East Eats West

Need to touch

Picture: A sculpture by Katharina Fritsch

Spending a few hours at the Art Basel confronted me with the sheer size and scope of artistic expression nowadays. The visit left me bewildered and exhausted and I once again how I can judge good art? Then I remembered a definition of art I read recently: good art is about pictures that stick in our heads. Interestingly, the art historian on my guided tour atthe new Katharina Fritsch exhibition in Zurich said that the sculptures of this German artist exactly do that: they stick to the brain. Katharina Fritsch's sculptures are of such a physical presence and superior craftsmanship that one is tempted to touch them. The life-sized sculptors of elephants, skulls, religious sculptors and other animals are covered in one mat color, juxtaposed against a monochromatic print. The result is hypnotizing and a clear sign of an outstanding artist.

You can see the Katharina Fritsch exhibition at the Kunsthaus in Zurich: http://www.kunsthaus.ch/

 

A crisis of sorts in the art world

Picture: An impression from Art Basel. 

This weekend I went to the crowded annual Art Basel art fair in order to get a feel for the state of the art world. I was told by a friend that the preview was packed and also on Sunday plenty of visitors crammed the aisles. At the fair I talked to a few industry insiders and the general opinion is that things have cooled down but some sectors of the art markets are holding up okay. Apparently the formerly red-hot contemporary sector has cooled down considerably. A positive effect of the economical crisis is that art dealers showed some of their best works in Basel. The Zurich based gallery owner Bruno Bischofberger for example displayed only one gigantic art work by Andy Warhol called “Big Retrospective Painting” from 1979. It is almost 11m long and apparently was sold for a “competitive price” of $74m. So prices have come down since last year (the work sold four years ago for $80m). Another good sign is that apparently the very affluent still buy art as they have plenty of money in their banks and the look at art as a safe storage of value. At the same I heard stories of gallery owners firing staff and that some of the big name dealers are apparently sitting on a big pile of debt that they amassed during the boom years. The most uplifting note I heard was by David Signer, the curator of the Swiss Institute in New York. He thinks that the on-going crisis will affect the art world in a positive way as it will highlight craftsmanship and quality, again. 

Cut out of wood

Picture: The Bernese artist Martin Thönen with one of his wood-cuts.  

One of the oldest printing techniques is wood-block printing. This traditional technique is kept alive by Martin Thönen in Berne. He produces limited prints, leporellos, books and calendars. His shop is located in the UNESCO heritage old town of Berne and his operates a little gallery in the massive cellar beneath his work shop.

http://www.martinthoenen.ch/

Buying art or shares?

 Picture: The German sculptor Michael Ball in the Rigassi Gallery in Berne. 

With the world stock market dropping by more than 50 percent since its high last year one can wonder if it had not been more sensible to buy a piece of art instead of investing in shares. For all the ones who want to invest in art instead of shares Mr. Rigassi, a gallery owner in Berne (Switzerland) came up with a neat solution. Hand in your Swiss UBS shares and then you can buy a piece of art for the same price plus a 25 percent bonus on the current share price. Sounds too good to be true? Do not think that you are given cheap art in return for cheap UBS shares. Mr. Rigassi for example represents the upraising German sculptor Michael Ball who produces amazingly fragile bronze sculptures. But be aware: the art market is also in for a big rehash and the first cracks have already appeared at autumn auctions in New York and London. Check out their websites here:

http://www.michaelball.de/

http://www.swissart.net/rigassi/

Rusty heavy metal

 Picture: Rusty iron sculptures illuminated by Christmas lightings.

My interest in sculptures was reignited last year when I bought a small metal sculpture by the Swiss artist Eugen Häfelfinger. But I guess my interest in metal sculptures goes way back to my childhood days when I admired the amazing rambling machines by Swiss artist Jean Tinguely. Another Swiss sculptor, who is still alive, is James Licini. He produces strict, heavy and rectangular sculptures from metal profiles in various sizes. One intriguing aspect of his outdoor sculptures is that they rust in the most beautiful way, adding a finite touch to his works of arts. Until the 30th of November his man-sized sculptures can be seen in the garden of the Hotel Baur au Lac in Zurich.

http://www.bauraulac.ch/index.html

Put the bull back in the art-market

Picture: At least you should be able to resell the golden hooves and horns.

In consumer goods marketing distribution is key (or as they say: the three most important things in retailing are location, location and location). Constantly companies find new ways to sell products in order to save costs. Just think about Ebay, Amazon or Dell even made away with physical brick-and-mortar retail-stores. One line of business that has resisted the new ways of retailing is the art-market. Traditionally artists are fostered by galleries who help them finance and sell their works. The gallery-owner also sets the price and gets a cut. British artist Damien Hirst, the bad boy of contemporary art, has just created a big rupture in art retailing: he sold 223 new works directly through Sotheby’s in London, therefore cutting out the middle-men, Mrs. Jopling and Gagosian, his long-standing dealers. The auction was a clear affront to the art-establishment but Mr. Hirst pulled off the trick, selling all 223 pieces for a total price of $199m! He also proved that despite the financial crisis art is still a buoyant market and like luxury handbags, producing more makes the pieces more desirable for the every increasing global money-elite. In fact, Mr. Hirst has become the first truly global luxury art brand. So maybe Mr. Hirst’s next coup will be to sell directly via Ebay? Last but not least Mr. Hirst seemed to have timed the market perfectly and he might be remembered as the artist who sold the last big lot before the art market, following the stock-market, went into a tailspin.

