The Italian gallerist reflects on his first Art Basel in 1977, his inaugural exhibition featuring Sol LeWitt and Daniel Buren, and how the artworld has changed since

Art Basel at 50: A Conversation with Massimo Minini

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Active in Brescia since 1973,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1556/Galleria-Massimo-Minini" target="_blank">Massimo Minini</a> and his namesake gallery are key members of a pioneering generation of the European artworld. Having first participated in Art Basel in 1977 and returned every year since, he has witnessed the development of the contemporary art scene over the last five decades. In the 1990s, Minini was a member of Art Basel’s Exhibitors’ Advisory Board. In this retrospective interview, he talks about his first years in the artworld and his Art Basel routine.


Clément Dirié: This year, you would have&nbsp;celebrated your 44th participation in Art Basel, which was founded in 1970. What were you doing back then?

	Massimo Minini: I was born in 1944, so I was 26 years old in 1970 when I moved back to Brescia, having spent some years in Milan. I started to work with a friend of my father’s as a sales rep in an import-export business. I had a driver’s license and was multilingual, so I drove through Europe selling goods. I already had an interest in art: From 8am to 4pm I did my job, and from 4pm on I visited museums and galleries, met artists and collectors, and I discovered there was an art world out there, working and showing and selling things. At this point, I was yet to think about opening a gallery.


	I first became interested in art while in Milan as a student. Skipping my law lectures, I visited galleries instead. It&nbsp;was a fantastic time for the city’s art scene,&nbsp;one could visit the Galleria del Naviglio, and the Galleria Blu, and meet great dealers such as Arturo Schwarz and Ettore Gian Ferrari. I was not at all familiar with contemporary art. Back then you would study art history up until the 19th century, and if you wanted to know something about the 20th century, it was up to you. In college, you would learn very little about Pablo Picasso or Georges Braque. Futurism, which was so important in Italy, wasn't even mentioned!

CD: Did you buy works in Milan or when you were traveling through Europe?


	MM: I didn’t have any money to collect and I didn’t want to be an artist either. An artist’s life was too difficult, and you really need to have something to tell the world. Only now would I like to be an artist; maybe I have started to understand something in the end&hellip; To come back to the early 1970s, I soon quit my job and worked for two years with Giancarlo Politi at Flash Art, the Italian magazine he founded in 1967. This was an exciting time to work with him. American Conceptual art was unfurling in Europe, especially in the 1972 editions of documenta in Kassel and the Venice Biennale. We went to both cities –&nbsp;with small suitcases and t-shirts with the magazine’s logo –&nbsp;to sell the magazine&nbsp;and I met lots of people. After this experience I needed to do something different, so it was logical for me to open my own gallery.
CD: Why did you choose to open it in Brescia?MM: I opened my first gallery named Galleria Banco with a friend. I had the name and he had a space, which was in Brescia. I could not afford to pay rent. For the first two years I didn’t even have a phone. I would sit in the gallery and wait for someone to come in. Notes were sent by snail mail. We had to announce visits a month in advance: 'Mr. Minini will come to see you in Rotterdam on May 23, 1974.' One day, a guy from the bar next door came to me. He told me someone was waiting for me on the his&nbsp;phone. It was a collector from Genoa who had looked for the nearest bar on my street in the phone&nbsp;directory in order to contact me. I answered the&nbsp; call&nbsp;and he bought a photographic work by the fantastic Italian artist Michele Zaza. Quite different from today’s business!

