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David LaChapelle and Art Basel Miami Beach 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009 03:06 PM

tags: Art, Art Basel Miami Beach, David LaChapelle, Phil Tarley

Hundreds of international art galleries flooded Miami again this year, with a delicious sensorial deluge of fashion, design, parties, and intellectual delights. Contemporary art from every corner of the earth simultaneously rained down like manna from heaven on this five-day multi-venue art overload known as Art Basel Miami Beach.

This is one really big show. Artists, art dealers, collectors, and aficionados come to collide in the art, culture, and party fusion that are the hallmarks of the Art Basel Miami Beach phenomenon. This year, numerous shadow shows, including Photo Miami, Design Miami, Pulse, Scope, and Nada, showcased offerings ranging from the sacred to the profane; Sylvester Stallone’s oily self portraits were snapped up by happy collectors. There were fascinating pieces at every show. Although this year’s sluggish economy rendered the shows leaner and meaner, with dealers pruning their collections down to their very best, this was still the most bountiful assemblage of contemporary art to be seen, sold, or savored. Stripped down to the bone, the art sold briskly.

Bursting out from this howling cacophony of art anarchy was David LaChapelle, who was all over Miami like an art angel, bedeviling the event with his magnificent works that appeared at the most important venues. LaChapelle had a one-man opening at Wolfgang Roth & Partners, and had three Michael Jackson pieces in the main show at ABMB. He also created a surreal, intensely compelling image, Berlin Stories (pictured above), for German automaker Maybach, who had commissioned LaChapelle to celebrate and commemorate their historic and contemporary line of luxury cars for their Daimler Art Collection. And although the party scene at ABMB had been scaled down (conspicuously absent this year were the chic Davidoff cigar bar and the lavish Dome du Cartier), Maybach threw the most opulent party of the season to unveil their new works by LaChapelle. Staged at The Raleigh, one of South Beach’s most glamorous hotels, the event was styled exactly like the 1932 New Year’s Eve party depicted in Berlin Stories.

David LaChapelle has become the Andy Warhol of our times. His ubiquity, his constant use of pop culture, and his exploration of new thematic material makes his work highly collectible. DLC has zapped the pop zeitgeist chronicling Amanda Lepore and Lil' Kim’s cutting-edge reinterpretation of the female form. His ode to JC in his series, Jesus Is My Homeboy, his eerie underwater series, and his personal favorite, Deluge, push his work into new territories. And LaChapelle is everywhere, soon to be guest of honor at PHOTO LA’s vernisage VIP opening night in January. Some call his work slick and commercial. Others will pay a king’s ransom for a print. Only history can judge his pith.

(Text by Phil Tarley; photos by Phil Tarley and David LaChapelle)