing under-water procession with some people carrying tableaux with political slogans.

At her Art Basel solo gallery booth, I was told that Martha Atienza tries to bring the local community together. In the video Our Islands, 11°16`58.4″ 123°45`07.0″E, you can admire “real people”, fishermen and volunteer Ati-Atihan dancers from the Philippines.

Martha Atienza was awarded the 19th Baloise Art Prize for her “critical and humorous take not only on the state of society in the Philippines but also on the threat of climate change”.

Illegal fishing has damaged the marine life in Bantayan Island, to which one has to add the threat of climate change to human-made global warming. Art is one way to address the issue. By placing the procession under water and adding some elements, Martha Atienza has created a great work of art, presented as if it would take place in an aquarium.

The Art Basel installation was 5.5 meters x 1.27 meters, to which once has to add roughly 2 meters of depth for the projection from behind. The video comes in an edition of 6 plus 2 artist’s proof and is prized at $50,000 each.

Guido Curto: Carol Rama, Skira, paperback, 2004, 144 p. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk.

Carol Rama

The self-taught Italian artist Carol Rama (1918-2015) was a discovery for me. Despite several major exhibitions dedicated to her, including important books accompanying them, I had never heard of this Turin-born daughter of the bicycle manufacturer Amabile Rama.

According to a 2005 article in The Guardian, her mother was admitted to a psychiatric clinic when she was only 15 and her father went bankrupt and committed suicide. Her first exhibition was closed down by the police in Fascist Italy in 1943.

Some of her works are of an unusually aggressive sexuality. She presented for instance Matissean odalisques stooping for a poo (The Guardian) and delved into her fetishism with stilettos, fox stoles and lots of rubber.

However, she was an extremely versatile artist who made works in very different styles over her long career, including connections with Art Brut, Arte Povera, Pop Art as well as her Napalm pictures of the late 1960s in reaction to the Vietnam War.

Carol Rama lacked success during her lifetime. Nevertheless, at the 2003 Venice Biennale she was awarded a Golden Lion.

The New York gallery Fergus McCaffrey is offering a wide range of great works by Carol Rama. Unfortunately, many art lovers knew about this artist long before me. Therefore, her works on paper offered by Fergus McCaffrey at Art Basel 2017 range from $80,000 to $100,000.

Beatriz Preciado et al: The Passion of Carol Rama, MACBA, Barcelona, hardcover, 272 pages. Order the book from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de.

Art Basel 2017: an unmatched selection of works at hefty prices

In addition to the four lesser-known artists mentioned above, you can find all the famous names at Art Basel 2017. The fair offers an unmatched selection of works at hefty prices.

The Art Newspaper reported yesterday that Hauser & Wirth had sold a 1970 oil painting by Philip Guston for $15 million, Lévy Gorvy a Sigmar Polke for $12 million and Daniel Buchholz several C-prints by Wolfgang Tillmans — currently on show at Fondation Beyeler — for €60,000 each.

Among my favorites was a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti offered by Landau Fine Art from Montréal: Buste Chiavenna I (Buste de Diego I). It is on offer for $2.6 million, almost a bargain for a Giacometti. In 1965, it was cast in an addition of 6. The dimensions are 20.5 x 15.2 x 40 cm. Robert Landau told me that this bronze originally came from the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, and that he, Landau, bought it at auction.

Landau Fine Art always offers fantastic Art Basel highlights. In 2017, the gallery also has a great Paul Klee for sale, Gespenst der ersten Geliebten (1924; 39 x 22.8 cm) for $875,000 as well as a great selection of Mirò paintings and sculptures.

Other notable discoveries at Art Basel from the top end of the art market include many works by Jean Dubuffet, including the 1945 oil on canvas Black Beauty (73 x 60 cm), on offer at Helly Nahmad from New York City for a hefty $6.5 million.

Another New York gallery, David Nolan, is selling an outstanding 1940 George Grosz oil painting, God of War (119.5 x 90 cm) for the moderate some of €500,000. The provenance is immaculate: The work comes from the George Grosz Estate.

In short, a visit to Art Basel 2017 is mandatory for art lovers.

Article added on June 16, 2017 at 14:36 Swiss time