Dealers taking part in Art Basel’s Statements section for emerging galleries say they were surprised to learn just days before the fair opened that a long-running prize has been quietly cancelled.
Since 1999, the Basel-headquartered insurance company Baloise has sponsored a prize awarding two solo artist presentations in the Statements section each SFr30,000 (around $37,000). The works are then donated to leading European museums, including Frankfurt’s Museum for Modern Art, the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Museum of Modern Art Luxembourg (Mudam).
Last year, Baloise merged with another Swiss insurer, Helvetia, in a deal worth $10.8bn, creating the country’s second largest insurance company, Helvetia Baloise Holdings. The deal will save the new company SFr350m annually, and cut 2,600 jobs, reported Swiss.info.
An Art Basel spokesperson said in a statement: “Art Basel is deeply grateful to Baloise for its many years of support for emerging artists through our Statements sector, and we thank them warmly for that contribution. Statements remains a cornerstone of Art Basel in Basel and of our commitment to emerging galleries and their artists.”
Art Basel did not comment as to whether there are plans to reinstate an award for the Statements section. However, the spokesperson pointed to two other initiatives instated in recent years by Art Basel for emerging artists: the MGM Discoveries Prize at Art Basel Hong Kong and the emerging artists category at the annual Art Basel Awards, for which this year Aziza Kadyri, Carla Gueye, Diego Marcon, Precious Okoyomon, Tiffany Sia and Farah Al Qasimi are nominated.
A spokesperson for Helvetia Baloise Holdings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“I was not aware the prize was not taking place until last week,” says Silke Lindner, whose eponymous New York gallery debuts at Statements this year with wall-based sculptures by Sylvie Hayes-Wallace based on the dimensions of the human brain. By late afternoon, Lindner had sold four works for $6,000 each, mostly to New York collectors.
One Statements exhibitor, speaking anonymously, noted that they were only informed of the prize’s cancellation over the weekend. To their surprise, even members of the Art Basel selection committee were unaware of the prize’s cancellation until the last minute. “I am unsure why Art Basel neither informed us in advance, nor were able to find funding to replace the prize. There are enough billionaires and corporate donors here.”
The gallerist continues that because the stand prize committee typically views the Statements section on the Sunday evening or Monday morning before the fair opens to VIPs on Tuesday, they booked extra nights for their team in a Basel hotel room to set up the stand early, which is “a significant sum” for a gallery of their size.
Previous winners of the Baloise Art Prize have gone on to become some of contemporary art’s most recognisable names, including Ryan Gander and Haegue Yang. Last year, the prize was awarded the Rhea Dillon, shown by Soft Opening from London, and Joyce Joumaa, brought by Montreal’s Eli Kerr gallery.
