Art Basel Part 2

Art Basel had over $3.5 billion in artwork on display.  One late De Kooning painting sold
for $35 million and a late Picasso sold for $22 million.  Off the wall.

Roy Lichtenstein.  "Wham!"  Aluminum.  Pop Art.  U.S.

Lichtenstein used the imagery and techniques of popular images, comic books and

advertising, in his artwork.  The work here exudes power and force.

Jean-Michel Basquiat.  "Florida Oranges."  Graffiti Art.

Basquiat was a Haitian-American who lived in New York during his short life.

Although he had an advanced formal education in art, he chose to use the

techniques of simple direct graffiti artists, as if he were spray-painting on a

subway car and had to move fast before the police arrived.

Keith Haring.  "Red Cross."  Graffiti Art.  1958-1990

Keith Haring is another New York artists who died young and who began his career

spray painting on vacant walls and fences.  Haring's stick outline figures are

easily recognizable.

Ray Parker.  "Untitled."  1952  Abstract Expressionism.

 Like Piet Mondrian, Stuart Davis and Jackson Pollock, Parker was a fan of jazz music; and 
his interest in Jazz, combined with his interest in abstract expressionism, led to his improvised painting style.

Ray Parker.  "Untitled."  1955  8x10 feet U.S.

I knew the name, but his works have seldom been shown until recently.  This year,

several galleries showed his works.  The picture above shows the size of his

paintings, which is typical for the Abstract Expressionists.

Alexei Jawlensky.  "House with Palm Green."  German Expressionism.  1910

Landau Galleries always has a splendid exhibit showcasing German

Expressionists, Surrealists, and European Fantasy painters.  The Gallery is in

Montreal.  Jawlensky was a member of "the Blue Rider" group of Expressionists

in early 20th century Germany.  They wanted to use color in a more expressive way

than simply recording  the world around them; Van Gogh was a hero to them.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.  "Mountains."  German Expressionism.  1911

Kirchner was another member of "The Blue Rider" and painted many landscape

and city pictures.

Hans/Jean Arp.  "Leaf."  French, Abstract, Bronze.

Hans Arp was one of the founders of abstraction and created utterly simple,

yet organic forms in bronze, marble, and wood.

Fernand Leger.  "Still Life."  French, Abstract.

Developing abstraction was difficult; artists had always been trained to

create illusions of reality on a piece of canvas.  Leger and others used

very simple subject matter, like a vase and a couple of pieces of fruit,

as they worked out the techniques of abstraction.

Marc Chagall.  "The Village."  Russo-French.  Fantasy.

Marc Chagall left Russia and came to Paris, but he never forgot

his childhood and home, and he continued to use them as

inspirations for the rest of his life.

Gaston Lachaise.  "Dolphin Fountain."  Bronze.  Franco-American.
Lachaise's forms, whether dolphins or human, are sinuous and sensuous.

Pablo Atchugarry.  "Untitled."  Uruguay.  Marble, Abstract.

Atchugarry may have had more pieces by more dealers than any other artist at the fair.

He spends half the year at Carrara in Italy and half the year in Uruguay.  His pieces,

whether of marble or steel, very hard materials, always look like soft, draped fabric.

Pablo Atchugarry.  "Untitled."  Uruguay.  Marble, Abstract.
He uses marble from the same quarry that Michelangelo did for "David."

Lucio Fontana.  "Spatial Concept."  Italy.

Fontana discovered he could create depth and space, and a sense of mystery,

by cutting through the surface of the canvas.  He did't have to paint shadows

and various shades of color or diminish the size of his subjects to achieve depth.

Diego Rivera.  "Mother and Child."  Mexico.

Rivera is one of Mexico's most important artists of the 20th century.

Although his great murals are his most famous works, he also did many

canvases depicting ordinary Mexican people, a subject which had been

deemed unsuitable previously.

Gunther Gerszo.  "Azul, Verde, Amarillo."  Mexican.

Gerszo is most noted for his abstract landscapes, like this one, and

his use of very rich colors, typically Mexican.

Gunther Gerszo.  "Tangerine."  Mexico.  Abstract.

Ten years ago, before the Latin American art market took off, I saw a

painting like this by Gerszo offered for $9,000.  Three years ago, I saw

another, and the price was $90,000.  Last week, this work was listed

at $940,000.  That is what has happened to the art market.

