famous Swiss art fair Art Basel meets the tastes of a wide variety of customers: who is willing to pay a million dollars for a sculpture of Adam and Eve in the guise of tanned bodybuilder, someone does not feel sorry million euros for the red lump that resembles a giant head cheese, but collectors have experienced Aaron and Barbara Levine (Aaron and Barbara Levine) prefer something more elegant.

Aaron and Barbara Levine at Art Basel next to the work of Lawrence Weiner Source: newsweek.com

At this time, spouses are interested in the pavilion, where are the classic work of American conceptual Lawrence Weiner's art (Lawrence Weiner). These are just words written on the floor, "two metal balls 2 metal rings (put in the gutter)" - a vague idea of ​​the defunct sculpture.

purchasing the product Weiner, you're buying is not itself a label and certainly not a job that she describes. you buy the idea that you can use at their discretion: if you want - write this phrase on the wall, and want to - make a sculpture, in your opinion is within the description. "You can implement it [the idea] in any desired way," - said the dealer from Zurich Gizler Victor (Victor Gisler), who sold to the creation of Weiner's Art Basel for 160 thousand dollars. In late June, the New York MoMA Museum put one of the classic works Weiner in his exposition of the so-called intangible art. curated by the museum diligently fill in the gaps in the museum's collection, which previously was dominated by works of art material.

«I think good art - this is when the ideas do not give mind rest. For me, the aesthetics of this, not that I see "- believes the 76-year-old lawyer Aaron Levine." And here [at Art Basel] 90 percent is spent on the picture "- he adds a little disdainfully. Levine bought the product, which many of us struggle to find art, and yet such an art could be taking the first steps in the market.

Art Levine tastes reflect the progressive trend in art 1960 - ies, rooted to the conceptual work of Marcel Duchamp (Marcel Duchamp) 1910 - current as ever in this age of unbridled consumption. But there is a slight oddity: when the product of the counterculture begin to buy, they turn to the same object of purchase sale, as well as any other ready-made work. The founding father of conceptualism, Sol Le Witt (Sol LeWitt) once decided that instead of visual art must come disembodied ideas, describing it. He wrote a manual for creating paintings "stripe straight parallel lines of yellow paint and pencil, of varying length and not reaching the edges. "This was the name of work, and at the same time describing how it done. Le Witt wanted to paint a picture of someone else, it was interesting to look at the unexpected results. However, after his death in 2007, his work-descriptions were doing the same decorative function, as any other abstraction, hanging in the banking hall.

Inspired by how unformed ideas of Le Witt become expensive exhibits of art collections, some young artists decided to go this route even further. Tino Sehgal (Tino Sehgal), the Briton who was born in 1976 in London and now living in Berlin, just organizes unusual events, essentially prohibiting the photographing and fixation with by any other carrier.

collector, acquiring a "work" Segal - and cost him "work" somewhere in the $ 100 000, which by the standards of Art Basel a breeze - no receive any document confirming the right of ownership. Terms of the transaction is the presence of witnesses, the payment in cash and lack of supporting documents which would have distorted the meaning of what is happening.

These conditions are quite satisfied with Mark and Jose Zhensollen, family a pair of 62-year-old psychiatrist from Marseille. They bought the work of Segal, which consists in the fact that the museum caretaker gradually declines all garments. As you might guess, Zhensolleny not keep at home the museum superintendent on a permanent basis, so that the creation of materialized Segal only when it shows for "rent charge" museums.

«The most interesting - it's when people are discussing a work of art" - says Jose Zhensollen. - About the work of Weiner's possible to speculate endlessly, she touches much more than many traditional paintings ... The idea may not be physically embodied, but that does not make it any less powerful. "Madame Zhensollen calls material support of human memory works of art, and yet, in fact, memory - the main repository of art human experience.

She echoed Mark Zhensollen: "When the work is immaterial, we are only its temporary custodians. Collect the material and decorative work of art is meaningless. We buy works of art to talk about them and expanded views of the surrounding that is an art ... Although many would prefer something else: an expensive item, signed by well-known name ».

This year, especially for fans of such an intangible art such as Levine and Zhensolleny , actor James Franco (James Franco), in collaboration with the creative duo Praxis, consisting of Brainard Carey and Delia (Brainard and Delia Carey), opened in Manhattan Museum of Art Invisible ( ). The museum, which is called "extravaganza of imagination", you can purchase a variety of works from 20 to 10 000 dollars apiece. "And although the work you do not see them description will open your eyes to a parallel world filled with images and words. This world is invisible, but it is real, perhaps even more real than the material world, and he also sold "- promise to the museum site. The site of the museum estimated that the project has already brought its creators 13 000 dollars.

Sources < /strong>: nonvisiblemuseum.com , artinvestment.ru