How do you keep people turning up to an event, year after year, in an age when we can see almost everything online without the financial outlay?
That is the conundrum facing all art fairs, a problem exacerbated by social media and the phenomenon of galleries prepping—or even concluding—sales by previewing works to their clients before the opening day.
Art Basel’s new solution for its flagship Swiss fair this June is Basel Exclusive—a new initiative whereby the organisers are asking participating galleries to withhold “marquee” (expensive) works from all pre-fair previews, online viewing rooms and publicity, in order to unveil them for the first time during the First Choice VIP preview on 16 June.
“The initiative is conceived as a collective effort across galleries and aims to heighten the sense of surprise, urgency, and first access that defines Basel at its best, setting a new standard as preview and sales cycles begin earlier across the market,” reads a statement from Art Basel. “We think this story speaks to several broader themes currently shaping the market: the renewed premium on live experience and discovery, and how market-defining events continue to evolve with changing collector while maintaining commercial leadership and cultural relevance.”
Vincenzo de Bellis, the chief artistic officer and global director of Art Basel fairs, says “the overall idea is to restore the value of being present and being present in that moment in Basel, which is our mothership”. While the digital sharing of art is important for its dissemination, “art is great to be experienced in person and to be seen in person,” de Bellis says.
The initiative “is the result of a continuous dialogue with our galleries” De Bellis says, similar to Avant Première at Art Basel in Paris, where ultra-VIPs were allowed extra early access before the standard VIP preview. “A lot of collectors have also requested that they would see something [at the preview] that they otherwise would not.”
He adds that “there is already a practice for galleries to withhold works from their previews but a lot of people don’t know this, so I think it’s important for Art Basel to amplify that fact.”
The inherent tension, of course, in promoting such an initiative is that no-one can talk about what they will exhibit. Suffice to say, these “marquee works” will be a mix of everything from secondary market Modern works to entirely new paintings.
At the time of writing, 15 galleries had signed up to Basel Exclusive, including Galerie Chantal Crousel, Van De Weghe, Sadie Coles HQ, Lévy Gorvy Dayan, Mennour, Pace Gallery, Gagosian and David Zwirner. Hauser & Wirth is also taking part, and its president Iwan Wirth says Basel Exclusive “will act like an anticipation injection, placing a spirit of discovery back at the centre of the art fair experience. It’s further proof of our long-held belief that in an era of digital everything, there is no substitute for being in person with a masterpiece.”
The initiative is open to all galleries in the main section of the fair and works will be exhibited on their regular stands, marked with a “Basel Exclusive” sign, similar to the existing Kabinett sector.
De Bellis makes a point of stressing that previews are still important: “No one is disputing that, quite the opposite. But we also have to remind people that they should come [to the fair] and see for themselves, because you won’t see everything online.”
