Like all cultural institutions, galleries and art fairs are adapting to a new reality 

与所有文化机构一样，画廊和艺术博览会正在适应新的现实

 

Art Basel Hong Kong, Asia’s biggest contemporary-art fair, was cancelled because of covid-19, but anyone who had planned to visit last week could enjoy an experimental alternative: the viewing room. At the click of a keyboard, you could enter a panoramic¹ but private visual salon², without having to brave the airless Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

亚洲最大的当代艺术博览会——香港巴塞尔艺术展因covid19而被取消，但任何上周计划参观的人都可以享受一个实验性的替代选择：播映室。只需按一下键盘，你就可以进入一个全景但私密的视觉沙龙，而不必在空气不流通的香港会议展览中心里穿行。

 

Participating galleries were told that, for a quarter of the original fee, they could have a slot in the online fair. Over 90% of the line-up—231galleries—gave it a whirl, offering more than 2,000 works worth $270m in total. The viewing room was a telling indication of how art might be shown (and sold) in the future, in a pandemic-stricken era or if travel is otherwise restricted. It offered encouragement—and some lessons on digital engagement. 

参与展览的画廊被告知，只需原费用的四分之一，就可以在网上展览会上占有一席之地。超过90%的画廊——231家画廊——尝试了一下，总共提供了2000多件价值2.7亿美元的作品。观景室生动地表明，在未来，在一个病毒肆虐的时代，或者在旅行受到限制的情况下，艺术品展示(和出售)的可能的方式。

 

There, on one webpage, was Jeff Koons riffing on Botticelli’s “Primavera” in a tribute to the history of painting at David Zwirner Gallery. Ota Fine Arts offered one collector the chance to acquire an “infinity room”, one of the most Instagrammed artworks of recent years—the creation of the psychedelic, nonagenarian Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. White Cube presented an array of international works by Andreas Gursky (German), Theaster Gates (American) and Beatriz Milhazes (Brazilian). 

在其中一个网页上，杰夫·昆斯在大卫·兹沃纳画廊为纪念绘画史而翻唱波提切利的《春》。大田秀则画廊为一位收藏家提供了一个获得“无限空间”的机会，这是近年来在 instagram 上最受欢迎的艺术品之一。这是日本艺术家草间弥生的作品，他已经九十多岁，具有迷幻色彩。白立方画廊展示了安德烈亚斯·古尔斯基(德国)、西斯特·盖茨(美国)和贝亚特里斯·米拉塞斯(巴西)的一系列国际作品。

 

But not every artist, gallery and form showed to equal advantage in this alternative fair. Not surprisingly, simple two-dimensional works in bright colours came across best. No sculpture or conceptual art was included. Subtle pieces, such as Lucas Arruda’s impressionistic desert-scapes, which seem as much a mood or a state of mind as a physical depiction³ when you see them in real life, had little impact when viewed remotely. 

但并不是所有的艺术家、画廊和形式都在这个另类的展览会上表现出同等优势。雕塑或概念艺术并不包括在内。一些微妙的作品，比如卢卡斯·阿鲁达的印象主义沙漠风景，当你在现实生活中看到它们时，它们似乎是一种情绪或一种精神状态，而当你从远处看它们时，几乎没有影响。

 

Besides depth and texture⁴, there are aspects of gallery-hopping that a website is unlikely to replicate⁵. One is serendipity— the sense of wandering between artworks and encountering the unexpected. Another is sociability⁶. Art is a communion between artist and viewer, but galleries and fairs are also places to swap⁷ opinions and share enthusiasms. 

除了深度和质感之外，逛画廊还有一些网站不太可能复制的方面。一种是“意外发现”，即在艺术品之间徘徊，遇到意想不到的东西。另一种是社交能力。艺术是艺术家和观众之间的交流，但画廊和博览会也是交换意见和分享热情的地方。

 

There are ways to compensate⁸ for these inevitable⁹ deficiencies. As they shut their physical doors, some of the world’s finest galleries and museums are offering whizzy interactive¹⁰ visits, 360-degree videos and walk-around tours of their collections, all without queues and high ticket prices. One of the best is laid on by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; its tour allows visitors to view its Vermeers and Rembrandts, including the magnificent “Night Watch”, far more closely than would normally be possible. Another standout offering is from the Museu de Arte de São Paulo, which has an even broader collection. On its virtual platform, its paintings, spanning 700 years, appear to be hanging in an open-plan space, seemingly suspended on glass panels, or “crystal easels” as the museum calls them, ideal for close-up inspection¹¹. 

有一些方法可以弥补这些不可避免的缺陷。一些世界上最好的画廊和博物馆在关闭实体馆的同时，还提供了令人眼花缭乱的互动参观、360度全景视频和藏品巡展，所有这些都不用排队，也不用支付高昂的门票。其中最好的是阿姆斯特丹国立博物馆举办的；游客们可以近距离观赏维米尔和伦勃朗的作品，包括宏伟的《守夜人》。另一件引人注目的展品来自圣保罗艺术博物馆，那里的藏品甚至更多。在虚拟平台上，跨越700年的画作似乎悬挂在一个开放的空间里，似乎悬挂在博物馆称之为“水晶画架”的玻璃板上，非常适合近距离观察。

 

But such wizardry may be beyond most galleries and artists. For Art Basel, Tracey Emin, a British artist at White Cube, exhibited a heartfelt demand spelled out in icyblue neon: “Move me” (pictured on previous page). At a distance, that is hard. 

但这种魔力可能超出了大多数画廊和艺术家的能力。在巴塞尔艺术展上，白立方的英国艺术家特蕾西·埃明用冰蓝色的霓虹灯表达了一个发自内心的要求：“移动我”（前页图片）。如果在线则做不到如此。

 

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