Hans Belting: The Art Newspaper, Vol. XX, No. 217, October 2010

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Hans Belting

One of the most interesting parts of the October edition is an insert about the art fair in Abu Dhabi, called “Abu Dhabi Art (ADA)” (November 4-7). It also offers some further information about the cultural district, which is currently in the making and includes the current ideas about the museums targeted to open after 2013. The art fair shows more than 50 artists from the Middle East ranging “from modern pioneers to today’s enfants terribles” as the text says. The obvious aim is not to present only contemporary art but to trace it back to a forgotten or neglected history. We learn that the art fair “includes 100 years of modern art. Now that Middle Eastern contemporary art has gained so much respect, people are looking back to what preceded it.” Among the 50 galleries, which are participating, there are also local galleries such as The Third Line, Dubai, and Salwa Zeidan Gallery, Abu Dhabi. The fair is also hosting other institutions such as Al Ma’mal, founded in 1998 in Jerusalem and run by Jack Persekian, or the Beirut Art Center. The event will include panels, called “Talking Art”, such as a panel with Susan Cotter, Curator of Exhibitions at the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim, or representatives of the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

The development of the site of Saadyat was initiated with the opening of an exhibition pavilion and cultural center in 2009, called Manarat Al Saadiyat or “place that provides enlightment”. Here only a first gallery has been opened where the so-called private collection of the Gagosian Gallery is shown for the event. The other spaces will present preliminary exhibition spaces for the forthcoming museums on the site. The local authorities also plan workshops for the training of local curators, since “art is not yet part of many people’s life over here.” “The word has been valued most highly” in former times. The program will be formed in cooperation with the big museums that are in the planning. The goal is “building an audience for the museums”. In my view, this is a most interesting aspect of the whole project, namely to have first museums built and then look for a local audience in order not to be restricted to global art tourism.

About the Guggenheim, one learns that the museum will introduce “a global perspective on contemporary art and culture” with the title “Representing History Now”, a most ambivalent application of a concept of history, which begins with the now. About the Louvre we learn, that it pretends to be “the first universal museum outside the western world and a major player in the global museum landscape of the 21^st century. This announcement has some significance, as it reveals an unexpected or rather expectable competition with the Guggenheim in that the Louvre branch will not be limited to the past, as we know it from the mother institution in France. Also the frontier of art and beyond art is indicated when we read that artists at the local Louvre will be engaged in “talks on nationalism and popular culture.” We must, however, not forget that also the British Museum is active with the development of the Saadyat cultural district. It engages in the consultancy of the only national museum which bears the name of Sheik Zayed, the legendary founder of the United Emirates. This third museum will start from the biography and history of the place but also include topics such as “environment, heritage, unity, education, and humanitarism”. I admit that it is not much what we really learn from such announcements, but given the secrecy,which still surrounds the planning, it is more than what we used to know. It should be added that the Louvre Abu Dhabi would carry the brand name Louvre for 30 years, after the authorities have paid 400 million dollars for this privilege. The yearly loan of 300 word of art is another aspect of the deal, and a third aspect is the opening of rooms representing the Zayed museum in the Louvre. The November Art Newspaper Edition, according to the Financial News, reports that the Louvre’s endowment fund received a €120m cash injection from the Abu Dhabi government in January following the decision to establish the Louvre-Abu Dhabi by 2013. The Louvre is then set to receive an additional €250m from Abu Dhabi by 2027.

In the section “News”, the October edition mentions the Taipei biennial of this year, curated by Hongjohn Lin and Tirdad Zolghadr. It deserves our attention that the program is to explore “the global phenomenon of biennials”. The explanation reads: “Instead of using art as a camera, we wanted to look at the camera itself.” (C.G., p. 10) On the same page, we find a report on the eighth edition of South Korea’s Gwangju Biennale. Its artistic director, Massimiliano Gioni, rejects the complaints about the under-representation of Asian artists: The biennial “is not the United Nations or the Olympics of art”. It is also interesting that Gioni, among the 134 artists shown, extends the range back to modern times. The show thus includes “62 studio portraits taken between 1907 and 1968 of Chinese entrepreneur Ye Jinglu. Unearthed by journalist and collector Tong Bingxue, the archive tracks the history of Ye’s life through the lense, while also unveiling gradual stylistic changes to photographic portraiture over the course of the 20^th century” (p. 10, Marisa Mazria Katz).

In the section on the art market, there is a report on Shanghai’s present art scene such as the Shanghai Contemporary “which has changed drastically since its inception. Launched with the ambition of attracting big-name Western galleries, it now features mainly those from the Asia-Pacific region. Many local galleries chose to focus on their own spaces.” ShContemporary “made extra efforts to engage with international collectors this year: organizers arranged complimentary hotel rooms for 230 collectors, according to director Colin Chinnery, who would not reveal further details except to say the collectors were not from China.” China is now the world’s third largest art market after the US and the UK. The two art fairs, including the Shanghai art fair, “while officially the reason for the art week, were almost outshone by the vibrant, city wide art scene” (Chris Gill, p. 79).

Lastly, it deserves special attention that Paris is still the center for African and Oceanic art, which should be seen in the context of the Musée du Quai Branly and its recent history and acquisitions. Marguerite de Sabran, director of the African and Oceanic department at Sotheby’s Paris, confirms that the city’s position “as the hub of the tribal art market” is still unchallenged. “Major recent auctions including the Hubert Goldet and René Gaffé collections as well as the auction of the Pierre and Claude Verité collection, which totaled over EUR 44m, underscored Paris’ pre-eminent role.” Pierre Moos, the organizer of the “Parcours des Mondes,” states “tribal art does not seem expensive compared with prices fetched by contemporary works of art.” Among the newer buyers in this field is Sheikh Saud Al-Thani of Qatar “who is a major collector with a special interest in the Mangbetus of Zaire and Polynesian artifacts.” As a result, “New York had been in decline over the past decade. Nowadays, Christies only organizes sales in New York in order to dispose of an entire collection, while individual items from US collections regularly appear in the two annual Paris auctions” (Roxana Azimi, p. 73).