PS: Producing art nowadays resembles more and more the production of luxury handbags: Mr. Hirst has a team of 180 people situated in two wartime aircraft hangers who produce hundreds of pieces a year. His fellow contemporary artist Jeff Koons has a similar set-up in the USA.

Read more here: http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12267585 

Unrestrained art

Picture: The Gugging art brut artist John Garber and me at the Gugging museum near Vienna.

The famous Swiss artist Jean Tinguely once said that children are more non-constrained, unprejudiced and they do not know what is considered as art (he obviously liked them as spectators better than adults). But what if the artists instead are non-constrained by any intellectual concept or idea of art? Do artists exist who are unrestrained and unprejudiced? In Gugging, 20 minutes outside of Vienna, I found twelve such artists. They live in a brightly painted house surrounded by trees on a little hill in the countryside and their art is called Art Brut, as it has no concept or no deeper intellectual meaning: it comes directly from their hearts. The reason for their unrestrained approach to art is that they live an unrestrained life as they are mentally handicapped and beyond constraints of ‘normal’ society. We visited their museum by the name of Gugging next to their house and chanced to meet a few of them. First we met John Garber. He is in his sixties and an exception among the artists: he keeps most of his detailed paintings for himself and hangs them up in his room. In order to display his art he replicated a corner of his room in the museum and he took some time to explain the paintings to us. John had exhibitions from New York to Tokyo and Berlin and is obviously proud about it. Next we came across Karl Vondal who tends to walk around with big drawings under his arm and talks in rapid sentences, only interrupted by roaring laughter. He led us to the workshop and unrolled a huge drawing with hundreds of well endowed blond women, some of them engaged in an intercourse. In the process he got very excited about my female companion and went into great lengths to explain every detail of the depicted ‘actions’ of the women. After he begged us for some cigarettes we left him to his drawings and had a drink with two other artists outside in the sun. The artists were particularly enthusiastic about my female companion (and they were quite frank with their admiration). The four artists we met struck us with their curiosity, their artistic expression and their unrestrained feelings. I felt that they are much closer to the true concept of art: art as a passionate form of expressing the human soul. In Gugging, art is fundamental, it is passionate and it is authentic. I loved it.

For more pictures, click here: http://easteatswest.typepad.com/photos/vienna/index.html or visit the Gugging website here: www.gugging.org

Picture: The Gugging artist Karl Vondahl explaining his meandering and explicit work of art.

Picture: The Künstlerhaus, the house where about 12 art brut artists live (only men so far).

Jean Tinguely revisited

Picture: The KunstHaus in Vienna was designed by the Austrian artist Friedrich Hundertwasser and houses changing exhibitions.

My first deep impression of art was when my parents took me to the Zurich museum of art and I first experienced the kinetic art of the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely. There was a massive machine by the name of “Rotozaza” on display that could be fed with footballs, sucking them in and spitting them out. I was mesmerized. Tinguely is famous for his massive moving installations made out of scrap metal. Nearby were I live a massive installation by the name of “Eureka” is still on permanent display. His machines can also be seen in a dedicated museum in Basle but I always have the feeling that his machines do not belong inside a museum. They are supposed to be outside, surrounded by nature. Well, not always. The small but refined art museum KunstHaus in Vienna currently shows a Jean Tinguely retro perspective. And it offers Tinguely a respectable venue as he had his last exhibition while still being alive at the KunstHaus. The museum was built by the famous Austrian architect and utopian Friedrich Hundertwasser. The house has many angles and uneven floors made out of wood. And interestingly Tinguely’s machines feel comfortable in those oddly shaped rooms. While wandering around the exhibition and pressing the red buttons that activated the machines, I felt like I was back in time and a kid again. I was taken in by the energetic movements and deafening noises of those rusty machines, I got engulfed in the elaborate and colourful drawings and I remembered the time when I was a kid and fed a big machine with footballs. Never have I liked footballs better than then.

www.kunsthauswien.com

One of the last master calligraphers

Picture: Fabienne Verdier in front of one of her meditative calligraphies.

Calligraphy is the ancient Chinese art of ink-painting. It is regarded as one of the most challenging mental exercises as one only has one chance to make a stroke: no correction possible. Only if a master calligrapher is totally centred and focused can she achieve the perfect stroke of black ink. It is like playing golf: you only get one shot and it has to be perfect. So it is not uncommon for a master calligrapher to destroy more than 90 percent of their paintings! Fabienne Verdier, a French artist who spent ten years in China and learned calligraphy from old Chinese masters, has changed the contemporary art world with her oversized and incredibly powerful ink-paintings. I met her recently at the Foundation Looser in Zurich and she told me that she is not allowed into China anymore because she met some of the old Chinese masters who are still regarded as anti-Communist. As most of the Chinese masters have died she is one of the few remaining masters of this thousand years old art form and way of life. I asked her if she will take pupils and she said that only if a master has reached the age of 65 years can they take pupils.

I would like to warmly thank Hubert Looser of Foundation Looser for making the meeting with Fabienne Verdier possible. It means the world to me! Thank you!

How to tell when the art bubble pops

The art market has been red hot for quite a while. It has been mostly fed by super-rich investment bankers who decided to spend their fortunes on contemporary art. With the financial world in turmoil because of the subprime crisis it is only a matter of time when the art market will also experience a downturn. The question is when? One indicator for a possible pop of the art market bubble is that financial conference advisers start to come up with a conference in London with the title “Investing in Art: A new alternative asset class” (by Euromoney). At that conference you can learn how volatile this asset class is. My bet: soon very volatile (as quantitative hedge-funds in August and November last year)!

Should you nevertheless be interested in the conference, learn more here: www.euromoneytraining.com/uk