<p>2020 marks Art Basel's 50th anniversary. Discover the fair's early years through archive images, quotes from early participants, and key facts and figures.</p>

Discover the fair's history, decade by decade

Art Basel at 50 – the 1990s

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<p>Premiering alongside Art Basel in 1990, Edition 1/90 is devoted to original contemporary graphic arts, gathering 129 dealers and publishers from 15 countries.</p>

1990

<p>For the first time in the fair's history, the vernissage is open to the public. On the occasion of the opening, a benefit gala dinner is held at the Kunstmuseum, featuring an auction as well as performances by Philip Glass and Ingrid Caven.&nbsp;Proceeds from the tickets are given to Art Against AIDS.&nbsp;</p>

1991

<p>After three years as a separate fair, Edition is integrated as the Edition sector into Art Basel, with 15 multiples galleries taking part (Klosterfelde, Lelong, Knust, and Polígrafa, among others). The new Young Galleries sector promotes galleries such as Anthony Reynolds, Jennifer Flay, and Esther Schipper, offering a program of younger artists not yet established in the market. A photography sector is also inaugurated, highlighting 14 photography galleries, including Hamiltons, Kicken, and Françoise Paviot.</p>

1992

<p>
	Pipilotti Rist and Enrique Fontanilles are the first recipients&nbsp;of the video art prize endowed by the main sponsor,&nbsp;the Swiss Bank Corporation&nbsp;–&nbsp;which later merged&nbsp;with the Union Bank of Switzerland to become UBS.&nbsp;1994 marks the beginning of what&nbsp;will become a longstanding relationship&nbsp;between Art Basel and UBS.</p>

1994

<div>Young Galleries is replaced by Statements, presenting&nbsp;23 solo shows by young artists, establishing this sector&nbsp;as a launchpad for international recognition. The first&nbsp;edition includes artists such as Matthew Benedict,&nbsp;Ian Davenport, Pierre Huyghe, McDermott &amp; McGough,&nbsp;Mariko Mori, Sam Samore, and Karin Sander.</div>

1996

<div>The creation of an association&nbsp;of leading art fairs&nbsp;–&nbsp;ICAFA&nbsp;for International Contemporary&nbsp;Art Fairs Association&nbsp;–&nbsp;is announced&nbsp;during a press conference, with&nbsp;Rosina Gómez-Baeza, Arco, Madrid;&nbsp;Thomas Blackman, Art Chicago,&nbsp;Chicago; Lorenzo Rudolf, Art Basel,&nbsp;Basel; Marwan Hoss, FIAC, Paris;&nbsp;G. F. Reinz, Art Cologne, Cologne, on&nbsp;June 11, 1996. The members of ICAFA&nbsp;sign a joint charter setting guidelines&nbsp;and rules of practice. The aim of this&nbsp;association is 'to support trade in art&nbsp;through professionally-run&nbsp;galleries&nbsp;and to offer the best possible market&nbsp;platforms via the vehicle of art fairs.'</div>

<p>A hall outside the Rundhofhalle&nbsp;is included in the fair in&nbsp;order to exhibit 24 large sculptures, for&nbsp;which otherwise there would not be enough space. A Film sector also debuts, as well as&nbsp;special exhibitions&nbsp;on the buildings that are changing the museum landscape: the Guggenheim Bilbao, the converted&nbsp;London power station that became Tate Modern, and the Fondation&nbsp;Beyeler in Riehen, designed by&nbsp;Renzo Piano for the co-founder of&nbsp;Art Basel, Ernst Beyeler.
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1998

<p>The Baloise Art Prize, which includes two prizes of CHF 30,000 each, is presented in the Statements sector by a jury made up of renowned art specialists. In addition, Baloise buys groups of works by the prizewinners with the object of donating them to two leading European museums. Winners of the first Baloise Art Prize in 1999 are Laura Owens and Matthew Ritchie. In 2000, Jeroen de Rijke and Willem de Rooij win the prize together with Navin Rawanchaikul.</p>

1999

<ul><li>Felix Buchmann,&nbsp;Buchmann Galerie,&nbsp;Basel &amp; Cologne</li><li>Victor Gisler, Mai 36&nbsp;Galerie, Zurich</li><li>Karsten Greve,&nbsp;Galerie Karsten,&nbsp;Greve, Cologne,Paris, and Milan</li><li>Wolfgang Günther,&nbsp;Galerie Limmer,&nbsp;Cologne</li><li>Pierre Huber, Art &amp;&nbsp;Public, Geneva</li></ul>

1997: committee members

<ul> <li>271 exhibitors</li><li>25 countries</li><li>Day Ticket: CHF 25</li><li>Sectors: Edition, Film, Magazines, Internet &amp; Books, Photography, Sculpture, Statements, Video Forum</li></ul>

Welcome,

Art Basel at 50 – the 1990s

Discover the fair's history, decade by decade

The 1990s