Global Art Boom Floats Korean Art at Basel, Beyeler
By Seo Dong-shin
Staff Reporter
BASEL _ This small manicured Swiss city is bustling with the rush of visitors and rich collectors from all over the world to the 38th edition of Art Basel, the world's largest contemporary art fair, Tuesday.
Even before the fair opened to the general public Wednesday the continuing global art market boom saw many of the 2,000 works on sale from 300 selected international galleries already sold or put on hold. The fair continues through June 17.
Basel, traditionally dotted with museums boasting impressive collections, has become a perfect place for art lovers.
The annual Art Basel is celebrated with three satellite fairs such as Liste07, Voltashow03 and Scope, which all focus on emerging arts, as well as art shows such as ``Art Unlimited'' and ``Art Statements,'' held alongside the main Art Basel venue. They follow in the heels of the 52nd Venice Biennale last week.
South Korean art circles' long-standing efforts to move from the periphery of the global art map to its center -- which tends to be dominated largely by Western art dealers and collectors --seem to be paying off. It is not difficult to feel the nation's presence in every nook and cranny of the ongoing art feast in Basel.
At Galerie Beyeler, for example, exhibition ``Poetry in Motion'' kicked off simultaneously with the Art Basel, putting together about 50 artworks from 10 international artists and 10 Korean artists. The list of the names in the show ranges from Georg Baselitz, Alexander Calder and Sigmar Polke to Namjune Paik, Kim Whan-ki, Lee Ufan and Noh Sang-kyoon. Seoul-based Gallery Hyundai co-organized the show with the tradition-honored Basel gallery, of which 86-year-old owner Ernst Beyeler played a key role in launching the Art Basel fair itself.
While most of the Beyeler's predominantly Western European and American clients are not really familiar with Korean art, commercial prospects are bright because Korean art is ``not foreign'' to them, Claudia Neugebauer, a director at the Galerie Beyeler, said. ``It's not very far from European understanding of art and people react very positively,'' she said. ``And the market is just crazy now.''
Proving the veteran Swiss director's insight, owners of Korean galleries participating in Art Basel (Kukje Gallery, pkm Gallery) and Voltashow (doART Gallery) looked more than happy on the preview day.
Kukje Gallery, which brought the works of Korean artists such as Lee Ufan, Chun Kwang-yong and Rhee Ki-bong, sold almost 10 pieces within hours of the VIP and press opening on Tuesday.
``Prices all went up. The market's so good. It may be hard to enter Art Basel due to the high selection standards, but once you're in, all seems to get sold,'' said Lee Hyun-sook, president of the gallery who has been presenting the Korean art here since 1997. Out of five pieces by artist Chun, meticulously done with Korean mulberry paper and mixed materials, four were already sold even before the official opening at about $150,000 per piece. Also a piece from Lee Ufan's ``Correspondence'' series sold for $80,000 and two out of four pieces by artist Rhee's for about $20,000 each.
Pkm Gallery, which knocks on the door of the European art market for the first time by taking part in the Art Basel this year, mainly presented the works of star artist Lee Bul and photographer Kim Sang-gil. A sculpture of Lee's was sold to the corporate collection of UBS, the main sponsor of Art Basel, for $68,000, and a Basel museum bought Kim's set of photography for $100,000.
At Voltashow, doART Gallery, the first South Korean gallery to take part in the younger fair held near Basel's harbor, also enjoyed a pleasant sales volume. Five works were sold on the first day of opening, including ``Give & Take'' by artist Hong Kyoung-tack, whose work last month set the highest price on record for a living Korean artist at a Hong Kong auction last month, sold for $40,000. Park June-bum's video work sold for around $2,500 to Microsoft Corporate Collection.
``This is more than we expected. Since it is our first time to be here, we thought we would just focus on introducing Asian art,'' said Huh Yu-jin, an executive at the gallery. ``The Voltashow is not so avant-garde, it's more of active and younger artists presented by established galleries. I think those who came for the Art Basel are dropping by to check on us."
Meanwhile, Yang Haegue, a Berlin-based South Korean artist taking part in the Art Statement show for emerging artists, won the annual Baloise Art Prize $20,000, given to two outstanding projects in the section. Along with Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson, the 36-year-old achieved the feat out of the 26 solo exhibitions in the section.