A powerful battalion of the art world’s grandees jetted in from New York, London, Beijing and many other points to attend the new Art Basel in Hong Kong, which launched this week and ends on Sunday.

国际艺术界众多大腕从纽约、伦敦、北京以及各个地方云集香港，参加首届香港巴塞尔国际艺术博览会(Art Basel)，博览会于5月26日结束。

This is the first truly “Basel” edition of the Asian fair, which the powerful Swiss firm acquired two years ago. And anyone who knows the other two fairs in its portfolio – Basel and Miami Beach – will have recognised the “brand”, with every detail, from typeface to maps, now homogenised throughout.

这是亚洲首个严格按照巴塞尔艺术博览会标准量身打造的展会。两年前巴塞尔国际艺术博览会把香港艺术展(ArtHK fair)收至麾下。熟知巴塞尔国际艺术博览会旗下另外两大姊妹盛会者（巴塞尔艺术展与巴塞尔迈阿密博览会(Miami Beach)）定能立马认出“该知名品牌”，因为从字体到艺术地图的各个细节，香港巴塞尔国际艺术博览会都完全照搬。

While the transformation from the ArtHK fair is not radical, the new owners have smoothed some things out, for instance distributing stands better between the two floors and placing the VIP lounge upstairs. The fair is spacious and well lit, flattering the art on view. But with “Basel Basel” round the corner, some galleries have not brought their best works, and others are frankly a muddle. But there are high points, among them Peter Blum’s marvellous offering of early Kusama works including “Phallic Bowl” (1965) in the $300,000 range – showing up the brash, garish offerings of more recent Kusama works. And the small Australian gallery Sullivan and Strumpf is showing subversive tableaux of figurines by Penny Byrne – “iProtest” – inspired by political unrest across the world.

对香港艺术展的改造并非彻头彻尾，新东家折衷处理了某些东西，比方说把各个展台合理分配在展厅所在的两个楼层，并把贵宾休息室安排在楼上。整个展厅空间宽敞，灯光效果明显，让展品更显艺术美感。但由于巴塞尔国际艺术博览会将在六月在发源地巴塞尔举行，因此很多画廊并未将自己的“镇馆之宝”拿来展览，而有些画廊很明显属于敷衍了事。但本届博览会也不乏精品，其中彼得•布洛姆(Peter Blum)画廊就带来了草间弥生(Kusama)早期几幅佳作，其中包括创作于1965年的《阴茎碗》(“Phallic Bowl”)，该作品预估价为30万美元——此外参展草间弥生老年时期创作的作品，这些作品色彩艳丽，反映出她唯我独尊的性格。澳大利亚小画廊Sullivan and Strumpf展出佩尼•伯恩(Penny Byrne)颠覆传统艺术的小微塑像作品——“iProtest”，其创作灵感源自全球各地的政治动荡。

Some exhibitors, including Blum, are attending for the first time, specifically because it is now a Basel event. Other newbies at the opening were the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, his partner Dasha Zhukova, Wendi Deng Murdoch and posses of collectors and museum directors including Lacma’s Jeffrey Deitch. Artists – Fernando Botero, Takashi Murakami, Abbas Kiarostami and many of the best-known Chinese names – had also hotfooted in.

包括布洛姆在内的某些展商是首次参展，原因很大程度是由于如今这是巴塞尔国际艺术博览会举办的展览。首次光临博览会的新面孔还包括俄罗斯富豪阿布拉莫维奇(Roman Abramovich)、其合伙人达莎•朱可娃(Dasha Zhukova)、邓文迪(Wendi Deng Murdoch)以及洛杉矶艺术博物(Lacma)馆长杰弗里•戴奇(Jeffrey Deitch)在内的众多知名藏家与博物馆长。艺术家——费尔南多•波特罗(Fernando Botero)、村上隆(Takashi Murakami)、阿巴斯•基亚罗斯塔米(Abbas Kiarostami)以及很多中国知名艺术家也纷至沓来。

As for sales, Hauser & Wirth reported a shower of deals and Arndt immediately sold a flowered puppy by the hot Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho, “Flower Generation II” (2012), to Adelaide’s South Australia Museum for $54,000 and a Jittish Kallat to the Belgian collector Guy Ullens, tagged at $180,000, while Hanart quickly placed four ink paintings by Qiu Zhijie with a big New York museum for $20,000 each. “There’s a dramatic difference in sales this year,” said a beaming Tim Blum. while Paul Kasmin also said business was “excellent”.

豪舍和威尔特(Hauser & Wirth)画廊说自己展品的成交火爆，Arndt画廊则很快就把印尼当红艺术家艾柯•努格罗荷(Eko Nugroho)所创作的一幅用鲜花装饰的小狗作品——“Flower Generation II” (2012)——以5.4万美元的价格卖与位于阿德莱德(Adelaide)的南澳博物馆(South Australia Museum)，又把印度艺术家吉提斯•卡拉特(Jittish Kallat)的一幅作品以18万美元价格卖与比利时大藏家盖伊•尤伦斯(Guy Ullens)；而香港汉雅轩画廊(Hanart)也很快与纽约某大型博物馆就邱志杰(Qiu Zhijie)创作的四幅水墨画（以每幅2万美元成交）达成销售意向。“今年的销售行情异常火爆，”蒂姆•布鲁姆画廊(Tim Blum)的一位员工兴高采烈地说道，而保罗•卡斯敏画廊(Paul Kasmin)也说销售行情“十分理想”。

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Along with the new fair, the week marked an extraordinary change in Hong Kong as an art hub. The night before the fair opening, the six galleries in the Pedder Building staged a joint vernissage and were so mobbed that a sign outside announced “Queuing time approx 30 minutes”; once in, visitors could see Basquiat at Gagosian or the new Lehmann Maupin space, showing a quintessentially Hong Kong scene by Zheng Guogu. The same crowd then packed into White Cube and Perrotin nearby. All of this was inconceivable just two years ago before the Basel juggernaut, with its 50,000-plus list of VIPs, rolled into town.

