Christopher Vourlias
Best art market cities from Berlin to Miami
It’s one of the highlights of the cultural calendar each year, a time for collectors, dealers, museum curators, and some of the biggest names in the art world to gather, gossip, buy, sell—or simply chatter about the mystery buyer who plunked down $70 million on a Rothko or Warhol.
Welcome to Art Basel, the prestigious contemporary art fair that, on June 4, will open its doors to inaugurate its 39th year. Each spring a who’s who of art world movers and shakers descends on Basel, a bustling Swiss city on the Rhine. It’s a chance for the François Pinaults and Larry Gagosians to gauge the climate of the art world today—and to celebrate another spectacular year. If the mood these days seems especially festive, it might have less to do with the Veuve Cliquot than the sky-high prices being shelled out from New York’s Chelsea to China...
Best art market cities from Berlin to Miami
It’s one of the highlights of the cultural calendar each year, a time for collectors, dealers, museum curators, and some of the biggest names in the art world to gather, gossip, buy, sell—or simply chatter about the mystery buyer who plunked down $70 million on a Rothko or Warhol.
Welcome to Art Basel, the prestigious contemporary art fair that, on June 4, will open its doors to inaugurate its 39th year. Each spring a who’s who of art world movers and shakers descends on Basel, a bustling Swiss city on the Rhine. It’s a chance for the François Pinaults and Larry Gagosians to gauge the climate of the art world today—and to celebrate another spectacular year. If the mood these days seems especially festive, it might have less to do with the Veuve Cliquot than the sky-high prices being shelled out from New York’s Chelsea to China...
Christopher Vourlias Best art market cities from Berlin to Miami It’s one of the highlights of the cultural calendar each year, a time for collectors, ... more
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1
New York
If you're looking for a crash course in contemporary art, there's no better place to start than New York's hip Chelsea, where a walking tour of area galleries is a veritable who's who of the art world's "in" crowd today. With a host of heavyweight museums, world-class exhibitions, and a market saturated by art media, New York is clearly in a league of its own. The Museum of Modern Art's 2004 facelift—with an estimated $858 million price tag attached—and the opening of the ethereal New Museum of Contemporary Art in 2007, highlight the city's commitment to the arts.
2
London
When Damien Hirst and his bad-boy cohorts staged their seminal Freeze show in 1988, it was a watershed moment for a generation of artists. Thanks in part to the media circus that followed—masterfully orchestrated by the advertising executive-cum-art patron, Charles Saatchi—the Young British Artists (or YBA's) energized the London art world, all but turning it on its head in the process. Two decades later London's art scene is booming, with young artists gravitating to hip East End 'hoods and new galleries popping up every week. The annual Frieze show is one of the world's biggest art fairs, and the commercial market is second only to New York for global prestige.
3
Berlin
Two decades ago the German capital was still divided by the Iron Curtain, but its remarkable transformation in the years since has made Berlin the cultural heart of Europe today. A free-wheeling, anything-goes attitude has attracted creative types from around the world, and the climate has never been better for artists looking to make a splash in Berlin's busy art scene. In the Mitte and Brunnenstrasse districts, galleries like Contemporary Fine Arts, Eigen + Art, and Amerika showcase the best of the so-called "Kraut Art" movement—a tongue-in-cheek nickname for the YGA's (Young German Artists) who some have hailed as this generation's answer to their British counterparts of the '90s.
4
Beijing
Entrepreneurs flock to Shanghai to cash in on China's economic resurgence, but for art lovers, it's Beijing that offers the greatest riches in the region. In 2003 the city hosted its first art biennial, and in recent years, local art has commanded record-breaking prices overseas. Much of the buzz surrounds the 798 Dashanzi Art District, a former factory complex that once churned out electronics for the Chinese military. Today it's Beijing's leading venue for the avant-garde, stocked with trendy galleries, cafés, and a youthful, hipster-leaning crowd. The city's resurgence is further proof that China's come a long way from the Cultural Revolution of the '70s, when most forms of artistic expression were ruthlessly repressed. Expect the spotlight to shine bright for many years to come.
