Premiering in the city of love, Art Basel embraces Parisian aesthetic

For the first time, art industry professionals and aficionados from New York, London, Seoul, India and more have travelled to Paris, in pursuit of  experiencing the euphoria of the symbiotic relationship between art and artists, a tenderness that appears almost sacred to Paris+ par Art Basel . The art fair has brought together 156 French and international art galleries to display exceptional artworks across disciplines, ranging from paintings and art sculptures to photography and digital art. Exhibitors from Europe, Africa, Asia, North and South America, and the Middle East, along with numerous first-time Art Basel participants have joined a large French gallery contingent. The first time participants includes — Galerie Anne Barrault, Christian berst art brut, Magnin-A, Salle Principale, and We Do Not Work Alone from Paris; Efremidis and Heidi from Berlin; Galerie Cécile Fakhoury with spaces in Abidjan, Dakar, and Paris; LC Queisser from Tbilisi; Seventeen from London; Chris Sharp Gallery from Los Angeles; and Tim van Laere Gallery from Antwerp.

Laurence des Cars, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre, remarks, “I am thrilled about this inaugural exhibition, which reflects an emboldened presence of contemporary art in the Tuileries, and is embedded in the renewal of our autumnal sculpture project in the gardens. Since the 17^th century, the garden has been a place for the public and creativity.”

“Annabelle Ténèze, whose work at the musée d’art contemporain de Rochechouart and the Abattoirs in Toulouse I have followed closely, has perfectly mastered the technical and curatorial challenges at hand to propose an exhibition that features works by artists from different generations and backgrounds. The Tuileries garden, like the Louvre and the musée Delacroix, is a place filled with life in all its forms. With this exhibition, we will be able to write La Suite de l'Histoire together,” she adds.

Paris+ par Art Basel is offering a worldwide display of accomplished works, profoundly rooted in Paris, and its cultural milieu. Croy Nielsen and Standard Oslo are exhibiting Nina Beier's Guardians, an installation of four overturned marble lions resting on the ground and coated in areas of seeds, inviting the garden's birds. A three-beaded sculptural piece Musicians by Mexican-born, New York-based visual artist Ral de Nieves, is also on display and is being exhibited by Morán Morán, Company Gallery, and Fitzpatrick Gallery. The sculpture Blue Obelisk with Flowers by French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle is also being displayed by Georges-Philippe & Nathalie Vallois.

The main sector of the art fair features 140 world-renowned galleries presenting sterling quality painting, sculpture, drawings, installation, photography, video, and digital works. The Green Pavilion by Odile Decq, a tribute to the Renaissance greenhouse, that functions as a sanctuary for the conservation of endangered species and social interaction, is being displayed by Galerie Philippe Gravier. Judith Hopf's Phone User 4, a concrete sculpture of a human-sized person clutching onto a smartphone, addresses the complex connection between individuals and their technological devices. Lemurenköpfe (Lemure Heads) by Austrian artist Franz West, initially shown at documenta IX in Kassel in 1992, is being exhibited by David Zwirner. Continuing the exhibition at the Musée National Eugène Delacroix are sculptural installations ranging in size from miniature to monumental, by African American artist Thaddeus Mosley who is the latest introduction at this year’s Art Basel.

At Place Vendôme, a new installation, Au cours des Mondes offers a veritable initiatory journey in the public space, the installation by German-Polish artist Alicja Kwade questions our relationship to knowledge, the universe, and the mechanisms of power. This new installation, her largest to date, is a series of spheres in dialogue with endless staircases, a recurring theme in the artist’s work.

The exhibition Karla by Omer Fast at the Chapelle des Petits-Augustins features a holographic projection investigating the namesake character's profession for a large computer corporation as well as ghost-like sculptures and reproductions of Max Beckmann's self-portrait. Together, these features respond to the 16^th century statues that are always on display in the chapel, probing the inherent ambiguity of ideas like authenticity, time, and truth.

The art exhibition featuring various paintings and installations is on view till October 23, 2022.