The Vienna gallerist on stimulating conversations, her first impressions of the fair in 1980, and watching soccer games on the show floor

My first Art Basel: Rosemarie Schwarzwälder

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A Basel native,&nbsp;Rosemarie Schwarzwälder took over&nbsp;Vienna's&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1229/Galerie-n%C3%A4chst-St-Stephan-Rosemarie-Schwarzw%C3%A4lder" target="_blank">Galerie nächst St. Stephan</a>&nbsp;in 1978. Over the years, her gallery has become an Art Basel&nbsp;fixture,&nbsp;participating in its Basel, Miami Beach, and Hong Kong fairs. In this interview, she discusses how her relationship with Art Basel started, why she went against trends out of conviction, and some of the unique moments she experienced in the 1980s.

‘My first Art Basel was in 1980. I remember I was quite excited to participate and had the highest expectations. I had been running Galerie nächst St. Stephan for two years. The gallery was a place for contemporary art established in the 1920s, and it already had a legendary reputation. But at the time, Vienna was a provincial town without any international flair and with the Iron Curtain nearby. In the early 1980s, there were hardly any important art fairs in the world – but Art Basel was becoming the center of the artworld, even though the artworld was so tiny back then! All the galleries representing living artists were hosted on the first floor of what is now the “old building” of the Basel fair. The ground floor was reserved for art dealers showing classical sculptures and paintings.

<div>‘Being small, the community of gallerists showing contemporary art was like a family. In the evenings, a dozen colleagues and I would often eat together at the same restaurant – Chez Donati or the Kunsthalle. Intense discussions about art and society were followed by nights of dancing. I also remember one time, once visitors had left the halls, we watched a soccer game in the booth of a gallery that was showing video works and therefore had TV screens. At the same time, I was extremely serious about what I was doing and had the feeling that I was being accepted into a new world. From the moment I started participating in Art Basel, my life became different and I knew I'd be able to make the artists I was working with known to an international audience. Art Basel was the ideal platform to do this – everybody met and exchanged, and content and commerce merged harmoniously.</div>

<div>‘I shared my first booth at Art Basel with Ursula Krinzinger, whose gallery was still in Innsbruck at the time. I grew up in Basel and my mother lived ten minutes down the Rhine from the fair, so we slept at her place. At the end of the fair, we counted the money over my mother's kitchen table, splitting it into little piles for ourselves and the artists. People would mostly pay cash, or by check for bigger sums. We sold well. Basel was already a real trading hub. My fair book was filled with the names of the most important collectors from Switzerland and its neighboring countries. I have remained in touch with several of these early contacts.</div>

‘1980 was also a crucial year for the western artworld. Figurative painting was back, taking over the conceptual paradigm of the 1970s. The market of the 1980s was also emerging. At Art Basel that year, the new stars were Arte Cifra and Neo-Expressionism, but it was clear to me that these movements didn't reflect my personal taste; I would defend artists with more serious ideas. Some time later, I developed a clear, individual program of abstract and conceptual art for Galerie nächst St. Stephan. I have been carrying out that vision ever since, and I still work with many of the artists that I started with, such as Ernst Caramelle, Imi Knoebel, and Helmut Federle. An important conversational partner has also been John Armleder, who, in 1980, presented his publishing house Ecart Publications at Art Basel in the booth neighboring mine. A few years later I showed John’s work at my gallery in Vienna.’

Top image:&nbsp;Rosemarie Schwarzwälder in front of her gallery. Courtesy of Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna.&nbsp;Photo by&nbsp;Julian Mullen.

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The Vienna gallerist on stimulating conversations, her first impressions of the fair in 1980, and watching soccer games on the show floor