5
Los Angeles
The opening of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in February 2008 is the latest sign that L.A.'s looking to get past its splashy Tinseltown image. Almost overnight, the city has transformed itself into one of the country's leading centers of art—supplanting more established scenes in Chicago and San Francisco. Why all the buzz? Mild weather, affordable workspace, and a laid-back scene have made for a pleasant counterpoint to pricey, hyper-competitive New York. From Chinatown to Santa Monica to trendy Culver City, L.A. is enjoying a burst of creative energy and a boom in gallery shows. While sequel-prone Hollywood seems to be out of fresh ideas, L.A.'s cutting-edge artists are constantly pushing the envelope—and attracting rave reviews.
6
Paris
The City of Light has been synonymous with art for as long as we've had canvas and paint cans, but Paris today is about much more than Picasso, the Louvre, and the Mona Lisa. While six million visitors a year pop in to see the world's most famous smile, Paris's art scene has moved underground, with "art squats" setting up space in abandoned factories, cinemas, warehouses—and anywhere else creative types can escape the city's exorbitant rents. The establishment has grudgingly come to terms with the illegal squats—sometimes footing the bill for their restorations—as they've helped breathe life into what was rapidly becoming a stagnant art scene. No less important is the presence of the Palais de Tokyo, a round-the-clock contemporary art center that rejuvenated the local scene when it opened in 2002.
7
Mexico City
Ask most people what comes to mind when they hear the name Mexico City, and it's a good chance smog-choked air and crime-filled streets will top the list. But for the past decade, the Mexican capital has witnessed a burst of creative energy, and today the city has catapulted onto the international art scene. The run-down Centro Histórico is enjoying a renaissance, the sprawling exhibition space at La Collección Jumex anchors a busy and eclectic scene, and the fat-pocketed patronage of Carlos Slim—the telecom tycoon with a taste for fine art—has fuelled a creative boom around the capital. With Mexican artists like Gabriel Orozco and Miguel Calderon catching eyes abroad, the city has become a de rigueur stop for jet-setting scenesters.
8
Tokyo
Negotiating the Tokyo art scene today is a daunting task, with a dizzying range of kashi-garos (rental galleries) and kikaku-garos (curator-run galleries), along with a healthy supply of top-flight museums like the Mori Art Museum and the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. Gallery-hopping around Kiyosumi is a good way to brush up on the latest work of art icons like Yoshitomo Nara and Takashi Murakami, "the Andy Warhol of Japan," who created a splash with recent exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York. For foreign artists, sadly, the news is less positive: The Tokyo scene is notoriously insular, and you'll have a hard time getting into an elite kikaku-garo unless your reputation precedes you.
9
Madrid
The recent celebration of the 25th anniversary of ARCO—Madrid's venerable contemporary arts fair—is a strong sign that the art scene in the Spanish capital is alive and flourishing. It also offers a fitting portrait of how far the country has come since the stagnant post-Franco '70s, with Spain emerging as a cutting-edge center of art and design. While the Prado and Reina Sofia still draw the biggest crowds in the capital, ambitious galleries like Vacío 9 and Travesía Cuatro are bringing a new generation of artists into the limelight. The Madrid scene is also a refreshing, relaxed counterpoint to its counterparts in New York and London—a sign that in the Spanish capital, art is still primed for popular consumption.
10
Buenos Aires
The streets boast a Parisian-style elegance, the nightlife is endless—and you might actually get a favorable return on your US dollar. Thanks to decades of cultural cross-pollination, the Argentine capital is as cosmopolitan as any of its European counterparts, and a wave of young artists has come to cash in on its combination of frenetic energy and affordable workspace. The result is one of Latin America's hottest creative hubs—the city was the focus at the Milan contemporary art fair in April—and the wealth of cutting-edge galleries has led many to boast that the best is yet to come.
[source: https://www.forbestraveler.com/luxury/global-art-cities-story.html ]
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