随着香港巴塞尔艺术展的成功举办，标志着香港作为艺术中心的华丽转身。艺术展开幕前一天晚上，六家画廊在香港中环毕打行(Pedder Building)联合举行了一场开幕酒会，宾客如云，以至于大门外不得不放上“排队等候时间约30分钟”的标牌。进到毕打行里面后，嘉宾们能欣赏到高古轩画廊(Gagosian)展出的巴斯奎特(Jean-Michel Basquiat)作品，或在Lehmann Maupin画廊新展区看到郑国谷(Zheng Guogu)所创作、浓缩香港景色精髓的作品。嘉宾们还可以光顾附近的白立方(White Cube)与佩罗丁画廊(Perrotin)。巴塞尔艺术展登陆香港后盛况空前，5万多重量级人物蜂拥而至，而所有这一切在两年前是难以想象的。

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While there is certainly a lot of buzz about the growing art market in California, fairs there are not gaining any traction. The third edition of Art Platform Los Angeles, one of a portfolio of fairs owned by Chicago’s Merchandise Mart Properties, has just been cancelled. Held in a hangar in Santa Monica airport – where it had relocated last year after being held downtown – the fair had failed to attract enough support for its upcoming September edition.

尽管渐趋发展的加州艺术市场热闹非凡，但其举办的艺术展关注度乏善可陈。最近第三届洛杉矶Art Platform艺博会刚宣布弃办，它是芝加哥商品市场公司(Chicago’s Merchandise Mart Properties)名下系列博览会的一站。Art Platform艺博会原计划在圣莫尼卡机场(Santa Monica Airport)的机库里举行，但由于无法为今年九月举办的展会获得足够支持而不得不宣布取消。它以前一直在市中心举办，但去年重新选择现址。

But as one dies, another is born: Silicon Valley Contemporary, planned for April next year in San Jose Convention Center. The founders, who already organise other fairs in upscale locations such as Aspen and the Hamptons, come from the technology sector and say they will revolutionise the fair model. “We will look for the intersection between a physical art fair and a virtual one with online auctions,” says executive director Rick Friedman, adding that he will “introduce basic Valley tenets such as open systems, transparency in pricing and art value, full disclosure and ease of transaction.” About 60 international exhibitors are being sought for the first edition, which is slated for April 10-13 2014.

但俗话说东边不亮西边亮：在圣何赛会展中心(San Jose Convention Center)举办的硅谷当代艺术展(Silicon Valley Contemporary)将于明年四月开幕。创办人来自科技领域，已在阿斯彭(Aspen)及纽约汉普顿斯(Hamptons)等高档社区成功举办过类似艺术展，他们说将彻底改革艺术展模式。“我们将努力将实体艺术展与网上虚拟艺术拍卖会合而为一，” 硅谷当代艺术展总裁里克•弗里德曼(Rick Friedman)说，他还补充说自己将“引进开放体系、定价与艺术价值透明化、信息全程披露以及交易便捷化等硅谷基本原则。”届时将邀请60家国际展商参加预定明年4月10-13日举办的首届硅谷当代艺术展。

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Inflation art is the newest thing – blow-up sculptures. Cynics who dismiss such works of contemporary art as “just a lot of hot air” are delightedly pointing to the fate of a number of these pumped-up monsters. In Hong Kong, a crowd-pleasing exhibition – called Inflation! – on the site of the future M+ museum in West Kowloon was recently hit by heavy rainfall. McCarthy’s “Complex Pile”, a giant brown simulacrum of excrement (you read that right, sadly) as well as a flower sculpture by the Korean artist Choi Jeong-hwa, “Black Lotus”, were punctured and collapsed. And the much ballyhooed giant rubber duck floating in the harbour, the work of Florentijn Hofman, popped and flattened into a yellow omelette. They have all been pumped back up now.

巨型充气雕塑等充气类艺术属于今年首登香港巴塞尔艺术展的新生事物。愤世嫉俗者把这些当代艺术作品斥为“仅是一堆热空气而已”，他们目睹发生在诸多充气怪物身上的糟糕命运后感到幸灾乐祸。在香港，一场名为“充气！”的展览在未来的西九龙(West Kowloon) M+博物馆场址上举办，引发港人兴致勃勃地争相观看，但近日这些充气雕塑惨遭暴雨袭击。麦卡锡创作(McCarthy)的《复杂物堆》(“Complex Pile”)（巨型棕色充气雕塑“粪便”，没错，就是这玩意儿）与韩国艺术家崔贞华(Choi Jeong-hwa)的花卉雕塑作品《黑莲花》(“Black Lotus”)破漏后坍塌成了一团。由霍夫曼(Florentijn Hofman)创作、漂浮在维多利亚港的巨型橡皮鸭曾被大肆宣传，破漏气后瘪成了一个黄色煎蛋状东西。如今这些雕塑重新充气后再次向公众展出。