Naum Gabo

at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert(Art 43 Basel 2012)

Dissonanz, 1940

It is the birth of nazism. Greed(yellow) with racism (white) and romanticism(blue) creates the nazism(the grey cancer tumor). The nazism mix with pedantism(the brown figure) produces a double edged knife (the semi-transparent ribbon). The knife is a cold killing machine that is ready to cut anything and anyone, including its parents when it gets an order.

Per Kirkeby

at Sabine Knust (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 2012

You start fresh, green and with lots of blue hopes (lower part). Then the grey foam of small problems, every day routine and tiredness begins to build up. If you can manage to keep the foam in one pile (the middle part), you can concentrate on the important details (red-orange figures). Those details and your fresh approach (the green figures) can lead to a real break-through: the understanding of the big picture, the perspective, the vision.

Nicolas Carone

at Washburn Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Not to be Touched, 2006

The system is balanced. But it is stable not because it is strong and reinforced. It holds its fragile state by using opposing forces, counter-weights and its own good reputation. You can see the scars from previous encounters. You know that even a light touch can wake up such destructive forces that not only the system will be destroyed but anyone standing in the vicinity of it. Nevertheless you are dying to feel it.

Myron Stout

at Washburn Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 1950

The opposite things attract each other. Negative - positive, red - green. They attract each other, because one has what another lacks. From the other side, they are different in their basic nature. Those opposing forces create an energy zone between and around them(yellow lines). The energy makes the Game interesting. The gamers are not only playing the Game, but also are exploring the black corners that are illuminated by the energy.

Natsuyuki Nakanishi

at SCAI The Bathhouse (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Natsuyuki Nakanishi: Rhyme '60 25 Mars, 1960

You are your worst enemy. Your mind is separated from your body. The mind constantly tries to destroy the body. It is a constant war. It is a trench warfare. One side tries to attack, but can't get the other side out of the dugouts. So the attacking side has little to no progress. The battles are held on the same ground over and over again, when the positions are slightly changed. Though there is no a clear cut winner, the war leaves scars. It changes the landscape, it changes you.

Max Bill

at Annely Juda Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)

rotation around expanding white, 1981

The best comedian is a very sad person. You have to be a philosopher to joke away. You have to have those grains of salt in you(the white squares). These give you a different angle to look at things, because a philosopher and a sad person are lonely persons. And lonely persons are outsiders. The outsiders see things differently(the triangles of different colors around the white squares). That is a great foundation for a good joke.

Weekend Edition 33

Lyonel Feininger at Moeller Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Der Marktplatz, 1916

The square after a busy market day. It is quiet, clean and empty, but you still can somehow feel the energy of the morning. People, animal, crops, produce - everything dances, moves, screams in the festive-like atmosphere of commerce. The market is main business hub of this small town. The market defines the town as a community.

Marcel Schaffner

at Galerie Carzaniga (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, ca. 1957

Jealousy starts from a small event. When you feel that someone is better than you. someone is closer to your object of devotion than you. After it started, you will look at anything as suspicious. Anything will add oil to the fire of Jealousy. Any attempts of Logic and Common Sense to get through would fail(gray figures).  The only logic you use is to justify and to rationalize your actions.Those actions will build a wall that will bury away from your devotion.

Lúcia Laguna

at Galeria Fortes Vilaça (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Jardim N. 2, 2011

It's hot summer day. The city is whited out by sun and dust. Narrow pathetic strips of grass on the sidewalks don't cut it(the green line from the lower left to the lower center). Everything looks like a big hot concrete box that is cracking under the heat.You feel like a fish in deep frying pan(the gray structure in the center). Then, you see a garden. It is full of trees, greenery and shadows. It is small. It is scarred with asphalt pathways. But it is a small patch of wild nature trapped in the urban center. It wakes something animalistic, wild in you. You feel an urge to run and to hide in the deepest shadows you can find.

Liu Wei

at Long March Space (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Beyond the Sky Limits, 2012

Sky is the dream. Your life is gray, dull and depressing(the lower gray ribbon). Then you have a clearing in your thinking(a small white line). You have to act on your impulse. You start working hard(the reddish ribbon). And when you think you are almost broke and you don't have strength to go on, you get a break-through(the white ribbon). You are in the vacuum. You left your old comfortable life, but you haven't get to your destination. It is scary to be in the vacuum, but you know where you are heading and this gives you power to continue. Then you hit the jackpot(the blue ribbon). You have arrived to your dream. You are almost blacked out of the ecstasy (the black ribbon). When you gain back the conscience, you found yourself in a new unknown reality(the white ribbon with burgundy hue). You need to do something. You start working hard(the burgundy ribbon). It leads to a gray, dull and depressing life(the upper gray ribbon). You need a dream, now!

