Miami. Arriving, I roll down the window to feel the warm embrace of that first rush of tropical air. The first sight off the causeway: Cousin Norman’s “Giller Building.” A founder of the Miami Modern (Mimo) style, there was a Norman Giller bridge (to Turnberry) as well.
Driving down 41 Street, Baci (my pup) and I pass Fryd Properties signs. My brother Jon. Go straight to the ocean, I tell the driver. He drops me off at the building my father built and developed. Every time we are assessed, the condo president assures me it wasn’t Daddy’s fault.
This is my hometown. Grandpa Giller came here 83 years ago. That’s dog years in this transient town. Jon was a key developer in the revitalization of Lincoln Rd. I was a key publicist during the revitalization of South Beach. My mother, artist Carol Fryd (www.carol.fryd.com) co-founded a woman’s coop art gallery predating Basel. Sister-in-law Karen Fryd funds her charity, the South Florida Youth Foundation, with friends. There was even once a Jon Fryd Chicken dish at Joe’s Stone Crab.
Abe Resnick Blvd by the Convention Center site of Art Basel is named for Daddy’s sometime partner. Even Norman Braman, who brought Basel to Miami Beach, was a family friend. He aged out of the press conference that precedes Basel where if I had taken a shot every time I heard the word “epicenter,” I never would have made it to the show.
“The Olympics of the art world!” Miami Beach Mayor Steve Meiner told reporters. “We are literally in Miami Beach right now, the epicenter of the entire world of arts and culture.”
“The most important event of its kind in the most important art market in the world,” said CEO Art Basel Noah Horowitz.
“The apex moment of the American cultural calendar,” Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s Director of Fairs and Exhibition Platforms, proclaimed.
“We ask a lot of our local population,” I overheard Mayor Steven Meiner tell a local reporter.
Indeed: 79,000 art lovers poured into the city, all seemingly vying for the same trendy restaurant reservations and parking spots. Oh yes, and to see 277 galleries from more than 70 countries. That’s just at the Convention Center Basel main event. Art fairs, exhibitions and other events orbit its sun.
And yet, after last year’s total gridlock, it was less crowded this year. Did buyers spend their wad at the London and Paris fairs? Turned off by last year’s city saturation? Or, simply less mad money floating around?
No matter, there was plenty of serious money. By day three, gallerists were smiling like fat cats. Hauser & Wirth sold Philip Guston‘s Painter at Night for $20 million. Skarstedt Gallery sold a de Kooning for seven mill. In fact, every gallerist I spoke to had practically sold out.
Gone was the sensationalism. The banana my late pal, artist David Datuna, ate. The ratty mink coat from the ’70s (coulda been mine) on a mannequin. This year was blue chip.
“The prices are coming down,” I heard someone say in the first hour. Most disagreed. “The market is stable,” Linda Selvin, Executive Director of the Appraisers Association of America told me. “It’s a gorgeous show: new work and a lot of art world stalwarts. Maybe, because they know it’s going to sell. When people are comfortable, they’ll buy the crazy stuff. But, with everything going on in the world, they’re not taking chances. They’re buying smart: things they know will hold its value.”
On the other hand, Rick Friedman told me prices are lower. Friedman founded ArtHamptons, then, other fairs around the country. Last year, he made the largest purchase at Art Miami, $1.5 million for a major Roy Lichtenstein painting. “Two years ago, when money was cheap at 2%,” he told me, “it made sense to borrow and buy blue chip, which increases about 10% annually. With 8.5% interest rates, prices are dropping to entice those blue chip investments away from treasury bills. I run a small art fund. These are real concerns.”
Frankfurt’s Galerie Bärbel Grässlin told me their prices were holding, but the cost for shipping and traveling had doubled. Still, this was a must attend. “The market is much bigger than in Europe,” Katharina Baumecker and Klaus Webelholz told me. “Our international artists want us to go abroad, especially if they don’t have representation in the US.”
Meanwhile, the Latin American market is on fire. People are collecting. Prices are soaring. Brazil’s art scene is a thing. Miami is a hot center. Every Basel draws a distinct profile from its locale. Switzerland has a large representation of European art; Paris has more French; Hong Kong’s skews Asian. We are Latin.
“This is probably the most important fair in the calendar for Latin American collectors,” Estrellita Brodsky, PhD, told me. “Historically Basel Miami has a strong representation of Latin American art. This year, there was even more.”
Brodsky’s symposium was the one highlighted at the press conference, out of the series of conversations celebrating Latinx Art. An art historian, collector, curator and philanthropist, she is internationally known for championing the art of Latin American and its diaspora. A founding member of The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Latin American Art Initiative, a trustee of the Hirshhorn Museum and Tate Americas Foundation, she has endowed curatorial positions in Latin American art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate and MoMA.
“Many galleries,” she continued, “especially those from Latin America, tend to keep a selection of their best for this fair. We saw museum-quality works at many booths, particularly those of Arnaud and Gomide (from Brazil), Barro (Argentina), Kurimanzutto (Mexico), and Travesía 4 (Guadalajara, Mexico and Madrid).
Work by Leonor Fini, the Argentine-Italian surrealist painter, designer, illustrator, and author, known for her depictions of powerful and erotic women was very thoughtful and beautiful. And there were more conversations with artists and collectors from Latin America, including Cuban-born artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons and mine with artist Guadalupe Maravilla.”
Jared Leno, Leonardo DiCaprio, Serena Williams, and Peter Marino hit Wednesday’s first showing. Chance the Rapper led a discussion. Shakira, Janelle Monáe, Cindy Crawford, John Stamos, and CeeLo Green were among those lending marquis value to endless parties.
Finally, there was a charitable element, thanks to Horowitz, who came up with the online platform, Access by Art Basel, that tacked on a 10% donation to either the International Committee of the Red Cross or the Miami Foundation.
And thanks to the many-tiered Vernissage openings, everyone thought they had VIP status.
Still, Wednesday, 11 AM was the exclusive ticket. Top galleries like Hauser and Wirth made their biggest sales in the first few hours. Local on trend gallerist Anthony Spinello sold out by Noon. We saw young, attractive collectors in understated white and tan über hip, über pricey outfits and sneakers — some with baby carriages, a few with little dogs — most walked around by private art advisors.
Thursday morning’s ticket was exclusive-ish. Thin, attractive collectors in chic black were buying more moderately priced five-figure works.
Friday, was still called a VIP day … but, for the hoi polloi. Looky-loos in jeans, hipsters with tattoos, people who just love art but aren’t really shopping. A time to grab our favorite Art Basel tequila, at the Casa Dragones section of the Collector’s Lounge.
I can only imagine what Sunday was like at Miami Airport. Then, the streets were, once again, ours.
