Paris

Crowds of collectors at the Grand Palais, but there is caution

Stable prices for blue-chip art, decreasing speculation on emerging markets

by Silvia Anna Barrilà

20 October 2024

Lo stand di P420 ad Art Basel 2024, courtesy P420, fotografia di Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

5' min read

Key points

Sales
Market trend
Trends Italian Art in Paris

5' min read

It is an intense period for the art world, in which the health of the market is being tested both at auctions and fairs. After Frieze in London and Art Verona in Italy, the focus is now on Paris for the first edition of Art Basel in the Grand Palais, a highly anticipated event that has created excitement and attracted collectors from Europe (many Italians), the United States and even Asia, especially Hong Kong.

"This edition is taking place in a geopolitical climate full of challenges, with the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, but also the upcoming American election which, historically, has an effect on the market," commented Noah Horowitz, ceo of Art Basel, "having said that, the response to the fair is extraordinary. The art market reacts to interest rates, the stock market, the economy, but also to the human factor, so at an event like this, you forget what is outside. Certainly the market is more cautious, but since the beginning of the season we have seen a recovery."

Enrico Baj

Sales

During Wednesday's preview, galleries sold well, but there was less urgency to buy on the part of collectors. Prices of young artists on whom there was speculation fell, while those with museum resumes remained stable. The most expensive sale on the first day was $9.5m for a 2013 painting by Julie Mehretu at White Cube, surpassed by a 1995 spider by Louise Bourgeois, sold by Hauser & Wirth on the second day for $20m to a private collection. But there were also many sales in the hundreds and tens of thousands of euro range (the press office sent a 34-page long list of declared transactions by galleries), especially for women, who continued to receive great attention.Eva Presenhuber, for example, sold all the works by Tschabalala Self, who created an immersive stand inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Baartman, an African woman brought to Europe and exhibited in cruel 'human zoos'. The African-American artist, 34, has been chosen to create the monument on the 4th plinth of Trafalgar Square in London in 2026 (her prices range from $160,000 to $325,000).

Carlo Zinelli. Senza titolo

Market trends

"Observing the market we see that at the top end prices are falling, but at the same time we notice that the volume of transactions is increasing," commented Clément Delépine, director of Art Basel Paris, "this confirms the theory that the primary market is recovering faster, but it is also true that there have been several gallery closures, especially in New York."

In fact, the costs for galleries have increased, especially after Covid, for logistics, transport, space. Those suffering are, above all, the galleries that have arrived at the crisis with a less solid economic structure. "We are not disconnected from the reality of the market," continues Delépine, "so we have introduced instruments to facilitate galleries with more fragile economies. In fact, those exhibiting on the first floor do not pay the same as those in the aisle and the cost per square metre rises with the size of the stand. Galleries in the emerging section pay half and those in the 'Premise' section about a third".

F.de Pisis. Vaso di fiori con ventaglio

Trends

Compared to last year, the number of galleries increased by 27% to 195. "We wanted to give space to new geographies," said Delépine, "including those of the Mediterranean. For the first time there is a gallery from Morocco, Loft Art Gallery, with modernist Mohamed Melehi, whose 1980 work was sold to an institution for €130,000. "There are artistic practices that have been neglected in the past, such as Outsider Art," notes Delépine. The Parisian gallerist Christian Berst, specialising in Art Brut, brought works from the 1960s by the Italian Carlo Zinelli, already appreciated by Breton, Moravia and Buzzati (prices €25-35,000). "In June there will be the first institutional exhibition dedicated to Art Brut in 50 years, organised by the Pompidou," commented the art dealer. "The last one was in 1967 at the Musée d'Art Decoratif, organised by Jean Dubuffet with works from his collection. Nowadays there is a rediscovery of Outsider Art because it has been realised that there is a missing chapter in art history, dedicated to those artists who did not create works for the art world, but for themselves, for a better life. It is a 'private mythology', as Harald Szeeman, who was a great supporter, called it. That is why, in the last three or four years, museums like the Pompidou have been buying works by so-called Outsider artists'. By Dubuffet himself, considered to be the father of Art Brut, a 1971 canvas by Gladstone was sold at Art Basel Paris for €3.8 million.

Jannis Kounellis. Senza titolo

Italian Art in Paris

Italy is also well represented in terms of galleries, with two new entries: P420, which sold a painting by Filippo de Pisis to a private Chinese museum on the first day (€15-65,000), one by Laura Grisi, who recently entered the Pompidou collection (€30-120.000 €), and one by Francis Offman (6-25,000 €); and Giò Marconi, who gave space to the gallery's most historical programme, linked to his father's activity, with Louise Nevelson, Sonia Delaunay, Rotella, Adami and Enrico Baj, also included in the exhibition "L'Âge atomique" at the Musée d'Art Moderne.

Italian art is also centre stage thanks to the Arte Povera exhibition at the Bourse de Commerce, where artists such asPenone, Anselmo and Paolini are exhibited on the stands of Artiaco, Cardi, Konrad Fischer. At Marian Goodman's a canvas by Anselmo is offered at $970,000 and two works by Penone between €400,000 and €650,000. At Cardi two works by Kounellis from 1994 sold for €600,000 each.

At Raffaella Cortese's stand, the first work sold on the first day was a sculpture by Francesco Arena, a metre of books that the artist reads in about a year, set in lava stone, a work that contrasts reading and paper with the hardness of stone, but also makes one reflect on the substance of culture. And the whole stand was designed to make one reflect, with works related to the theme of migration and also the death of artists such asZoe Leonard, Kimsooja and Anna Maria Maiolino.

Other Italian galleries took advantage of the moment of Parisian euphoria to set up exhibitions in the city, including Milan's Matta, Zero, Castiglioni, Studiolo, Zaza and Triangolo di Cremona, while another Italian artist, Francesco Snote, is showing at the Parisian gallery Derouillon with ceramics and gouache (prices € 5,200-7,800). Galleria Continua, which already has two spaces in Paris, has expanded with a third in the heart of the Matignon Saint-Honoré district, an iconic location for the Paris art market for more than a century.