Lisa Ruyter

at Alan Cristea Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Count the Hours, 2012

Waiting. It is a process, a journey from one point in time to another. You make that journey in a sail boat. The sails are made from a huge number of small things: Hope, Anticipation of something new/exotic, Dependence on others, Patience, Jealousy that someone bit you to the finish line. Sometimes your sails erode, and you need to move to plan B (motor boat?). 

Lesley Vance

at Xavier Hufkens (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 2012

At first it was like a game to you (green background). You met at a cafe. Your skills to pick up girls and wits were broken by her steel armour(the figure on the left). Fueled by the mystery and passion, you changed your tactics. You crawled, dug. You have got a couple of dates(circle-like figures in the upper center). It led to a pretty wild relationship(the figure at the upper right corner). But both of you were stuck, you were moving in circles, not progressing. So two of you decided to separate( yellow figure in the right center). You are left only with broken pieces from that relationship (the white figure in the lower right), but you still remember the connection with warmness.

Lesley Vance

at David Kordansky Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 2012

Sometimes you think that you have a major problem, a life-threatening issue(the figure in lower left corner).  You feel that your life is changing because of the problem. But if you look around, if you see a bigger picture, you will notice that your life is not threaten. The only thing that changed is your routine. The problem is temporary. It will be resolved with time. And there are much more fearful and really life-changing problem that could possible threaten your existence or lives of your loved ones(the structure in the center).

Katharina Grosse

at Johann König, Berlin (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Untitled, 2012

Art fills  up the human being life (the left half). Without the art, it feels empty, bland and without a purpose(the right half). Art is important. Imagine your life without art. I mean any art: conceptual, abstract, representative, performing, pop, TV. Art is part of the design of all things that we use in our every day life.

Juan Uslé

at L.A. Louver (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Juan Usle Diapason, 2012

Every artist has a diapason, or a range of creativity. Some have huge ranges, some have small ones. Some work in one specific area of art, some have tried in multiple fields. But everyone of them works in his own, parallel universe. They can influence each other, but they can not compete. Art is not a sport. There is nothing objective in the art that could be used as a scale or a ruler (the black figure on the left) to compare different artworks.

Joan Miro

at Lelong Editions (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Chef des équipages, 1974

A true leader feels the mood of his group. It is like he has neuron connections to different people / places ( the black lines that go to the top and the lower ends look like hooks). People are gravitating toward him ( the green ribbon in the left center). Every crises is used to process, to learn and to improve himself (the red stains from the upper middle to the solid colors in the lower right).

Giacomo Balla

at Moeller Fine Art (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Linea di Velocità e paesaggio, c 1915

Psychology. How does it work? Our behavior is a fabric, made of white associations, red instincts and some acquired knowledge (blue, yellow). All of those complex things with big serious names intertwined into a  complicated structure just to cover up something very basic(green).

Gerhard Richter

at Kukje Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Abstraktes Bild (862-2), 1999

Imagination can take you places. Or you can build places. And it could be huge, magnificent palaces. The wilder the imagination the more extravagant things you can create using your thoughts. Strong imagination can over shine the reality. It can be so strong that dreams can substitute the reality. You start living in your fantasy (in easy cases it can be cured with medication :). In the earliest collision between imagined world and reality, the mighty arcs of your palace are turned into smoke rings. The reality breeze takes them and the fog of imagination away, clearing the field. The field of harsh, bleak real life.

François Morellet

at Bernard Jacobson Gallery (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Pi Puissant n1 = 10 14 décimales, 1998

It is hard to choose your path.The straight line is not always the shortest or the best way.The chosen path changes you and your environment.

Ernst Wilhelm Nay

at Aurel Scheibler (Art 43 Basel 2012)

Schwarze Kette Grün zu Rot 1966

You are jealous how others look at her(yellow oval). It dents your innocence ( the blue line between yellow oval and dark blue ribbon). But from another point it gives you a boost to your interest in her. So you start exploring her(black beads). You have found out that she is sharp as steel, passionate as fire and tender as a new leaf.This is the perfect woman. She always challenges you and keeps you on your toes.