‘You Want to Pull Your Hair Out’: Artists and Gallerists Respond to the Long-Awaited Cancellation of Art Basel Hong Kong

Art industry professionals in
Hong Kong and abroad are simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief
and anxiously calculating their losses after yesterday’s
long-awaited announcement that Art Basel Hong Kong
would cancel its 2020 edition due to the outbreak of a novel strain of
coronavirus across Asia. 

The decision by Art Basel’s
parent company, MCH Group, had been anticipated for weeks—but the
fair had to balance the growing pressure from exhibitors with the
still-developing information around the health crisis, not to
mention its own ongoing
challenges with restructuring, financial strain, and shareholder
objections. (A
spokesperson for Art Basel confirmed the fair will be filing an
insurance claim to seek reimbursement for its costs, but would not
disclose further financial details.)

In an email sent to
participating galleries yesterday, the fair’s leadership, Adeline
Ooi, Marc Spiegler, and Noah Horowitz, said that after assessing
all alternatives, including postponing the fair, they had “no
option” but to cancel. “We express our deepest condolences to all
those whose lives have been affected by the epidemic,” they
concluded.

A Bitter
Loss

The fair’s organizers stated
that they would reimburse 75 percent of the stand fee to all
participating galleries, but will keep the remaining 25 percent, a
loss that is already smarting for dealers who have also had to
shell out money for production costs and dedicate extensive time to
strategizing amid the uncertainty. “We were hoping for less,” one
international gallerist, who asked to remain anonymous to protect
their relationship with the fair, said of Art Basel’s cut.
“Twenty-five percent is a lot.”

But the losses are far greater
than just monetary. Andrew Luk, a Hong Kong-based artist whose
newly commissioned installation was due to be one of the 12
large-scale Encounters projects at the fair, said: “It’s the kind
of unfortunate situation that makes you want to pull your hair out,
not just personally regarding the opportunity to show at
Encounters, but for the whole scene.” 

Boris Vervoordt, director of
first-time participant Axel Vervoordt Gallery—which has spaces in
Hong Kong and Antwerp—also expressed regret. “We were so excited to
participate for the first time and to present [work by] Kimsooja,”
he said. The South Korean artist’s work “is all about participating
in the now, non-actively, non-violently, so her message is
incredibly important these days. However, safety of our friends,
collaborators, locally and internationally, is of utmost
importance.” 

International dealers, some of
whom had asked for partial
refunds even before the outbreak of the
virus, recently
clashed with local
participants over what Hong Kong dealers perceived as
short-sightedness surrounding the political situation in Hong
Kong.

“European and American galleries
have been milking Asian collectors for years, and now they can’t
wait to rub salt on the wound,” said Alan Lo, a Hong Kong-based
collector who also serves on committees for Tate, SFMOMA and
Serpentine Galleries. “Hong Kong is a long-term proposition. We are
not just a fad. If some participants want to take short-term view
and make a quick buck, I suggest they don’t come
back.” 

London dealer Richard Nagy,
who wrote a scathing letter
to Art Basel Hong Kong organizers on January 30 demanding
that the fair “be put out of its misery,” seems to have revised his
tone now that the event will no longer go ahead. “I have been asked
if I’m happy that Art Basel Hong Kong has been canceled.
No one is happy about it,” he told Artnet News in an
email. “There is no loss of prestige in having the guts to make a
tough call and know when to regroup and make plans to come back
stronger than before. It is courageous to cancel, but it was
inevitable. I feel for all the people caught up in this epidemic,
both in Hong Kong and further afield. It is a terrible thing. If it
only impacts on our profit/loss ledger then we can be grateful.
Some will not be so lucky.”

The Show Must Go
On

Dealers on the ground in Hong
Kong are aware they have lost what is, for many, their most
prominent showcase of the year. But they are banding together to
continue showing art. Anthony Tao, the director of Gallery Exit,
said he planned to forge ahead with a show of a new body of work by
Chow Chun Fai in mid-March, which captures the artist’s reflections
on recent civil unrest in Hong Kong. Lo, along with other
collectors in the region, is brainstorming alternative ways to
bolster the Asian art community. He urged others to “support the
art ecosystem and buy primary [market] works. You can support the
galleries, as well as the artists.”

Others are reminding
international onlookers that while the fair draws global attention
to the city every spring, the arts are a year-round presence in
Hong Kong. “While the art world is excited for that one week, Hong
Kong is also not dependent on Basel for the other 51 weeks of the
year,” said Amanda Hon, managing director of Ben Brown Fine Arts.
“We will continue, as we always have, to come together, as one, to
support the local arts community.” 

Luk, the artist due to show a
major installation at the fair, is taking the long view. “It’s not
the end of the world,” he said. “I am confident art here will
continue to thrive in the next few years regardless of this stingy
but singular setback.”

The road to recovery might be
longer than expected, however. As the death toll for the
coronavirus climbs above 500, most institutions and spaces in
mainland China and Hong Kong are shuttering temporarily in a bid to
stymie the outbreak. 

Other events planned in
conjunction with Art Basel Hong Kong have either been canceled or
postponed. Earlier this week, Gallery Weekend Beijing—a popular
stop on the international circuit before the Hong Kong
fair—announced it would either delay or call off its annual event,
and would provide an additional update on March
15. 

Meanwhile, Art Central, a fair
that hosts more than 80 dealers in a tent in Hong Kong’s harbor,
officially canceled its fair just hours after Art Basel Hong Kong’s
announcement. And Guangdong Times Museum, which is just a bullet
train ride away from Hong Kong, was due to open a major survey of
works by Candice Lin on March 21, but the museum closed on January
23 and has not reopened due to health concerns. 

Hong Kong’s economy, which had
already entered a technical recession amid ongoing protests with
two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, has also been hit
hard. Some experts have predicted the city’s economy will shrink
another 2.6 percent this year as a result of the outbreak and its
ripple effects.

Additional reporting by
Eileen Kinsella 

The post ‘You Want to Pull Your Hair Out’: Artists and
Gallerists Respond to the Long-Awaited Cancellation of Art Basel
Hong Kong appeared first on artnet News.