ART BASEL, BASIL
THURSDAY 5 JUNE
DAY 3

I’m woken by a police helicopter landing on the roof 30 yards from my hotel room.

At breakfast I read in The Art Newspaper that this year sales at Art Basel have been as good as always though slower than usual and that many Americans stayed at home preferring to send their agents instead.

So the profession of art-agent/consultant – Personal Art Shopper? – appears to be becoming more widespread and organized.

Today is Big Gallery Day and I’m going to visit the stand of Massimo De Carlo, Milan.

Among other things he has brought his large round carpet “Belpaese Galbani” by Maurizio Cattelan (slightly left out in the cold – we expect to see it in the passage);

an amusing oval divan built around reclaimed chairs by Gelitin;

a beautiful plaster cast with ornamental floral spirals by Rudolf Stingel; a stand with a most elegant empire look.

At Victoria Miro’s (London) I ask my friend Cathy what’s new.

She shows me an abstract painting by Argentine artist Varda Caivano.

A classic implosion – from Giotto to Kippenberg, Cezanne. I like it.

Again if I were an investor and collector, I’d buy it.

Abstract paintings, collages and photographs (without obvious digital effects and without people) are what strike me most as I walk around this year’s Art Basel.

With some exceptions. Matthew Marks (NY) has come up with an enchanted forest by Ugo Rondinone.

Again at Victoria Miro, there’s a huge sculture by Elmgren & Dragset which appears to slightly mock Damien Hirst – and just nearby, slightly hidden, the gallery designer has ironically placed a small Damien Hirst so as to create a subtly telling short-circuit effect.

As I look around, it occurs to me that plastic surgery does more harm than old age and the cult of eternal youth should really be consigned to the last century, to the Hitler Jugend!

At 7 I pass by the the space at Spitalstrasse where Nike and Nick Knight’s Showstudio have set up the Art of Football exhibition to mark both the Art Exhibition and the start of the European Football Championships.

I meet Joel Tettamanti, a highly talented Swiss photographer we recently showcased in Rodeo.

Then it’s a rush to get to Patti Smith’s unplugged concert at St. Elisabeth’s Church.

She released her first single on 5 June 1974.

She’s accompanied there by her son who when that first disk came out wasn’t even born – together with Lenny Kaye on guitar and Jay Dee Daugherty on drums: the Patti Smith Group from that far-gone time.

After five numbers we slip away as there’s a big “dinner party” in the country at a friend’s.

An early bed tonight.

The rest go off to hear the Hot Chip and Arty Party at the Exhibition’s official evening party.

From the photos it appears (and I can’t show them to you) the party was somewhat over the top.

Tomorrow will be a day of lists, “younger” galleries and new finds.