Art Basel

Leaving SIX boys, a bag of candy and a friend’s dog alone in our apartment (what could go wrong?), Bart, Whitney, Matt and I ventured to Art Basel this weekend. This International Art Festival is staged annually, with thousands of artists from hundeds of galleries shown in the Messeplatz convention center, and public, experiential art all over town.

We approached this adventure with some trepidation, anticipating a confusing array of inaccessible contemporary art and a scene that would be unwelcoming to four lawyers.

To give ourselves courage, we had champagne with lunch and I adopted an alter-ago for the day: Mary Von Schnitzelpfeffenpoppen, a dethroned German Princess in search of art with vaginal imagery or cats.

It turns out champagne and alter egos were unnecessary. We had a blast. There was Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Klee, Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, Warhol, and Basquiat. Whitney loved the German expressionists. I loved the political art of Grayson Perry and Kara Walker. Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted the Obama presidential portrait, was in the mix. The contemporary art was – if not completely understandable – often thought-provoking. And there was plenty of plain old weird to keep Matt and Bart occupied for several hours.

The challenge turned out to be time and stamina. There was so much of interest and a limited amount of time before the six boys set our apartment on fire.

It was amazing and wonderful and weird. We met for a final beverage to rest our feet before heading home.

On the tram ride home I thought of our sons (and their friend and our friend’s dog) and was reminded of the line from the Cat in The Hat: “And this mess is so big and so deep and so tall, We cannot pick it up, there is no way at all!” But all was well. They watched a movie and went to the park.

Final Review: Art Basel, we loved you and we’ll see you again!