Exhibitions Got Physical Again, And Art Fairs Were Freed From The Pixelated Confines Of Online Viewing Rooms. Well, Except For The Addition Of NFT, That Is.
With the previous Art Basel, 2020 took only place online. This year’s edition was postponed from June to September.
Finally, on the first day only for VIPs, Art Basel 2021 opened its doors on September 20.
As always, the gigantic fair brought thousands of art lovers, collectors and enthusiasts together for a show of a lifetime.
Art Basel Around The World 2021
This was the event’s first to welcome to the renowned non-fungible tokens digital art world to its gallery spaces.
NFT artists and their accompanying artworks were a great hit at the five-day event.
In Miami, dealers reported a red-hot market, with gallerist Helly Nahmad selling Pablo Picasso’s Mousquetaire et Femme a la Fleur for under $20 million to an undisclosed buyer and more.
The L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped In Paris
From surrounding a couple of Miami islands in vibrant pink fabric to draping New York central park in billowing orange.
2021, Christo and Jeanne-Claude revealed their final, posthumous work in Paris, which shocked the world as a $60 million installation turned a national monument into a somewhat controversial one.
From Saturday, September 18 to Sunday, October 3, 2021, the artwork that wrapped the Parisian Arc de Triomphe in 25,000 square meters of recyclable polypropylene silver-blue fabric with 3,000 meters of red rope.
It lasted for two weeks and gave the surrounding locals a fresh pair of eyes on something they usually took for granted.
The nephew of the famous duo, Christo V. Javacheff, took over the project. It was entirely funded through the sale of Christo’s preparatory studies, drawings, project collages, and scale models – all works from the 1950s and 1960s.
The Frieze London 2021
With close to 160 galleries from 40 countries showcasing the best of contemporary art worth millions of pounds, the Frieze London 2021 art fair saw many exhibits excel with major sell-outs.
For example, according to Art-Net “this year, art dealer David Zwirner sold works by Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers, Paul Klee, and Yayoi Kusama for prices ranging from $500,000 to $1.1 million.”
Breaking records only eyes in 2021 could see.
Being Fully Immersed In A Digital Art Realm
We saw another substantial way exhibitions changed how we experience art in 2021. Most of the time, there’s a clear distinction between us and the artwork. But artists like Yayoi Kusama confuse this on purpose.
To experience her mirror rooms, she asks us to become part of them. Walking through her mind, we break down all the boundaries between the subject and the object itself.
Even the immersive walk through the exhibition that celebrated the artist of Van Gogh saw a great response.
SEE MORE: Immersive Exhibitions are The Future of The Art World