Korean art invasion to Basel 

From Venice, the art world goes straight ahead to Basel where people ‘go shopping’ for the fine arts they have set their eyes on of the artists they saw at the Biennale. The 38th Basel Art Fair opens from June 13 to 17. In this year’s art fair, 300 galleries from 30 different countries participate and display the works of 2,000 artists. The Basel Art Fair, over the years, has surpassed one of the most distinguished art fair in Europe and boasts on its quality and profits.

Over 300 leading galleries from the world will be exhibiting at Art Basel and they were selected from over 800 applicants in accordance with rigorous criteria. There are 73 galleries from the USA; 55 from Germany; 36 from Switzerland; 29 from the UK; 23 from France; 21 from Italy; 8 each from Austria and Spain; 7 from Belgium; 5 from Denmark; 4 each from Brazil, Japan, and the Netherlands; 3 from Poland; 2 each from Canada, China, Greece, Israel, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and South Korea; and 1 each from Australia, Finland, India, Ireland, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, South Africa, and Turkey. The galleries were selected by the ‘Art Basel Committee’. Got through the barriers of the Fair, there are two Korean galleries set up booths at their, the Kukje and pkm.

Korean Galleries in the Basel Art Fair 

The Kukje gallery, first participating since 1998, takes with them the most profitable works of Kwang-young Chun, Ki-bong Rhee, Duck-hyun Cho, Yeondoo Jung, Bohn-chang Koo, Kwang-ho Lee, Sungsic Moon, Hye-rim Lee, and Jeon Kyung. Currently, Kukje gallery has hired Ji-yoon Lee, a private curator whose base of operations is in London, as their outside director and plans on occupying the European Market. For pkm gallery, this year will be their first appearance. Although pkm gallery itself is quite new and may be their first participation, luckily, they are able to take part in ‘Art Gallery’ not ‘Art Premier’ and rub shoulders with some of the most prominent major art galleries in the world. 

pkm gallery takes with them the works of Bo-min Kim, Lee Bul, Ham Jin, Young-whan Bae, Sang-gil Kim, Noori Lee, Moon Beom, Bruce Nauman, Wang Qingsong. What is more anticipating is that Lee Bul had participated at the Basel Art Fair two years ago in a special exhibition called ‘Art Unlimited’. Last month, pkm gallery Seoul held a Lee Bul private exhibition as a sign of preparation for this Fair. In addition, Lee Bul is scheduled to hold a solo exhibition at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art this November and therefore artworks which are to be displayed at the Basel Art Fair are highly looked forward to. In the film projection program ‘Art Film’. Gimhongsok’s ‘Wild Korea’ has been submitted and is scheduled to be shown on June 14, which Kukje gallery requested and was approved of. Also in the ‘Art Statement’ section, Hye-kyu Yang of the Vienna gallery in Berlin will be participating. 

Sung-jin Kim, The Lip, oil on canvas, 112×162cm, 2004.

Gimhongsok, The Wild Korea, 2005.

THEY, Tamen Sanxia, oil on canvas, 180×280cm, 2006.

Basel Art Fair is not the only attraction in Basel. The success of the Basel Art Fair, has of course, brought investors and speculators throughout the world to create smaller art fairs. To name a few, the Volta Show and Liste, Scope-Basel are some of them. Scope-Basel, which originally opened along side New York? The Armory Show, has grown dramatically, and this year goes head-to-head with the Basel Art Fair. The Liste which began in 1996 is known to be the most young and liberal art fair of the three. The doArt gallery from Korea is first participating in the Volta Show. The doArt gallery is presenting nine pieces of art by Sung-jin Kim, June-bum Park, Ung-pil Byen and artists from China and Japan.  The Volta Show, compared to the Basel Art Fair, is an art fair mainly consisting of young emerging artists and corresponds well with the identity of the doArt gallery specializing in displaying young artists. The Volta Show, founded in 1995 by art dealers Kavi Gupta, Friedrich Loock, Ulrich Voges and art critic Amanda Coulson, is a newborn art fair. This year, 67 galleries participate and the doArt gallery and the Taronasu gallery from Japan are the only two Asian participants. An interesting aspect of this art fair is that all the booths provided to one gallery are about the same size. While in most art fairs you see wealthy and powerful galleries getting hold of several booths, using their large space to bully other smaller galleries, the Volta Show is quite an equal art fair. So, there are no reasons for galleries to probe each other’s motives and can simply enjoy doing business.

Yeondoo Jung, Location #15, c-print, 122×154cm, 2006.

Tschang-yeul Kim, Recurrence, oil on canvas, 73×60cm, 1997.

Georg Baselitz, Fingermalerei-Moewe, oil on canvas, 170×140cm, 1972.

Samuel Keller, Director of ART BASEL.

Major Galleries of Korean and Europe Meet

Along with participating in the Volta Show, Gallery Hyundai is exhibiting a co-organized showcase with the world renowned gallery, Galerie Beyeler. With the title ‘Poetry in Motion’ Gallery Hyundai is scheduled for an exhibition at Galerie Beyeler from June 11 to September 15, followed by a exhibition at Gallery Hyundai from October 2 to 14. Gallery Hyundai, decorating the early Korean gallery history and the prestige of 37 years, and Galerie Beyeler, leading the European art market for 50 years, have met. This opportunity gives us a chance to meet 10 Korean artists Tachang-yeul Kim, Whan-ki Kim, Sang-kyoon Noh, Seo-bo Park, Nam-June Paik, Se-ok Suh, Sung-hy  Shin, Lee Ufan, Chung Sang-hwa , John Pai along with world class artists such as Georg Baselitz, Alexander Calder, Sam Francis, Sigmar Polke, Robert Indiana, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter and Rebecca Horn.

Also, pictures meet with poetry. Ten pieces of poetry by poets such as English Romanticism poet William Wordsworth, American female poet Emily Dickens, Korean lyric poet Shiva Ryu, and so forth, will be selected to be displayed along with art work that best suits the poems. Like the painter Kuo Hsi, during China? Northern Song Dynasty once said, “A picture is a soundless poem, a poem is a shapeless picture.” or the Greek poet Simonidies mentioned, “Painting is a wordless poem, a poem is a talking picture.” Art and Literature meet and is expected to create a whole new chapter of art which penetrates the thoughts and minds of the East and West. 

The Galerie Beyeler was founded in 1951 by Ernst Beyeler and has hosted over 250 exhibitions. Beyeler had acquired the antique book store on lot number 9 and purchased the Thompson Collection, 340 pieces which includes masterpieces from artists such as Klee, Giacometti, Cézanne, Monet, Picasso, making Beyeler Europe’s finest art dealer and collector. Basel Art Fair was also initiated by Beyeler in 1971 and in 1982 Beyeler Foundation Art Museum was established. Beyeler Foundation Art Museum is looking to hire a new director. The man for the position is Samuel Keller, current director of the Basel Art Fair. As director of the Basel Art Fair from 2000, Keller newly established Art Basel Miami Beach and has strengthened the Basel Art Fair. Keller will resign from the director of Basel Art Fair and move to the Beyeler Foundation.

The reason the city of Basel, with its mere population of 200,000, brings together the art world is because of hot issues like this. When one heads to the Venice Biennale, Kassel Documenta and Sculpture Project in Muenster, putting Basel in one’s itinerary is an obvious choice. Although the price of commodities is most expensive in Europe and the rooms will charge five times the regular rate, it is still worth visiting.  
Editor | Kyoung-yun Ho