The 54th edition of Art Basel opened to the public on Thursday, June 13, 2024, in Basel, Switzerland. There are 285 galleries from 40 countries and regions, including 22 first-timers, showing their best works at the fair. The atmosphere at the fair’s VIP preview was considered tense considering the art market’s “period of calibration.”
“We are witnessing a broadening of our collecting globally with new buyers entering the market, and securing a baseline of support for business alongside core audiences that continue to collect,” Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz said during a press conference. “At the same time, we recognize that the art market is undergoing a period of recalibration. … There is clearly a degree of caution in the market these days. However, I will say, given the energy in the halls today, that the art market is very much still here, and very strong.”
Some of the African artists whose works were on view at the convention centre, Messeplatz includes: Kaloki Nyamai, Frida Orupabo, Ghada Amer, El Anatsui, Kudzanai Chiurai, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Deborah Segun, Ekene Stanley Emecheta, Katlego Tlabela, William Kentridge, Kapwani Kiwanga, Atta Kwami, Yinka Shonibare, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and Kudzanai Chiurai amongst others.
Works that have been reported sold since the fair opened its doors includes: William Kentridge’s There Were No Books, 2023; Julie Mehretu’s Untitled #2, 1999; Kapwani Kiwanga’s Orb, 2023; Yinka Shonibare’s Refuge Astronaut VI, 2024; Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s You’ll be sorry, 2023; amongst others.
Here is a rundown of some of the African art on view at the Art Basel, Basel 2024:
El Anatsui, Untitled II (2023)
USD 2,000,001 – 3,000,000
Goodman Gallery
El Anatsui, Commercial Avenue (2014)
USD 500,001 – 750,000
Jack Shainman Gallery
El Anatsui uses resources typically discarded such as liquor bottle caps, cassava graters and newspaper printing plates to create sculpture that defies categorisation. His use of these materials reflects his interest in reuse, transformation, and an intrinsic desire to connect to his continent while transcending the limitations of place. His work can interrogate the history of colonialism and draw connections between consumption, waste, and the environment, but at the core is his unique formal language that distinguishes his practice.
William Kentridge, I Ask This Stone (2023)
USD 400,001 – 500,000
Lia Rumma
This artwork is from the cycle of works You Whom I Could Not Save made in 2023, created for the exhibition of the same title held in Palazzo Branciforte (Palermo). On old sheets of Sicilian ledgers, the artist has sketched, using pen and ink, charcoal and coloured felt tip pens, a sort of ironic and surreal theatre of puppets which have everyday objects and tools in place of their heads, but also the well-known faces of leading figures of the world of art, history, literature and the sciences, such as Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Franz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Lilya Brik and Joséphine Baker. In this “theatre of the absurd”, Kentridge metaphorically retraces the voyage undertaken by several European intellectuals in 1941, bound for the New World, to escape from the war and Nazi persecution: a crossing of the Atlantic which today, as in the past, turns one’s mind to the numerous journeys in the Mediterranean made by migrants who set off from Africa in search of safety on our coasts. The ghosts of the past and the present coexist, as the artist recounts, projecting “the drawing of a world, a place that is at once real, surreal and mythological”.
Tschabalala Self, Customer 6 (2024)
USD 300,001 – 400,000
Galerie Eva Presenhuber
Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, Refugee Astronaut VI (2024)
USD 300,001 – 400,000 (SOLD)
Goodman Gallery
Yinka Shonibare, a British–Nigerian artist of global renown, transcends the artificial construct of culture through a body of work that has garnered international acclaim. His series Refugee Astronaut (2015-ongoing) introduces a life-sized nomadic astronaut adorned with “African” fabric, equipped to navigate ecological and humanitarian crises. Carrying a mesh sack filled with worldly possessions, the figure symbolises the challenges of displacement. Originating from Shonibare’s contemplation of space as a potential refuge, the artwork serves as a cautionary tale on environmental negligence and capitalism, challenging the unsustainable pursuit of perpetual growth. It also subverts colonial connotations, presenting a refugee astronaut in stark contrast to the colonial instinct of conquering the world. In a cautionary tone, Shonibare emphasises that the artwork serves as a warning, urging contemplation of the potential consequences of inaction regarding rising water levels and the resulting displacement of people. For Shonibare, the overarching question of humanity is incredibly diverse, emphasising the recognition that there is no singular way to be human.
Ghada Amer, ONE IS NOT BORN (2023)
USD 200,001 – 300,000
Goodman Gallery
Working for the first time with the traditionally male-dominated Egyptian textile craft, Amer deploys the voices of Eastern and Western feminist activists within a series of new large-scale textile abstract works: transforming powerful statements by Simone de Beauvoir – “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” – and Amina Sboui – “my body belongs to me and it does not represent the honour of anyone” into bold geometric formations that reference the ubiquitous QR code form, a recent visual language that has replaced printed text. The exhibition expands on Amer’s career-long commitment to pushing against the exploitation of women around the world and to inspire all women to reclaim agency. Since the 1990s, Amer’s Definition paintings have questioned the power of words to capture individual and shared realities. The Arabic dictionary definitions embroidered in the works featured in QR CODES REVISITED—LONDON explore meanings for: “Freedom,” “Love,” “Security” and “Peace” with the intension to challenge audience assumptions around Islamic culture and remind us that these qualities are integral to Arab societies. The work invites viewers to appreciate the overlooked riches of language, highlighting how easily one can become lost in translation.
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, You’ll be sorry (2023)
USD 75,001 – 100,000 (SOLD)
Goodman Gallery
The artist’s boundary-crossing practice centers Black female identity in the discourse of postcolonialism and neocolonialism, highlighting the contributions of overlooked historical figures while emphasizing modes of knowledge and communication beyond the status quo.
Odili Donald Odita, Connective Tissue/Two States (2023)
USD 75,001 – 100,000
Jack Shainman Gallery
Odili Donald Odita (b. Engu, Nigeria in 1966; lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) is an abstract painter whose work explores color both in the figurative historical context and in the sociopolitical sense. He is best known for his large-scale canvases with kaleidoscopic patterns and vibrant hues, which he uses to reflect the human condition.For Odita, color in itself has the possibility of mirroring the complexity of the world as much as it has the potential for being distinct. In his paintings, we see color interwoven and mixed, becoming an active agent in representing the essential power that light has in identifying the entirety of our world. He thinks of his colors as agents to express thoughts, ideas, and transformational change.
Kaloki Nyamai, Ekangotavie kindo 4 (2024)
USD 75,001 – 100,000
Galerie Barbara Thumm
Kaloki Nyamai, Ula wosie ngoo yakwa I (The one who stole my heart) (2024)
(USD 50,001 – 75,000)
James Cohan Gallery
In each work, Kaloki Nyamai juxtaposes news accounts of political unrest with depictions of people at leisure, allowing multiple narratives to unfold simultaneously. He photo-transfers newsprint and images capturing pivotal and often violent moments in Kenyan history directly onto the surface of his paintings; binding the past and the present. These figures fade in and out of view, much like a memory, revealing themselves through layers of paper and paint. His interest lies in generating dichotomous worlds, where play and moments of respite can take shape even in the midst of chaos. Silhouetted figures are rendered mid-action, engaged in everyday communal activities–dancing, swimming, embracing, and gathering for a meal. They are illuminated in vivid shades of color, materializing from a mixture of dense acrylic paint, sisal rope, and burnt rubber yarn. The artist suggests, “We started from where we began” as a framework for reading his paintings, recalling the cyclical nature of history.