Roberto Matta.  "Cube."  Surrealism.  Chile.

Matta is one of the greatest Surrealists, searching in the subconscious and dreams for

truth and beauty.  His images evoke infinite space, the universe, and also the

infinitesimal space newly discovered in atoms.  Although from Chile, he spent

most of his life in Paris and New York, the two great centers of Surrealist art.

Roberto Matta.  "Phosphorescence."  Chile Surrealism.    6 x 10 feet

Matta's canvases are usually very large, so that you are engulfed in that enormous

depth and space and surrounded by the glowing colors.

Mark di Suvero.  "For Anita."  U.S.  Assemblage.
Mark di Suvero often works on an architectural, monumental scale, creating spatially
dynamic sculptures.  This is an early work.  The size gradually greatly expanded, and
today Mark works largely from industrial steel I-beams, each weighing many tons.
His primary tools are the crane, the cherry picker, and cutting and welding torches.
He represents the 20th century in sculpture; he does not carve or cast.

David Hockney.  "Sunflowers."  British

Hockney is one of the leading British artists today, known especially for his use

of brilliant color.  He moved to Los Angeles for a number of years because of his

love of light and color (and warmth). 

Keith Haring.  "Dancing Figures."  U.S.  Graffiti Art.  Steel.  He died at 32.

This piece sold for $490,000.

Chuck Close.  "Self-Portrait."  U.S.     10 feet high
Chuck Close takes a photograph, 8 x 10 in, and pencils in a grid over it.
Then on a canvas, he lays out a grid with 12 in. squares and paints in either
 the details of realism or abstract forms and colors, which, seen from a distance,
appear to be a realistic likeness.

Andy Warhol.  "Mao."  U.S. Pop Art.  Silkscreen.

Andy believed artists should use the techniques and attitudes of advertising and news

media, images which everyone sees every day, in order to create art.  Here Andy took an

image, which appeared in every store and public building in China and most private homes,

and manipulated it as advertisers would, whether for different shades of lipstick or

colors of cars.

Olafur Eliasson.  "Collective Decision."  2017.  Icelandic / Danish.  Glass.
He lives and works in Copenhagen.  This work has 321 glass spheres.

Visitors and "Collective Decision."

Close-up of "Collective Decision."  It looks different from every angle; each sphere was

hand-made and specially created with a lens in each one to invert the image.  So you see

yourself upside-down from many angles.

Ernesto Neto.  "I Receive Your Love, and You Receive Mine."  Brazil.  Knitted.

Neto likes the feel and appearance of fabric, which has traditionally been made by hand,

and is here knitted.  He also believes in spiritual power, and in the two smaller loops are

embedded crystals which he excavated in the mountains.  You and a friend are

invited to place one of the smaller loops around your forehead and "transmit" your

love to another.

Ernesto Neto.  "Web of Flowers."  Brazil.  Knitted fibers.

Kathryn Andrews.  "Shuttlecock."  U.S.  Steel

Evan Holloway.  "Snake and Ladder."  U.S.  Bronze.  Los Angeles.

Evan Holloway.  "Open and Closed."  Bronze  U.S.  Abstract.  Los Angeles.

Kathryn Andrews.  "Orange Crush."  U.S.  Steel.

Aaron Curry.  "Figure."  U.S.  Steel.  Assemblage.

Jonas Wood.  "The Maritime Hotel."  Los Angeles

Jonas Wood.  "WKS."  Los Angeles

Jonas Wood.  "David Kordansky Gallery."  Los Angeles

Milton Avery.  "Lake in Florida."  U.S.  Abstraction.

Helen Frankenthaler.  "Rio Grande."  U.S.  Color Field.   6 x 6 feet

Frankenthaler is a member of the Second Generation of Abstract Expressionists (Pollock

and De Kooning, etc.), and her work falls into Lyrical Abstraction or Color Field.

She creates large canvases, typical of the movement.  She invented the new technique of

soak and stain, pouring diluted pigment across the canvas so that the color is not resting

on the surface, but is one with the canvas.

Helen Frankenthaler.  "The Basin."  U.S.  Color Field.

To give an idea of the size and presence of the painting.

Helen Frankenthaler.  "The Basin."  U.S.  Color Field.

Helen Frankenthaler.  "Enigma."  1975   showing size

Helen Frankenthaler.  "Enigma."  U.S.  Color Field.

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