Not everyone is happy about Art Basel and all the subsequent events that accompany the celebrated art fair every year, the first week of December. For some people in the local art world, in fact, the fair has become like a dark cloud that yearly descends upon the city.
The event has prompted local noted art-blog, Artlurker, to take a “public holiday from art.” Other local artists have taken the more drastic measure of boycotting the fair and its surrounding festivities, some even planning to leave town for the next week or so until the hysteria dies down.
Basically there’s the unshakable fact that art fairs are more about commerce than they are about culture. A fair is great place for collectors to purchase work, but there’s not really an ideal place to appreciate work on its natural an intended level. But appreciating art seems to take a backseat anyway to crass consumerism and rampant partying, as even Jeff Koons was recently quoted saying “Miami is really just more about a party scene.” While the international art world uses Miami as its personal playground, many locals feel snubbed and ignored. Meanwhile, you can expect a lot of fly-by-night art events and galleries that won’t (or in some cases can’t) stay open longer than a month foisting bad art upon the public, the modern day equivalent of snake oil salesmen.
None of this is to say that Basel isn’t a game-changing event that has probably affected culture positively in Miami in many ways. But it’s important to consider the fair’s negative implications as well.
this is utterly stupid…
the fair brings people/tourism to Miami = much needed money for the community
what Miami needs to do is take care of the other 51 weeks of the year. The local Art Mafia is not interested in doing it, so we ‘local’ artists do it on our own.
Aunque el mono se vista de seda, mono se queda..
why waste the energy being negative?
Talk about a knee jerk reaction to something that you disagree with. Artluker and your likes can take your provincial, narrow minded attitudes with you on your public holiday from America’s– if not the world’s– biggest art festival and never return for all I care.
Victor, I agree with you. I think that here in Miami we have been short-sighted in our approach to arts and tourism. Just yesterday, I was interviewed by a writer for National Geographic Traveler magazine. We were speaking about trends in tourism worldwide. The tourists who stay the longest in one destination and SPEND the most money during their visits are cultural heritage tourists. They want homegrown. They want local. They avoid the crowded mega events like Art Basel. We make the mistake here of going for one-shot deals, thinking that one big mega fair is going to be
Dear Knight Foundation: Is there an editor for this blog site?
A couple of observations:
1. Good opinion journalism needs to meet certain standards including an obvious attempt to persuade the reader to see the author’s point of view using insightful arguments substantiated by information. Ideally an opinion piece should be responsible, relevant, well written and show the big picture.
I believe this short opinion piece fails on all fronts. The links are all but irrelevant and the author (although I’m sure his intentions may be virtuous) fails to make his case, which seems to be: “…it’s important to consider the fair’s [Art Basel's] negative implications as well…” I fully support the concept of casting a discerning eye on Art Basel, but it would be nice to know what negative implications the author is referring to. This piece doesn’t really offer any real insight.
Okay, so out of town successful artist Jeff Koons doesn’t see Miami as anything but a party town. So what?
2. I see provincialism as Miami’s Achilles heel. There is an old guard here that talks about wanting this city to become a Mecca for art, while it continues to enable mediocrity (both in arts and arts management) to flourish. There are great – even world class – artists and arts groups here, but much of the public and private funding for the arts here goes to keep mediocre groups afloat instead allowing evolution to clear a path for new blood. Seed money for new talent is in short supply. Mismanagement of arts groups is rampant. Those who practice the religion of mediocrity post subliminal signs wherever they can that say “MAINTAIN THE STATUS QUO!”
This article by Victor Barrenechea is one of those subliminal signs. [NOTE: The author fails to disclose that he is a freelance writer who writes for Artlurker, one of the links he offers in the piece.]