Art Fairs
A Peek at Baz Luhrmann’s Collaboration for Art Basel in Miami Beach
The booth will feature a reinterpretation of a performance of the Ballets Russes.
The booth will feature a reinterpretation of a performance of the Ballets Russes.
Cait Munro ShareShare This Article
Great Gatsby director Baz Luhrmann has teamed up with Oscar winning production and costume designer Catherine Martin and British producer Nellee Hooper to design the booth for Zürich’s Galerie Gmurzynska at Art Basel in Miami Beach in celebration of its 50-year anniversary. Amusingly named “A Kid Could Do It” (a riff on the criticism most often leveled at modern art), the exhibition will feature key 20th century masterworks by artists including Francis Bacon, Yves Klein, Kurt Schwitters, Wifredo Lam, Joan Miró and Kazimir Malevich. It’s not exactly what we would expect from the director of glittering films like Moulin Rouge, but it will be a rare opportunity to see works either drawn from major museum collections, or which have not been shown publicly in years.
By putting these seminal artists together under the banner of an oft-heard criticism, the gallery hopes to flip the condemnation on its head, and transform it into a point of curatorial inspiration.
“Very few newly created works endure or leave an indelible imprint on popular culture unless at birth they draw passionate juxtaposing critical responses,” Luhrmann said in a statement speaking about the exhibition’s tongue-in-cheek name.
This isn’t Luhrmann’s first time bringing his creative touch to Miami Beach. He spearheaded the creative design of developer Alan Faena’s historic Faena Hotel Miami Beach. Though the hotel is still under construction, the design is inspired by old Hollywood glamour and features an underground Art Deco cabaret.
Perhaps Luhrmann’s most exciting contribution to the booth will be a reinterpretation by the film director of “Jeux d’Enfants,” a production of the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, for which Miró designed the set. There will be rediscovered 1930s footage of that performance, which prominently displays Miro’s Jeux d’Enfants painting, along with the original painting.