The Basel Art Fair List has long been marked by youth. Since its inception in 1996, it has been touted as the younger, cooler alternative to Art Basel, where collectors can discover emerging galleries and artists. To that end, List initially prohibited galleries from exhibiting artists over the age of 40. The rule was relaxed in 2013, allowing galleries to bring in works by artists over 40 if they paid the higher fee: 15,000 SFr ($16,500) for individual stands. and SFr16,000 ($17,500) for group presentations. But as conversations about aging in the art world mature and the market for freshly graduated artists explodes, it seems List’s age limit is getting older.
“Artists can emerge at any time in their lives. I would love for the Liste rule to change,” says Damîen Bertelle-Rogier, the founder of the Brussels gallery Super Dakota. He is one of half a dozen exhibitors who this year present works by artists over 40, having brought two paintings by Chris Dorland. The largest piece, priced at $28,000, was sold to a private European collector on Monday, June 11, the opening day of the fair.
“It’s usually easier to stick to old categories than to change ways of thinking”
Olga Temnikova, director of Temnikova & Kasela in Tallinn
Most of the exhibitors on the List solicited by The arts journal were in favor of rethinking the age rule of the fair. Olga Temnikova, director of Temnikova & Kasela in Tallinn, points out that an overfocus on age inevitably discriminates against women. His gallery brought paintings by Latvian artist Inga Meldere. “Being a woman in Eastern Europe, then having a child, not to mention the years lost due to the Covid” can delay a career, underlines Temnikova. List’s rule is “ageist,” she says, “but it’s usually easier to stick to old categories than to change ways of thinking.”
It is not only female artists who are disproportionately affected by age discrimination, but also those from countries in the Global South. This is the case of Miguel Cárdenas, a Colombian artist based between Bogotá and New York, whose bronze animal heads and oil paintings are presented by the Kendall Koppe gallery in Glasgow, and cost between 4,000 and 17 $000. “Cárdenas has a full CV but, like many non-Western artists, he took longer to gain recognition by galleries in New York, London, etc.,” says Koppe. He, too, voices his support for removing age restrictions from List.
A change would also make sense given the current market frenzy around artists in their 30s and even 20s, who are increasingly commanding incredible sums at auction and seeing their primary prices skyrocket as a result. Youth is not the barrier to business success it once was. At Sotheby’s The Now sale last month in New York, the large abstract painting by 30-year-old Jadé Fadojutimi A toast to…? (2020) grossed $952,000 (with fees) – a figure that barely skims her auction record of $1.6 million (with fees) achieved at Phillips in London in 2021, when she was 28 .
While we are now observing a slight cooling of this “ultra-contemporary” market, “the prices of almost all young artists have increased”, notes Sibylle Rochat, Swiss art consultant and collector. “Even for artists without a big resume or backing from a big gallery, a small painting can easily cost $30,000, which wasn’t the case before. Their share of the total market is greater.
A course correction may soon be coming to List. Joanna Kamm, the director of the fair, tells The arts journal that she has been considering rethinking the age limit since her appointment in 2018. “We have to figure out how we can do that while still being the discovery fair,” she says. List operates as a non-profit organization, so while higher booth fees are waived for presentations by artists over 40, the funds must be found elsewhere.
A solution was proposed to the fair’s organizing committee last year to increase exhibition fees for group presentations to reduce presentation costs for older artists, but it was rejected, Kamm says. A List dealer this year, who prefers to remain anonymous, says he would still rather pay a premium for older artists than for group shows, pointing out how achieving age parity might be easier said than done. to do.
