Meet a couple from Ireland on the train to the airport. A couple guys from Portland at the airport. Sat next to very nice Missionary Richard L. Gardner from Nigeria and Beaverton on the plane. Had a seven-hour layover in Portland so I was able to drop into my gallery and eat at my favorite restaurant in the world Oba.
Drove back to Amsterdam mostly on the autobahn. If you see a black Audi in your rearview mirror move to the right. They seem like the weapon of choice on the autobahn. All told over 4,000 km on the trip mainly on the autobahn. Dropped the rental off took the train to Amsterdam. Met a KLM employee from Korea? Went strait to the Rembrandt house. They have a great virtual tour on their website http://www.rembrandthuis.nl/cms_pages/index_main.html
Met Eric Armitag who is the paint expert there. Also a guy from Birmingham Alabama filming for youtube. Then went around Amsterdam and retook some photos lost on my memory card. The streets were clear since a football game was on. I spite of that it is a miracle no one got killed in the few minutes of filming this unregulated intersection.
Meet a collector from Milan at breakfast. He thought my card looked familiar. I didn’t tell him he probably saw it on a garbage can in Basel. Met Andrzej Starmach gallery owner from Poland while in line to get a bratwurst he only recognized the same menu items I did. They serve it with a roll and a paint tube filled with mustard. Ate the bratwurst with Fernando Morales-de la Cruz founder of Brands Mission Network from Baar, Switzerland. Met a lady from Switzerland and her husband and another couple while eating a strawberry tart. Talk to a salesman at Gagosian Gallery’s booth. Left Basel early walked Mulhouse got caught in the rain and waited it out in a bar, which was part of a hotel all done in the art deco days.
Breakfast with Asai again. He is headed to Luxembourg to visit the studio of the artist he bought art from. Our language barriers kept me from figuring out what the artwork was. All of our communication was based on his command of English. The only Japanese words I can think of is kamikaze and hari-kari. It would have been impossible to communicate with my two-word vocabulary.
Taking a break from Basel head for Zurich. In Zurich I find an Internet place. Print a map for Lois’s gallery in Milan, Italy. Find where the art galleries are concentrated in Zurich. The guy there talks about going to the train station then transferring to one going to the galleries. I figure I don’t have that much time so I just start exploring. Four blocks away I find Nadja Ullmann’s studio http://www.atelieroffen.ch
I love her work and try to buy one but she doesn’t take Visa. She tells me that the galleries are just one street over. Check them out then have lunch eating sticky rice wrapped in sugar cane leaf. I incorrectly try to eat the leaf. Making the waitress laugh and run into the kitchen. The chef comes out to warn me not to eat the wrapper. The only other guest was sitting at the next table facing me and saw the whole embarrassing thing. I ask if he is also an American since his English is so perfect. He tells me that he is in finance. Head for Milan, Italy to surprise Lois. By the time I get there like 7:30 on a Saturday night I figure the most I can do is leave a card and maybe call his mobile. Pass many galleries and one studio asking directions because I can’t seem to find it. They all say Lois’s gallery is closed until Tuesday when a new exhibition starts. I round a corner to his street/alley as he is walking out. He had been working on installing the exhibition. What are the odds of that! He buys me a soda. Head back to Mulhouse.
Breakfast with Toshihuhiro Asai curator for a museum outside Tokyo, Art Tower Mito getting coffee for the panel discussion meet two New York gallerists one was Katie Rashid director at Jack Shainman Gallery. Lunch with an artist from Basel working at Unlimited building and a sales person for a New York gallery. The restaurant worker thinks I’m Richard Branson. I sit down to listen to a panel discussion on the state of the art market. A girl joins me at the table who is involved with a website devoted to video art. About have way into it she leaves saying that she will be back. Other people ask if the seat is held for someone and I say yes. About the third person to ask I notice that the girl had left her purse and a Basel V.I.P. bag. She has been gone like 45 minutes. My imagination takes hold. Why would a lady leave her purse with strangers for that long. What a perfect place for a bomb. At the most prestigious art event during a talk on the art market. I go over to the Swiss military women who control the door. None of them understand English well enough to let them know my suspicion. So I go to the main entrance. The Swiss security lady there also didn’t understand what I was saying. I even make a boom sound as I’m saying the word bomb to no avail. She directs me to the information desk the girl there understands and calls someone to check it out.
Scope Art Fair
On my daily commute to Basel I get the idea to write on the back of a business card a note to Jay Jopling offering to give him the grand tour when he comes to Montana. I don’t want to get in his way of doing business. I figure that he wouldn’t even get the note if I give it to an employee. He doesn’t show up at his booth for a couple hours after the opening. I spot him near the booth eating a sandwich. I figure this would be a good time to give him the card. When I get to him I see that he has his blackberry/phone up to his ear. He seems to be using it as a decoy and isn’t talking or even listening to it. I set the card on the bench next to him and leave. Dessert at Basel with gallerist from Galerie Charles Bailly in Paris. Lunch with artist Martine Thoelen. Met a very kind couple from Zurich? While waiting for the tram. They help me find the Liste fair. They have come to the fair for most of the last 25 years >
Art Basel
Run into Benito and buddies four times through the day. Standing in line at the ATM at Basel I met the Curator of Contemporary painting for the Art Institute of Chicago. I tell him about having just seen the Hopper show and my thought about continuing where he left off and my father’s scholarship to the Art Institute. See Charles Cowles from New York three times and on the third offer to buy him lunch or a drink. He was leaving town tomorrow for a couple days then returning. I said he had to know more about the art world than anyone I’ve met and I would like to hear what he thought. Since I’m so isolated. I asked about his Art Forum days. He was the publisher for 15 years. Then introduced myself to Jay Jopling of White Cube. I told him that it was breathtaking how he has mastered the art world. He has always wanted to come to Montana. He asked if I had seen the show with paintings at his gallery.
Met a couple from Dusseldorf who said the museums are clustered together but not the galleries.
