Art Basel: Calmer, Quieter, Didn’t Suck

Word on the street, beach, the fairs and in hotel lobby banter was that Basel 2K8, as a whole, couldn’t hold a candle to last year’s event. Even so, hordes of New Yorkers made the airborne trek on Friday for the weekend wrap-up. As if Basel-goers needed to clock in more time at the Raleigh hotel, the venue hosted the Tommy Hilfiger & Vanity Fair gala to benefit Free Arts NYC. Regrettably, the soiree can be classified a poor man’s version of the Visionaire event of the previous night (no male models, no champagne fountain).

Tommy and Ally Hilfiger, Paul Sevigny, Marc Jacobs, and Katie Lee Joel cozied up in beachside cabanas and took in large projection videos of images from Free Arts NYC and TH artists. The door was as tight as that of the other VF party (Oscar edition), despite the fact that past the metal gates there was little to no mayhem worth reporting. East Village Radio DJs Andrew Andrew noticed that crowd congestion everywhere had decreased in comparison to past years, but claimed that they were partial to a semi-sedated Basel. For pure entertainment purposes, guests flocked to the Mark Van S. Digital Photobooth and headed out solely to snag the TH/Jeremy Blake image tote bag.

The human-blockaded entrance to Casa Tua was equally as incongruous—once inside, few could understand the curbside hype. Andre Balazs, Naomi Campbell, and industrial designer Yves Behar made appearances for the Bruce Weber & L’Uomo Vogue party. Upon entering, I leapt at a rare opening on the floor next to Mr. Weber.

The man of the moment revealed that he was thoroughly enjoying the week’s events (also a man of few words) and that the"30 Americans” show at the RFC was a personal highlight. The bar upstairs was bustling with salsa music frenzy, and I sat for a moment to catch up with artist David Foote. Although David is a first-time Basel attendee, he confirmed that popular opinion reveals that Basel has lost the heat.

The opportunity cost of line-waiting was missing out on the Estelle & Tory Burch festivity at the Fontainebleau. This was the A-B list destination of choice for Lenny Kravitz, Paris Hilton, Venus and Serena Williams, Russell Simmons, Beyonce, and Jay Z. As a consequence, I trudged down Collins Avenue in utter devastation for omitting the Estelle event and flubbing a raging social agenda—when astoundingly, I stumbled across Brooklyn artist Ellis G. in action. This street-based artist outlines shadows with sidewalk chalk at night, making for city ordinance-friendly graffiti. Although mid-bike, he stopped to chat with a group of bystanders and touched upon the fact that Basel nightlife seemed incredibly quiet, especially in his typical nocturnal hour.

As I decided to call it a night, I returned to the age-old did-it-suck-or-didn’t-it question. In general, the vigor and enthusiasm levels had significantly decreased just since Wednesday, and the rumor mill was still brimming with analogies of the present and the Basel of yesteryear. Gallerists weren’t able to adhere to my life theory (cash is king: sell, sell, sell). And every time that I threw this one in cocktail party conversation, it was met with a disapproving stare. But there was lots of champagne nevertheless, and dammit, if enjoying Basel ‘08 was wrong; I just don’t wanna be right.