The Art Newspaper’s editor-in-chief, Americas, Ben Sutton, and art market editor, Kabir Jhala, are in Miami Beach for Art Basel’s latest edition and discuss the top sales and the wider mood at the fair. [...]
BS: "I think it’s interesting that there are a couple of galleries showing works that are really taking a position. I think of the New York based gallery, Cristin Tierney, which has a booth that is entirely devoted to the theme of America’s 250th anniversary, which is next year. President Trump has created all this hoopla around all the celebrations to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which will be next July 4th. But their booth is organized around these works that are quite critical, or if not critical, a little more ambivalent about America’s heritage as a country, since it was founded on genocide, and built up through a system of slavery, problematizing that history that I think a lot of next year’s celebrations will celebrate fairly uncritically. I think it was interesting to see a gallery that is making a stand like that."