The third Parisian edition of the world's most important contemporary and modern art fair showcased the richness and plurality of French and international creation in the heart of the newly renovated Grand Palais.

Since 2022, Art Basel Paris, formerly Paris+ by Art Basel, has been carving out a place for itself in the contemporary art landscape, slowly joining the ranks of its parent fair in Basel and its sister fairs in Miami and Hong Kong. This third iteration, directed and reinvented by Clément Delépine, reinforces this feeling with the participation of 195 galleries from 42 countries and territories, including 53 first-time exhibitors. This number is up on the previous year, with 40 additional galleries, as announced by its director. This is hardly surprising, given the program, which includes a wealth of exhibitions, installations, monumental sculptures and curatorial projects. The three-year renovation of the Grand Palais has increased visitor capacity, notably with the reopening of the walkways for a new and improved route along the balconies.

PREMISE, A NEW SECTOR

Clément Delépine divided this new edition into three main sections. The first, "Galleries", brought together 170 exhibitors from France and other countries with 20th-century masterpieces. Vedovi Gallery, for example, presented a 1965 painting by René Magritte,
Le Sourire du diable, alongside a work by Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale (1960), once part of the collection of film director Claude Berri. The stand of Richard Nagy Ltd. highlighted the artistic evolution of Egon Schiele at different points in his career, as well as works by German painter and photographer Christian Schad. Landau Fine Art, meanwhile, focused on the movements of Surrealism, Pop Art, Cubism and Art Brut, highlighting such great names as Miró, Picasso, Dubuffet and Lichtenstein.

The second, "Emergence", showcased artists making their mark on the art scene, supported by the Galeries Lafayette group as official partner. Exhibitors set up their stands on the renovated balconies surrounding the central nave of the Grand Palais, which had been inaccessible for almost twenty years. Galerie Christian Andersen presented the fictional "Black Masters" project by Zimbabwean artist Shaun Motsi, which explores the construction of black identity. His film installation, including his film Masters (2023), explores "the way in which the traditional production and distribution of knowledge perpetuates racial hierarchies".

The third, "Premise", is a pretty new addition to the fair, tracing the history of art with selected works created before 1900. Sies + Höke probed the joint evolution of the photographic work of Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke. Parker Gallery highlighted the paintings of San Francisco Beat Generation figure Wally Hedrick, who covered them in black oil paint to protest the escalation of the Vietnam War. Bombon exhibited erotic drawings by underground Spanish artist Nazario, taken from his Anarcoma series, considered one of the most revolutionary and provocative homoerotic comics. For its part, The Pill proposed to show a work by Nil Yalter. This Turkish-born, Paris-based artist was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale 2024. His installation The AmbassaDRESS (1978) explores the semi-fictional story of an ambassador's wife and her collaboration with the Nazis during the Second World War.

AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE ARTS

Another new feature at Art Basel Paris was "Oh La La! This initiative invited 31 booths to hang up rarely seen works on themes such as love, eroticism, the legacy of surrealism, queer identity and history. Galerie Anne Barrault unveiled a drawing of the same name, by the iconic director and cartoonist Roland Topor, who created the animated gem La Planète sauvage. Oh la la (1973) shows three women at different stages of awakening consciousness in a mysterious natural setting. For its part, the Konrad Fischer Galerie has made room for key figures in twentieth-century art history. These included Belgian artist and poet Marcel Broodthaers and his post-surrealist work, and Swedish-American sculptor Claes Oldenburg, known for his monumental pop objects.
The centenary of Surrealism was also celebrated, with several major exhibitions in the capital, such as the one at the Centre Pompidou. Other stands were devoted to the Italian Arte povera movement, which emerged in the late 1960s. Elsewhere, some sixty exhibitors highlighted the dynamism and vitality of France, while others explored mythology and folklore. The Pace Gallery's "Mystic Sugar" exhibition brought together works by Louise Nevelson and Kiki Smith to explore the figure of the witch and the theme of witchcraft. Galerie Anne Barrault shed more light on the work of artists such as Marie Losier, Jagdeep Raina and Liv Schulman, who seized on the subversive power of appearances. Along the way, the contemporary art scene was also highlighted by such notable talents as Anish Kapoor and Ai Wei Wei (Galleria Continua), Barbara Kruger (Sprüth Magers), and Frank Bowling and Barbara Chase-Riboud (Hauser & Wirth).

ART INTERACTING WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC

This new emanation demonstrates the Parisian fair's multi-faceted nature and ability to reinvent itself. Art Basel Paris opened up to a wider public, extending its scope to ten major heritage sites, with Miu Miu as its official partner. The world of fashion made a grand entrance. The luxury house of Miuccia Prada inaugurated the "Tales & Tellers" art project at the Palais d'Iéna, conceived by interdisciplinary artist Goshka Macuga and curated by Elvira Dyangani Ose, director of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA). Several directors and actresses bring their characters to life in individual stories.

As part of this public program, the fair added five new venues. The Petit Palais offered a reinterpretation of Jesse Darling's C'mon England installation, for which he won the Turner Prize 2023. Avenue Winston-Churchill was transformed into a pedestrian zone, dressed in works by John Chamberlain, Yayoi Kusama and Jean Prouvé. The Domaine national du Palais-Royal welcomed the Franco-Egyptian artist Ghada Amer with Paravent Girls (2021-2022), a series of three monumental bronze sculptures in the form of screens, adorned with women's faces. Last but not least, the Hôtel de Sully split the exhibition focusing on the career of British sculptor Lynn Chadwick between two sites. Among the usual monuments, the forecourt of the Institut de France celebrated Niki de Saint Phalle's L'Arbre-Serpents (1988), a sculpture representing a dozen intertwined snakes, covered with mirrors and glass mosaics.

To bring this rich edition full circle, the fair inaugurated The Art Basel Shop. This concept store, curated by Sarah Andelman, co-founder and former creative director of the Colette boutique, who has launched her agency Just An Idea, offered lifestyle products to extend the Art Basel experience. New products from the Claire Fontaine duo, founded by Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill, were also presented for the second iteration of AB by Artist. This range is based on their Stranieri Ovunque - Foreigners Everywhere series, which was the theme of the 60th Venice Biennale.

ART BASEL PARIS GRAND PALAIS
AVENUE WINSTON-CHURCHILL, PARIS 8E
OCTOBER 18 TO 20, 2024
ARTBASEL.COM/PARIS