Art Basel end of show report

As the 46th edition of Art Basel closed in Basel on Sunday, June 21, 2015, the show was once again widely praised for the many outstanding quality artworks on display and the precisely presented stands. Gallerists reported excellent sales across all levels of the market – to a particularly international array of collectors and institutions – with many declaring this to have been their strongest Art Basel edition.

The show, whose Lead Partner is UBS, presented 284 galleries from 33 countries, exhibiting the work of over 4,000 artists. A total of 14 galleries showed in Basel for the very first time, coming from China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

Once again, Art Basel provided a platform for galleries to present the very best contemporary and historical material. This year a significant reconfiguration of the downstairs floorplan in Hall 2 moved 57 galleries to new positions – representing the biggest such shift at the show in the last decade. Bringing galleries showing work from 1900 to 1970 in closer proximity to each other, it created a stronger focus for their outstanding historical material, which included premier pieces by Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Georg Grosz, Yves Klein, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko and Egon Schiele.

The show attracted an attendance of 98,000 over the six show days. Alongside major private collectors from Europe, North and Latin America, and Asia, representatives and groups from over 80 museums and institutions from across the world attended the show, including: Art Gallery of Ontario; Dia Art Foundation, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; National Gallery Singapore; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Serpentine Galleries, London; Tate, London; The Royal Academy, London; The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and Yuan Museum, Beijing.