Read the waterfall of press for my article: “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!” Read the good, the bad, and the indifferent from The New York, Times, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The New York Observer, W Magazine, Departures, The Spectator, Artinfo.com, Artforum, The Art Newspaper, and Le Quotidien de l’Art.
From The New York Times, December 2, 2011:
All that said, a backlash seemed possible this year. There were rumors of an Occupy Wall Street-style protest, and a high-profile collector declared an intention to boycott the fair (Adam Lindemann, in his column in The New York Observer).
Mr. Lindemann showed up anyway.
From The Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2011:
Mr. Lindemann himself had the art world chattering this week with a story in the New York Observer. He vowed to skip Art Basel this year “because why should I be seen rubbing elbows with all those phonies and scenesters?” “Perhaps I should have disclosed that I was actually going,” Mr. Lindemann said, after he was spotted around town. “But people are so literal. Why would I miss an opportunity to see what’s going on in the world? Does it matter whether I show or don’t show?
From The New York Post, December 3, 2011:
One surprise guest was collector and radio baron Adam Lindemann, who’d “announced he wouldn’t attend Art Basel and urged friends to boycott. (“The main reason people go to Miami isn’t the art,” he’d explained to the Observer, “it’s the parties, the schmoozing and the opportunity to score some real estate in the New York Times Style section.”) But standing by the DJ booth, drink in hand, Lindemann was philosophical. “Damien Hirst laughed and called me a hypocrite for coming,” he told us. “But I meant every word. I wanted to provoke a debate. I want people who are here to think about what is going on in the world, and that art should reflect that.”
From W Magazine, December 1, 2011:
Yesterday, in an email entitled “Occupy Art Basel Miami, BOYCOTT NOW!” he entreated his Miami-bound friends “to rethink your decision, if you are already there, you can still boycott. This is not a joke, it’s high time we join together and say: Hell NO! to one more sweaty schmoozer and boozer… This time, I won’t be seeing you there.” But there Lindemann was today, strolling the Miami Convention Center during the VIP opening hours of the art fair with his wife, the art dealer Amalia Dayan. “I have to be here to gather material for my case,” he said when asked why he was there, admitting he was in a bit of hot water for his column. “But I’m still boycotting.”
From The Spectator, December 2, 2011:
Lindemann is fed-up with the ‘phonies and scenesters’ who aren’t there for the art. He’s also exasperated by galleries pre-selling works via jpeg before he’s had a chance to look at them properly.
From Artforum.com, December 2, 2011:
By far the visitor who set the most tongues wagging was collector-blogger Adam Lindemann. His presence was only remarkable in the wake of his online invective, “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!” which, in a loose interpretation of the operational verb, actually advocated boycotting the fair. Lindemann, apparently oblivious to irony, claimed he didn’t see the big deal in his showing up after all.
From Artinfo.com, November 30, 2011:
Adam Lindemann hates Art Basel Miami Beach. He hates the parties, hates the people, and on Tuesday he publicly called for a boycott of the fair. So why is he there? On Tuesday, Lindemann wrote an editorial slamming the fair culture in New York Observer, claiming that he would not be attending any of the events and calling for the entirety of the art world to boycott the extravaganza as well: Let’s agree to boycott the whole thing; let’s simply not go.
From The New York Observer, December 1, 2011:
Ms. Boesky’s booth was swarming with people right before the vernissage yesterday, and she said people were snapping up ceramics by William J. O’Brien, most priced between $6,000 and $12,000.
“The ghost of Adam Lindemann” even came by, she quipped, referring to the collector and Observer columnist who called for a boycott of the fair and then decided to attend after all.
From The Art Newspaper, December 1, 2011:
The hot topic in Miami Beach yesterday was the collector Adam Lindemann’s call for a boycott of the fair, proclaiming that he would not attend (although he eventually did). He singled out pre-selling for particular opprobrium: “Galleries aggressively pre-sell everything they can before the fair opens,” he wrote in The New York Observer, saying that he refuses to buy a work of art he hasn’t seen.
From Departures Magazine, December 2, 2011:
Days after collector Adam Lindemann vowed to boycott Art Basel Miami Beach calling it “a sensory and social overload” and lambasted the whole event in an article titled “Occupy Art Basel Miami Beach, Now!” he’s walking around NADA, arguably the largest satellite fair of the week.
From Le Quotidien de l’Art, December 5, 2011 (page 6):
On peut s’étonner qu’Adam Lindemann, après avoir lancé cette diatribe, se rende finalement à Miami le jour du vernissage en compagnie de sa compagne, la courtière Amalia Dayan… Il a d’ailleurs beau jeu de critiquer les folies du marché alors qu’il en a fait son miel. Il a ainsi réalisé une sacrée culbute en 2007 en vendant un Hanging heart rouge de Jeff Koons pour le prix record 23 millions de dollars chez Sotheby’s, alors qu’il ne l’avait payé que 4 millions de dollars deux ans plus tôt… Adam Lindemann peut-il prendre des airs de chevalier blanc ? Pas vraiment.