Arts / Europe / Life & Arts

Art Basel faces volatile economic backdrop and 'generational shift' as fair opens

10 months ago

www.ft.com

6 min read

fairly easy

Maike Cruse, new director of the group's Swiss edition, says young collectors want to network more and have fun

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As Art Basel opens its 54th in-person edition next week, visitors can expect some breaks from tradition, even at the grande dame of art fairs. "The art world is changing and Art Basel is adapting to that," says Maike Cruse, the Swiss fair's new director.

She is about to oversee her first edition, having taken on the directorship last summer, and acknowledges that wider economic and sociopolitical uncertainty has taken its toll on the trade. The latest auction season in New York was down 22 per cent on 2023 while sales at art fairs from New York to Hong Kong have been more muted. "It's not a disaster, but there is a volatile background with high interest rates and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. So there is a little less urgency [in the art market], but still a lot of vibrancy," Cruse says.

The market is "definitely slower", says the London and Piraeus gallerist Sylvia Kouvali, but adds that "serious collectors are still looking at serious works". She brings a survey of Liliane Lijn to her Art Basel booth and a water fountain project by Iris Touliatou to the Parcours section for public-facing art.

'School of Languages' (2023) by Ryan Gander © Courtesy Lisson Gallery

Cruse also identifies "a generational shift" within the art market and "a bigger need from a younger crowd to connect, network and have fun". With this in mind, the biggest differences to Art Basel this year are not within the walls of the Messeplatz convention centre, where 288 galleries will be showing and selling their works in much the same way as ever, but rather outside, spilling into the city of Basel beyond the main trade's business hours with an expanded Parcours section.

Art Basel has also joined forces with the nearby Merian hotel to provide a public programme of events around the clock, including a screening of the opening match of the Euro 2024 men's football tournament in Germany on June 14. "Basel can accommodate everyone," Cruse says. "Everyone" is relative,…

Melanie Gerlis

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