CD: What were your first exhibitions like?MM: In October 1973, my first exhibition was a group show featuring&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7252/Mel-Bochner" target="_blank">Mel Bochner</a>, Giuseppe Chiari, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/10504/Hamish-Fulton" target="_blank">Hamish Fulton</a>, Marco Gastini,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6768/Gilbert-George" target="_blank">Gilbert &amp; George</a>, Les Levine,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6770/Sol-LeWitt" target="_blank">Sol LeWitt</a>, <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/21863/Roman-Opalka" target="_blank">Roman Opalka</a>, Ben Vautier, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/23655/Dorothea-Rockburne" target="_blank">Dorothea Rockburne</a>. During the first few years, I also showed&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7350/Alighiero-Boetti" target="_blank">Alighiero Boetti</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6914/Daniel-Buren" target="_blank">Daniel Buren</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6732/Alexander-Calder">Alexander Calder</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6899/Francesco-Clemente" target="_blank">Francesco Clemente</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/7585/Dan-Graham">Dan Graham</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6973/Giorgio-Griffa" target="_blank">Giorgio Griffa</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6773/Giulio-Paolini">Giulio Paolini</a>, Salvo, and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8113/Niele-Toroni">Niele Toroni</a>. I was deeply involved with Conceptual art, Minimal art, and Arte Povera.CD: Your first participation in Art Basel was in 1977.MM: Exactly. In 2019, there were only 16 participating galleries that had also been present in 1977&mdash;16 survivors! Three years after opening the gallery, art fairs were springing up and my artists were beginning to show signs of nervousness: They wanted to be in Basel. They pushed me every way they could to apply for this important event, and, to my surprise, my application was accepted. It was:&nbsp;'Hey, guys! We’re going to Basel!'&nbsp;We needed to get ready, find the cash, and the works too.Alighiero Boetti submitted two large red Biros (ballpoint pen drawings) for the display:&nbsp;Mettere al mondo il mondo (Bringing the World into the World) (1972–1973). That was a great help. Andre Cadere and Niele Toroni came to the fair. That was where I met Colette, the New York artist, who suggested a performance. Rashly, I agreed, and she took pills and slept at the stand, which she had filled with curtains and silks. Lucio Amelio and Holly Solomon came to me a number of times, bringing collectors and curious people. Lucio screamed like a maniac: 'That’s what you need to do!' Holly bought some works. But it wasn’t enough to pay for the fair.Quite incredibly, Franz Meyer, then Director of the Kunstmuseum Basel, came racing past my stand on the last day. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted the enormous blotch of red of Boetti’s diptych, stepped back three paces, and asked me how much it cost. 'Put the Boetti aside for me. I’ll be straight back.' He returned with 15 people. They talked among themselves. I don’t understand German, but then Franz came to me: 'Boetti’s ours!' It was for the Hoffmann-La Roche collection. My first Art Basel was saved.

CD: In the early 1990s you were part of the Exhibitors’ Advisory Board. You stayed on the committee for eight years during which the fair experienced considerable growth.MM: One day Lucio Amelio quit the committee for health reasons, and he pointed to me as his successor. The post was clearly hereditary, like in the days of kings. Lucio was and always had been a key personality in the fair – very influential. In those days the committee comprised representatives from almost every nation. So, Lucio designated me, and the other members of the committee came to see who this Minini was. Emil Bammatter, then Director of the fair, came by to meet me. Everyone was rather astonished.The first committee meeting was strictly in German. Isy Brachot and I had an interpreter. But Isy, who smoked Cohiba cigars – it was allowed in those days – opened his briefcase, lit a monster, and puffed it down the interpreter’s throat. The poor thing rushed out in paroxysms and never came back, so I understood nothing of my first committee meeting in Basel. Fortunately, we soon switched to English.As you mentioned, I joined the committee at a time of great change in the fair, when competitors were breathing down its neck and it was decided that they needed to play tougher. New ideas, new sectors, new galleries, and new spaces needed to be brought in. Interesting new galleries were trying to enter, but every place was taken. To make the change, many galleries were dropped and new energies entered. For me, a fresh young commissioner, this meant making lots of enemies, especially among Italian galleries. But it was an amazing experience.

CD: Can you tell me about your routine during the week of Art Basel? I know almost every gallerist has one, a kind of ritual.MM: Since 1977, my habits have changed a lot. During the first few years, I used to come alone by car with the works stacked on the roof. I would leave Brescia on Monday morning at 6am and arrive in Basel at noon, with the fair opening on Tuesday evening. I could pass the border easily, and one could park the car almost in front of one’s booth. Now the logistics are harder: There are six of us and we fill a truck with artworks, organize the border crossing, and arrive on Saturday. Everyone has a lot of work to do during the three-day hanging. The booths are bigger now and more complicated to install, but I have always enjoyed installing the works myself. In the beginning I even brought the lighting. I think you understand an artist’s work better when you deal with its materiality.

To find out more about Massimo Minini’s journey in the art world, see:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6lhW7GAWQw#:~:text=The%20Story%20of%20a%20Gallerist%22%20is%20a%202019%20film%2Ddocumentary,festival%20held%20in%20Bologna%2C%20Italy." target="_blank">Massimo Minini: The Story of a Gallerist</a>, a film by Manuela Teatini released in 2019, and Massimo Minini’s book,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.moussepublishing.com/?product=/massimo-minini-pizzini-sentences/" target="_blank">Pizzini/Sentences</a>, vol. 1 and 2 (Mousse Publishing, Milan).Top image:&nbsp;Galleria Massimo Minini's booth at Art Basel's show in Basel, 2019.&nbsp;Courtesy of Galleria Massimo Minini.

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The Italian gallerist reflects on his first Art Basel in 1977, his inaugural exhibition featuring Sol LeWitt and Daniel Buren, and how the artworld has changed since