In a scene more fit for Black Friday than for the most prestigious of U.S. art fairs, a crush of well-heeled collectors pushed their way through purse inspection points and lines, spilling into the Miami Beach Convention Center on Wednesday morning for Art Basel Miami.
ARTKABINETT social network of fine art collectors enjoys the daytime quiet of the Art Basel fair for thorough viewing of all the wonderful artworks
More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the ninth edition of Art Basel Miami Beach, which opened to the public Thursday and runs until Sunday.
In the first 90 minutes after the 11 a.m. opening, the rush proved profitable: Dealers at the contemporary art fair reported sales far stronger than last year's, and several patrons noted that they'd tried to put works on reserve -- only to find out they were already sold. Many gallerists said works were selling for at or near asking prices.
The trend held into the night.
"The first day has gone very well,'' said Basel co-director Marc Spiegler. "The reports we've heard of sales are strong. We know a lot of people who are very happy -- and that's a result of very good quality. A lot of galleries brought large scale works and sculptures and they have been rewarded.''
Coral Gables-based Cernuda Arte had not only sold its showpiece, Wifredo Lam's Les Fiancé, for $3 million but also had sold another Lam for $600,000, and several other works by Cuban Modernists René Portocarrero, Cundo Bermudez and Eduardo Abela.
"It's going to an illustrious collection,'' gallery owner Ramon Cernuda said of Les Fiancés. "The Lam was sold to a Cuban-American collector who wants to remain anonymous but he's well-known in the Cuban community. He will loan the work for exhibit at museums.''
At Mitchell Innes-Nash gallery, a monumental yellow sculpture by Anthony Caro, Cadence, was already on reserve for "a couple of million dollars.'' Several other works in the gallery had already sold, reported gallery owner Lucy Mitchell-Innes.
"We're definitely seeing buyers and making sales. People are more decisive than last year,'' she said. Mitchell-Innes credited the strong stock market showing.
"It affects people's views,'' she added. "At lot depends on what you bring and what mood people are in. We have to decide in August what to bring, so you are guessing then what you think the mood will be in December.''
At the David Zwirner booth, Mappemonde, Adel Abdessemed's large-scale map of the world made of discarded tin cans collected from local markets and streets of Dakar, sold for the asking price $280,000. Four more works had been sold for the asking price by midafternoon to U.S. and European collectors.
Latin American art dealers also fared well.
"The expectation for this fair is quite good,'' said art dealer Orly Benzacar of Buenos Aires, who had two reservations in the morning on a $68,000 plasticine-on-wood tryptic Lo que temeste suceder· (What You Fear Will Happen) by the Argentine collective Mondongo (the name of a tripe stew in Argentina).
By late afternoon, the work had sold, not surprising given the collective's success in exhibitions in London and New York.
"We are in such an isolated part of the world that for us, this fair is a window onto the world,'' Benzacar said.
Overall, fairgoers described the works available as ``high quality,'' ``safe'' and ``accessible.'' Painting and figurative art was widely on display, as were modern masters including Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly and Josef Albers, and what seemed to be an abundance of Robert Indiana sculptures.
Winning raves was a new, airier layout that made art easier to see and chatting more inviting.
"I've been here three hours, and I've seen one row,'' said one VIP collector who kept stopping to chat.
Different this year: Art Positions, normally at The Oceanfront (Art Basel's open space on Collins Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets), is in the convention center and most of its emerging galleries were getting a lot more traffic.
"It's super,'' Andrea Hinteregger-De Mayo of the Zurich-based gallery Christinger de Mayo said of sales at her booth. "So far, we are very happy.''
Also on display was an unusual collection of paintings by David Park at the Hackett/Mill gallery, priced from $350,000 to $2.5 million; most were sold early in the day.
Nearly every major Miami collector was on the floor -- including Martin Margulies, Marvin Ross Friedman, Alan Kluger and auto magnate Norman Braman, who was escorting Florida Senate president Mike Haridopolos on his first Art Basel visit.
"I used to live in New York, and I'm blown away,'' said Haridopolos. ``This is museum quality.''
Added Braman: ``I talked with several galleries and people are all very happy. The mood is very upbeat and several people talked about the [strong performance in the] stock market today.''
Braman said he was not surprised that the Lam painting sold right away.
"It's very rare to be able to buy the best of an artist,'' the collector said. "The market for Lam was undervalued for a long time.''
But not everyone jumped into the fray, deeming the priceshigh. "The prices are not inviting,'' said Miami collector Micky Wolfson.
As usual, there were celebrities attending the fair, including Naomi Campbell, Lance Armstrong, Danny Glover and George Hamilton.
"You might as well invest in art because none of the other things are holding up well,'' said Hamilton. He added, however, that he liked a $3.2 million oil-on-wood by the French modern artist Fernand Leger he couldn't afford.
courtesy: Fabiola Santiago and Jane Wooldridge/ Miami Herald
