Werbung – Art Basel Miami 2021 in cooperation with Culture & Travel Club
Visiting the ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 is one of my bucket list’s must dos and together with Culture Travel Club, I was able to join this outstanding event for the 4th time this year. Our journey started in the 29th of November 2021 and we spent 5 amazing days in Miami, Floridaexploring art and culture in the most exclusive ways possible.
You cannot believe how excited I was on the day my ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 journey with Culture Travel Club started. Culture Travel Club offers its members and guests the opportunity to discover and enjoy art and culture as a unique emotional adventure. Their one of a kind network of personal connections across the globe opens doors to private collections, castles and gardens as well as artists’ studios. WE LOVE THE UNUSUAL AND THE CARE FOR DETAILS is the credo of Culture Travel Club and that was reflected in each and every experience we made during the days at ART BASEL MIAMI 2021.
Our 1st stop was a tour of Rosa de la Cruz private selection of art in the privacy of her home.
De la Cruz started her art collection in the 1960s, along with her husband, Cuban-American businessman Carlos de la Cruz. Married since 1962, the couple has assembled one of Miami’s finest collections of contemporary art. The collection includes work by Dan Colen, Kathryn Andrews, Ana Mendieta, Jim Hodges, Martin Kippenberger, Isa Genzken, Christopher Wool, Félix González-Torres, Mark Bradford, Peter Doig, Nate Lowman, Christian Holstad and Sterling Ruby. Other important artists are Wifredo Lam and Salvador Dalí, whose portrait of Carlos de la Cruz’s mother, Dolores Suero Falla, belongs to the collection as well. Our dinner location on the 1st evening was the SOHO HOUSE Miami and we spent an amazing time socializing and exchanging our views on the day with the other participants of the trip before closing the day at an exclusive event by BMW. ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 is really full of contrasts and so versatile which surprised me day in day out. On day 2 we started the day enjoying a FIRST CHOICE VIP Preview of ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 followed by dinner at classic JOE´S STONE CRAB. The impressions of the day are till today so vivid to me and I really enjoyed to exchange thoughts and views with the rest of the group during the evening events.
The last stop of our 2nd day at ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 was a VIP reception at the Margulies Collection. The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse is a nonprofit institution located in a 50,000 square foot retro-fitted warehouse in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami. The Warehouse presents seasonal exhibitions from the collection of renowned collector Martin Z. Margulies as well as educational programs, special exhibitions and an international loan program. It is operated and funded by the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, a thirty-year resource for the study and enjoyment of the visual arts.
The 3rd day at ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 started with the private collection of Deborah and Dennis Scholl. After this visit which I enjoyed a lot we went back to the 2nd part of our tour of ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 and DESIGN ART BASEL on the exhibition site. Still, I could not pick my favorite piece of art from the exhibition as I feel that the variety is what makes this event so special and the impressions so everlasting.
After our dinner at the famous Prime 112 we ended the day at the VIP opening of the Bass Museum. The Bass is Miami Beach’s contemporary art museum. Focusing on exhibitions of international contemporary art, The Bass presents mid-career and established artists reflecting the spirit and international character of Miami Beach. It seeks to expand the interpretation of contemporary art by incorporating disciplines of contemporary culture, such as design, fashion and architecture, into the exhibition program.
The exhibition program encompasses a wide range of media and artistic points of view that bring new thought to the diverse cultural context of Miami Beach.
The 4th day of our ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 trip started with a visit at The Bunker Artspace, Ruth Rudin DeWoody’s private collection. Though it only opened by appointment a week later, we were treated to a private tour by the two curators. The Bunker Artspace opened in December 2017 as a private art space in West Palm Beach, Florida. Presenting rotating exhibitions and viewable storage of the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, The Bunker showcases a wide range of contemporary art by both well-known and emerging artists, displayed alongside iconic pieces of furniture and other curiosities. Through DeWoody’s passion, vision, and continuing support of emerging artists and galleries, she has redefined the boundaries of collecting. By championing emerging, and at times, overlooked artists, especially in the early stages of their careers, she has amassed a truly unique collection. From a significant amount of work in the Collection, DeWoody and co-curators, Laura Dvorkin and Maynard Monrow have assembled a selection that includes works by leading contemporary artists, while always pushing beyond “the greatest hits” to deliver a more complete view of contemporary art today.
Afterwards we visited the highlight of our trip: two private houses in Palm Beach at the exclusive Ocean Drive where houses are so grand that they take up the width of the island and one can enjoy river (it is actually a bay) and ocean views and access. The first very modern home is home to one of ARTnews top 200 collectors and has about 4.000 square meters living area including an own discotheque/movie room and beauty parlor. Obviously in these sizes, the collectors are able to purchase incredibly large scale works from Basquiat, Ellsworth Kelly, Warhol, de Kooning, Jeff Koons to mention just a few. The nicest and most most generous host who Halina von Kempski had met through friends while living in Dallas, Texas welcomed us with champagne and delicacies. What an experience!
The next house about three houses down the road – one house bigger than the other – was the winter (usually they live in New York and Southampton) home of these beautifully elegant friends of Culture Travel Club. The lady of the manor welcomed us in a typical elegant New York fashion: Oscar de la Renta dress, Chanel shoes and Hemmerle earrings. The art was again simply incredible. Recently changed from Old Master collector e.g. Bellotto, they were excited to tell us about the new Basquiat bought at Art Basel and showed us beautiful Michelangelo Pistolettos, Helen Frankenthaler as well as the remarkable interior of the house with ray skin in the gentleman’s bathroom and an incredible shell mosaic dining room.
It was really great to get these very exclusive accesses to collectors and their private spaces which is one of Culture Travel Club’s uniqueness factors and what makes them so different to other tour operators. Tailored programs, small groups, experienced travel partners, the company of renowned personalities and acknowledged experts of the culture scene create simply unique and lasting memories.
On our last day at ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 we had the honor to visit the private collection of Monica Kalpakian in Miami Beach. Monica has been an art patron and collector for the last 30 years. To her art is more than just colors on a canvas, art shifts perspectives, alters surroundings, and stimulates undiscovered senses.
And with these very true words being said which I support a 100%, my trip to ART BASEL MIAMI 2021 came to an end! I will forever cherish the memories made and felt especially grateful to experience such an event in these rather difficult times.
Loves Alex
