Hot on the heels of Frieze London, Art Basel Paris returns to its former home inside the Grand Palais, filling the space with almost 200 different galleries and plenty of Issey Miyake-clad collectors dotting between booths.
Where the talk on the ground at Frieze had leaned financial, related to concerns over Brexit’s effect on the British art market, Art Basel Paris felt more assured. No doubt because some of the most monied cultural philanthropists (see also, wealth hoarders) are now flocking to the Continent, where they get better bang for their buck as non-doms.
Add to this a Miu Miu-funded satellite project at the Palais D’Iéna, Tales and Tellers, a Louis Vuitton and Frank Gehry activation (très chic), and plenty of other fashion-art crossovers, including a literal talk entitled “Fashion x Art”. It’s clear that Art Basel Paris has also stepped in on high fashion patronage where Frieze – remember the Matches Fashion partnership? – has perhaps fallen behind. Did we mention that Sarah Andelman, the founder of OG concept store Colette, debuted the first Parisian edition of Art Basel Shop this year, lining the shelves with some of the most IYKYK gallerina fare going? Think Claire Fontaine tees, Jeff Koons skateboards and Balenciaga fave artist Anne Imhof’s anticipated Sex book.
Of course, none of this matters if the art on show amounts to little more than flipper fodder. Which is why we’ve been delighted to find that not only is Art Basel Paris seducing the big pockets, it’s also spotlighting and showcasing some of the most radical artists, past and present. Alongside your Murakamis and Kusamas, there’s swathes of talent to sink your teeth into, whether it’s a cutesy, bow-wrapped seascape No Refunds (2024) by Demna’s old fit model Eliza Douglas, or the chaotic, technicolour mural – complete with a twinky Justin Bieber reference image pasted across it – by Loewe AW24 collaborator Richard Hawkins. Here’s a potted list of names you should not miss.
David Wojnarowicz, P·P·O·W Gallery
No doubt you’ll have seen the late David Wojnarowicz’s work at some point in fashion lore. As early as 2018, Loewe worked with the artist’s estate – looked after by P·P·O·W Gallery – on a series of T‑shirts, each emblazoned with one of Wojnarowicz’s most famous artworks. On it, a small child appears with text surrounding him that outlines the hideous future he might face as a gay person living in the USA in the early 1990s.
For the 2021 Met Gala, that same image appeared on actor Dan Levy’s clutch, teamed with a custom polo, embroidered and caped with Wojnarowicz’s legendary, Fuck You Faggot Fucker (1984) work, in which the artist had aped a homophobic cartoon in an act of resistance.
This year, at Art Basel, a lesser known painting from that same oeuvre, Untitled (1985 – 87), is on display, showing two men going at it bareback, backdropped by torn maps akin to those seen at the Met. Wendy Olsoff and Penny Pilkington, the downtown fixtures behind P·P·O·W, have represented the artist since circa 1987 – 88, by which point he was already diagnosed as HIV positive and focusing his energy towards the AIDS crisis in the US. Wendy points to the blood cells, sperm and stirring words that cross-section the work, explaining its poignance and giving insight into the man behind it.
“David could be extremely funny, he could be extremely frustrated and he could be extremely angry also,” she says. “He was sick when I worked most closely with him. I think that we felt we just needed to support him as much as possible.” Wendy would travel with David, as well as helping him source materials to make work. “We talked mostly about the symbolism of his dreams and boys, and smoked a lot of cigarettes,” she remembers. “And I’d get him where he had to go and just make sure he got back to his hotel.” The work on show translates that same urgency, moving between planes with collaged antique and prehistoric images as well as world maps, at once historical and zoomed-in, on the precipice of something catastrophic.