I’m kind of pressed atm, and have never been happier to ignore Art Basel Miami Beach. When Chris Rusak sent along this photo, and wondered about the Clyfford Still-ish paintings in the background, though, I had to stop for just a moment, and think. And feel. And ache.
Because from the label, we learn that Koen van den Broek conceived this project “as a tribute to David Anfam (1955-2024), the renowned American art historian and authority on Abstract Expressionism. Through his work, van den Broek explores the visual, spiritual, and art-historical resonances between Vincent van Gogh and Clyfford Still—an intellectual and aesthetic dialogue that Anfam consistently foregrounded in his curatorial practice.”
And Gallery Baton brings them all the way to Miami only to end up—but no. Actually, no. A 10-meter wide suite of four 2.8m tall, Skittles-colored abstractions generically titled Season A through Season D, that reference two art historical giants while assiduously ignoring the resonances the memorialized scholar actually laid out, are actually the perfect backdrop for a CNBC Inside Wealth report on Beeple’s corral of oligarch-headed, NFT-shitting, murder robot dogs.
JP Morgan Chase just announced another $4 billion headquarters in London, Koen, hope you get that bag.