Samuel Keller needs to be congratulated. Really. I am certain there are many people who do. Bringing Art Basel, the largest Art Fair in the world to Miami beach has the boldness of bringing the Dokumenta to Ibiza. The cultural atmosphere of Switzerland and of Florida could hardly look more different. But who am I to judge. I have to admit that I know far too little about the real strings and levers of money and art and power. So I can only observe, enjoy and be thankful. Oh, and I can write about it in my blog.
I was gone to Florida for 10 days and some of the readers also know that I went to see Art Basel in Miami Beach. Not exclusively. I ended up visiting the event only for one day. I missed most of the work, of course. I will return. The event was incredible, surpassed my expectations, gave me a push, inspired, made me smile, made me write and work and this is so much more than one could expect from a fair, isn’t it?
I did not have a VIP pass. I did not attend any of the parties. I did not attend any of the external festivities. I was visitor #51 of the main event. I saw work presented by 150 international < a href="http://www.artbasel.com/miami_beach/galleries/index.html" target="_blank">Galleries (selected from about 900 candidates.) I will try to describe some of the impressions in some upcoming posts. There was just too much to see and of too good quality to be just mentioned in one post.
Congratulations to Samuel Keller, the very first Art Basel | Miami Beach will have me coming back for more next year. (And the years after.)