From Basel, With Art
Each June, the world’s top collectors and dealers descend on Basel, Switzerland for Art Basel – the largest and most prestigious fair for modern and contemporary art. Founded in 1970 as a marketplace for elite buyers, the event has since become a major social fixture and a key barometer for the global art market.
The city itself is no passive backdrop. With 37 museums – including the Kunstmuseum, home to the world’s oldest public art collection, and Europe’s first Museum of Contemporary Art – Basel lives and breathes art. In fact, during this year’s fair, the Parcours initiative turned the city itself into an open-air gallery, featuring more than 20 site-specific installations in unexpected spaces like storefronts, hotel lobbies, underpasses and office buildings.
Art Basel 2025
The Messeplatz at Art Basel 2025, reimagined by Katharina Grosse. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
The Messeplatz at Art Basel 2025, reimagined by Katharina Grosse. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
The Messeplatz at Art Basel 2025, reimagined by Katharina Grosse. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Art Basel: Hylozoic Desires by Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser. (Photo: Art Basel)
The Vibe
In a year of geopolitical turmoil – and following New York spring auction season in May in which a $70 million Alberto Giacometti sculpture failed to sell – there was some doubt as to how enthusiastic Art Basel’s attendees would be to drop six-and seven-figure sums on paintings and sculptures.
There’s also the impact of Art Basel’s growing global reach to consider. With a Paris edition set to take place in October, a new fair in Qatar scheduled for February, and annual offshoots in Hong Kong and Miami Beach, there is some concern about undermining the Basel fair’s clout. While this year’s 88,000 visitors were slightly down from 2024’s turnout, Art Basel’s 289 galleries from 42 countries and territories offered plenty to entice collectors of all kinds.
The Art
Basel is reliable for not just the quality of its art, but also the variety. This year’s show did not disappoint, welcoming visitors with a large-scale installation by Katharina Grosse, which wrapped the approach to Basel’s Messeplatz event venue in bold spray-paint-like splashes of white and pink. The art inside ranged from the avant-garde (a Speedo-clad go-go dancer atop a plinth—“Unlimited” (Go-Go Dancing Platform) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres) to the more traditional (“Still Life: Maroochydore,” a stunningly colourful Patrick Caulfield painting of a riverside picnic.) As ever, there were also a handful of works from legends including Picasso, Twombly, and Rothko, with eight-figure prices to match.
Art Basel 2025
Galerie Nordenhake at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Unlimited 2025 (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Emalin at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Unlimited 2025 (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
David Zwirner at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Armineh Negahdari at Art Basel 2025 (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Gladstone Gallery at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Galerie Eva Presenhuber at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Art Basel 2025
Carlos/Ishikawa at Art Basel 2025. (Photo: Art Basel)
Fears of a major downturn in the art market were allayed somewhat by the early sale of David Hockney’s Mid-November Tunnel (2006), a British landscape diptych which fetched upwards of US$13 million on the show’s early-access VIP day. Other headline sales included Ruth Asawa’s Untitled (S.278, Hanging Nine-Lobed, Single-Layered Continuous Form) from 1955, a large-scale example of the artist’s signature looped wire weaving style that fetched US$9.5 million. Other seven-figure sales included works by Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter and Alice Neel.
The Biggest Hype?
In a very 2025 twist, the fair’s most exciting offer wasn’t in any of the gallery booths, but in the Art Basel gift shop, where a limited-edition drop of Labubu dolls made in collaboration between Hong Kong–born artist Kasing Lung and Art Basel, sold out in less than 30 minutes.
After more than 50 years, Art Basel is still finding ways to surprise its audience.
Feature image courtesy Art Basel (Messeplatz by Katharina Grosse).
