Contemporary art in Paris: Art Basel 2024

Natalia Kazarina, a student on our “I Want Into the Art World!” program, on Art Basel in Paris in October 2024

As it happened, I came to Paris to take part in a completely different fair — the one at the Carrousel du Louvre (we wrote about Natalia’s participation in this post). But around the same dates, half an hour away on foot, both Art Basel and the Moderne Art Fair were on. I didn’t have the energy left for the latter, but I couldn’t miss Art Basel at the Grand Palais, open for the first time after years of restoration.

I got there on the last day, so some of the sold works were already gone, though many that had been bought stayed up to the end. Most of it was large-scale work in oil and acrylic in contemporary frames; a little sculpture and installation; quite a lot of textiles and mirrored surfaces. It seemed to me there was very little ceramic or glass.

Finding labels for the works turned out to be very hard — at the far end of the wall, in small type, there was only the basic information about the piece, with no longer text explaining the idea or anything else. So my impressions are visual more than anything. Some stands had no labels at all; some, like Gagosian, made do with a single QR code for all the works, and others had nothing whatsoever.

The overall impression was of very expensive, well-made, beautiful work — mostly easy on the eye rather than provocative. I’d thought that only the fair I was taking part in was about “make it pretty for us”, but there was even more of that here.

My daughter, who is completely outside the art world, picked as her favourite this man lying on a rubbish bag, shifting about and making noises)

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What I liked about Art Basel is that almost every work is in open dialogue with the public. The person looking is a necessary component of the art. The works aren’t self-sufficient; they’re open to interaction and conversation.

A friend of mine who went to Art Basel in Miami a few years ago said she saw a lot of familiar works.