Galleries Report Strong Sales on Art Basel’s Opening Day, Proving the Fair Is Still the Market’s Bellwether

June 14, 2023

Many may still consider New York City to be the center of the art world, but the art market’s mecca is in Switzerland, where the 2023 edition of Art Basel opened to VIPs on Tuesday. The fair boasts 285 galleries from 36 countries, 21 first-time presenters, and one brand new chief executive, Art Basel veteran Noah Horowitz, who replaced Marc Spiegler late last year.

By all accounts, Art Basel is the true one true arbiter of the market. Despite massive numbers across the auction house marquee sales last year, collectors in 2023 have been slightly more cautious about what art they buy, in large part because of the sheer volume of art that has been available for sale in the last 12 months. But as collectors know, everyone holds the best work for Art Basel.

From on-the-ground accounts, opening day was busy, and there was no shortage of multimillion dollar works for sales from both the primary and secondary markets, including a spate of works by Pablo Picasso, who passed away 50 years ago this year, and a few paintings that recently made an appearance on the auction block.

Let’s take a look at some of the standout sales—as reported by the galleries themselves—from opening day.

Rashid Johnson at David Kordansky

Image Credit: Photo: Stephanie Powell/Courtesy David Kordansky

David Kordansky Gallery is marking its 20th anniversary this year, and it seems that there was much to celebrate at Basel. According to Kurt Mueller, a senior director at the gallery, Kordansky sold a number of works to both private collectors and major institutions on VIP day, including work by artists who are featured in major museum shows this year. The highlight of their booth was a new work by the Chicago-born Rashid Johnson. His Twombly-esque Surrender Painting “Ocean Sounds” (2023) shows a four-by-seven grid of squares that look like they are trying to contain a phalanx of chalky white faces, their large, cartoonish eyes barely held in by the boxes, while underneath faint white lines dart and dash across the grayish-brown linen canvas. The work sold for $975,000.
Alexander Calder at Pace

Image Credit: Courtesy Pace Gallery

In a separate gallery space within the Pace’s booth sits an elegant suite of five works by Alexander Calder, among them one hanging mobile, two standing mobiles, one painting, and a work on paper. The works, which came directly from the Calder family, all sold individually for prices between $350,000 and $2.8 million. For prices between $350,000 and $425,000, Pace also sold three life-size editions of an on-duty lifeguard sitting high atop the gallery floor that were sculpted out of bronze by Elmgreen & Dragset.
Georg Baselitz at Thaddaeus Ropac

Image Credit: Courtesy Thaddeus Ropac

Like Pace, Thaddaeus Ropac came to the fair with a deep collection of works by one artist, in this case the German painter and printmaker Georg Baselitz, who, at 85, is making vibrant, dynamic work in his topsy-turvy fashion. 1969 ohne Stuhl (2023), which sold for around $845,000, looks like it could have come from a cut frame of a violent late ‘70s heist flick, while Blau von Dinard (2023) has a much calmer, relaxed quality, with its central figure float in a pool of Hockney blue. Blau von Dinard sold for $1.2 million. The gallery found buyers for a total of eight paintings and drawings made by Baselitz on the Basel’s first day, as well as four works by Martha Jungwirth for prices between $195,000 and $390,000.
Keith Haring at Gladstone Gallery

Image Credit: © Keith Haring Foundation. Courtesy of the Foundation and Gladstone Gallery.

An untitled ink on posterboard work from 1980 by Keith Haring was among the highlights that sold at Gladstone. The work, which sold for $1.4 million, features all of Haring’s trademark sequential figures and is a wonderful example of the artist’s sense of humor and spot-on timing. Incidentally, Haring’s first museum show in Los Angeles is currently underway at the Broad. That exhibition features 120 works plus archival materials and is on view through October 8. The gallery also sold a Robert Rauschenberg collage for $1.2 million and a painting by Elizabeth Peyton for $1.85 million.
Tom Friedman at Lehmann Maupin

Image Credit: Photo Andrea Rossetti/Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London

Lehmann Maupin announced during VIP day that they will now represent the conceptual artist and sculptor Tom Friedman, whom the gallery previously only worked with in the Asian markets, in the Americas as well. The gallery sold an untitled Friedman work to what the gallery described as a “prominent American collector” who was once on the board of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and is now based between New York, Miami, and the Hamptons. This coming November, the gallery will stage an “In Focus” presentation for Friedman at their New York location, with a solo exhibition to follow in 2025. The gallery also found buyers for old works from Lee Bul’s “Perdu” series for a combined sum of $500,000 and sold out its works by Dominic Chambers, who will have a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis this September and a solo show at the gallery next year.