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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2020

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Art Basel Miami

NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, January/February 2020

by Nancy Nesvet

Miami Art Week 2019 hosted the people’s fairs. Artists at the most democratic fairs ever at Miami Beach and Miami during Miami Art Week used art and craft to deliver clear messages for all the people, showering truth over fictions. Looking toward the future, and back toward the past, work addressed truth versus colonial myth and threats to our common environment, be they political or climatic. The work demanded that we look at ourselves, examine our attitudes and recognize our differences but realize we must come together to save our common world. Had I a fortune, I would spend it at Landau Fine Art, Montreal, for “Caroline,” 1963, oil on canvas, the Alberto Giacometti painting full of mournful emotion expressed in grays and taupes with sparing lines on an off-white ground; so little said with so few lines, each making a mournful mark. Yves Tanguy’s “Titre inconnu” (5634), 1927, oil … [Read more...] about NOW ABOUT THAT BANANA… MIAMI ART WEEK 2019 DEMOCRATIZED THE ART WORLD

NANCY NESVET’S ART WORLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2020

// Artscope Online

by Nancy Nesvet

  As we move into the new year, in advance of the arrival of Artscope’s January/February 2020 issue, which will include her review of the highlights of Art Basel Miami Beach and Art Week Miami 2019, Artscope’s national correspondent Nancy Nesvet shares her Ins and Outs in the Art World predictions for 2020:   Selfies are out. Artemisia Gentileschi self-portraits are in (at London's National Gallery).   Gallery walls are out. Paintings found behind the walls are in.   Paintings are out. Drawings found under paintings are in.   Eating bananas is out. Eating gourmet at museums is in.   Paying for museums is out. Getting in for free is in (starting with Boston's new MassArt Museum, which opens in February).   New Museum is out. MassArt's new museum is in.   Glenstone is out. Miami private … [Read more...] about NANCY NESVET’S ART WORLD PREDICTIONS FOR 2020

Play on a Play: Cattelan does Beckett

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, Exhibits, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

The most talked about installation of the day at Art Basel Miami Beach 2019, was Maurizio Cattelan’s “Comedian” (2019, banana, duct tape, paper with text instructions) tacked to the wall of Galerie Perrotin’s booth with grey duct tape including instructions for installing it. Bought by Sarah Andelman, founder of recently closed Parisian concept store, Colette, it is accompanied by a certificate along with the banana and duct tape, including instructions for installing it. Publications from the print edition of the New York Post to the online Art Daily announced the trail of this new work from exhibition to sale (for $120,000 on December 4, during the private days of Art Basel). With Andelman saying, “It really reflects our time” reported by the New York Times on December 4, she and we neglect to acknowledge that this makes all of us artists, furthering the egalitarianism of a buyer … [Read more...] about Play on a Play: Cattelan does Beckett

(Clockwise from top left) Keith Haring, “Amphora” (shown at Levy Gorvy); Andy Warhol, “Bald Eagle,” 1983, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 60” x 60” (shown by Edward Tyler Nahem); Oskar Schlemmer, “Sequence of Figures,” 1936-7 (shown by Galerie Thomas); Kehinde Wiley, “Portrait of Yvonne Osei,” 2018, oil on canvas, 60” x 48” (shown by SeanKellyNY).

A QUIETER CONVERSATION: ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH & MIAMI ART WEEK 2018: DAY TWO

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, News

by Nancy Nesvet

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018 --- Day two at Art Basel was tame. You could sense the creativity behind the work. Less bombastic, less polarizing, more neutral in both color and subject. We have learned that there is a backlash to intense pontificating and know that a neutral stance is often required to quell the anger of a crowd or a nation. We saw nature expressed in depictions of animals, flora and fauna, of snow and grass. Tapestries and books reflected those codes. Keith Haring’s glass doors marked with a standing snake-like outline reaching python-like upwards, open mouth and tongue ready to strike. Haring’s work melded seemingly ancient patterns with eight panels of skulls, in muted blues and grays. One of his most interesting pieces was an amphora marked with symbols of technology such as telescopes, amid fish and bird drawings, held up by orange crocodiles. This sculpture, … [Read more...] about A QUIETER CONVERSATION: ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH & MIAMI ART WEEK 2018: DAY TWO

Nikolai and Simon Haas, “Ferngully,” at the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach.

ALTERNATIVE WORLDS AND ALTERNATIVE SPECIES: DAY ONE AT MIAMI ART WEEK AND ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2018

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Artscope Online, News, Visual Arts

by Nancy Nesvet

DECEMBER 4, 2018 --- The first stop on day one in Miami Beach for the art fairs and exhibitions was the Bass Museum of Art, where Los Angeles-based twins Nikolai and Simon Haas presented their installation, “Ferngully.” The environment evoking renewal and rebirth in altered physical states is inspired by the animate 1992 film, “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.” In that film, the fairy Krysta and the lumberjack Zak try to save their rainforest home from nature’s destructive forces. The beasts, Martian-like in their appearance, with antennae and eyes often on stalks, alternatively resemble worms and centipedes covered in sumptuous materials, including fur and beads. Icelandic sheepskin browns and whites, curly cow fur, brown goat fur, carved ebony and cast bronze recall prehistoric Animalia and minerals in these creatures of diverse personalities, sizes, genders and races, both human and … [Read more...] about ALTERNATIVE WORLDS AND ALTERNATIVE SPECIES: DAY ONE AT MIAMI ART WEEK AND ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH 2018

Alfredo Jaar restaged his A Logo for America, 1987, in New York in 2014. © Alfredo Jaar. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co., New York.

Still Relevant: Art Basel Miami Beach Keeps the Pulse

// Art Basel Miami Beach, Issue Articles, November/December 2018

by Nancy Nesvet

Reflecting North and South America’s political and economic turbulence and artists’ domestic and environmental concerns, Art Basel Miami Beach 2018 — its 17th edition — will open to the public December 6 through 9 at the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center. Two hundred and sixty eight exhibitors will display work in tried and true sectors: Galleries, where gallerists present their choice of artists and where 12 galleries have moved to from their previous sectors; Nova, where three artists will exhibit in each of the twenty nine gallery-supported booths; Survey, showing 16 works made since 2000; Positions, where emerging galleries will show 14 solo artists, eight for the first time; Kabinett, with themed exhibits; Edition, where 11 galleries show prints; Conversations, where artists, curators and gallerists discuss the work and the art world; and Magazines, the sector where … [Read more...] about Still Relevant: Art Basel Miami Beach Keeps the Pulse