Art Basel Study Trip

On Friday June 15th, 30 students enrolled in the courses "Current Art" and "Basic Digital Photography" visited Art Basel, the world’s most important modern and contemporary art fair, which brings together around 300 of the world's leading galleries from Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa each year. The art fair provides the perfect opportunity to learn about the art of our time and about the luxury good that art has come to represent on a global scale.

 

“A visit to Art Basel forms an integral part of the Current Art course which it has been my privilege to teach each summer term for the last 6 years,” said Dr. Julianna Sandholm-Bark. “The trip is a great opportunity for students to experience a vast array of contemporary art as well as a major international art fair first-hand, and to deepen their understanding of current art and its display in an institutional context." This year the students got to see artworks by the likes of Pablo Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Ai Weiwei, Joan Miro, Andy Warhol, Alberto Giacometti, Yoko Ono (with whom some of us got to collaborate on her "Mend Piece" project), Jeff Koons, amongst others.

For their final project in this course, students will either present a cohesive virtual exhibition of 6-10 artworks by current artists that they encountered at Art Basel or an artifact conceived as a critical exploration or homage to a particular artist or group of artists they've encountered at the art fair. The purpose of the course is for students to arrive at both a greater understanding of contemporary art and the world it inhabits, as well as the ability to articulate their thoughts about artists and artistic practices.