The pieces in this retrospective are priced between $125,000 and $2.5 million, although there are some Matta works that this gallerist holds onto dearly, “because they are irreplaceable,” he explains. Physical Morphology is one of those works. For years, it has been one of only three paintings that hangs behind velvet ropes in Gary Nader Fine Art. It is valued near $2.5 million, a price that Nader was offered recently from a private collector, but he refused to sell; should the piece ever leave the gallery, he wants it to go to a museum so others can marvel at the surrealist work, which reflects layered organic, amoeba-like shapes in striking hues of cerulean, amber, and aqua, interspersed with harsh grays. It is part of a series of works of the same name, later dubbed “inscapes,” or physical representations of the inner workings of Matta’s mind.
Nader knew Matta personally when the artist was alive (he died in 2002 at the age of 91), so he is partial to his work. This is Nader’s fourth one-man Matta show, and the first retrospective of the artist’s work in more than a decade. It is also the most important. Just three weeks before the opening, Nader visited Paris to meet with Madame Matta, the artist’s widow, and showed her what he was planning. She fully endorsed the show, an ultimate honor, as she is an expert on her late husband’s work. Despite her advanced age, she will travel to Miami for the opening night reception.
Her presence is a testament to the quality of the retrospective, which Nader worked tirelessly to put together. “I have been to Paris, Panama, Madrid, all over Italy, Peru, Chile,” he states. “I went everywhere to look at pieces. It is very well curated, because I consider myself to be an expert on Matta, so I know what I can receive and what I shouldn’t receive. We had 50 paintings offered for the show that we didn’t accept; not every work has the same quality, and the ones that we are showing are the special ones.”
While the retrospective of Matta will certainly take center stage, it is not the only highlight that will open on December 3. The gallery will also feature XX Century Masters, a compendium of important paintings, drawings, and sculptures from Latin American, Modern, and Contemporary Masters. It includes those artists whose works hang on the walls of every major museum around the world: Hirst, Lichtenstein, Matisse, Miro, Monet, Picasso, Stella, and Warhol, amongst dozens of others. XX Century Masters will be the largest collection of blue-chip artists on display in the city during the fair, thus calling to the major art collectors from around the globe. So it won’t be a surprise when international art aficionados forgo Art Basel Miami Beach that night entirely—or at least duck out early—to head to Wynwood for the private opening of these shows.
“The 20th Century show is a compilation of extremely important artists from all over the world,” Nader explains. “Of course, the gallery also has a permanent collection of Latin American masters, and the largest collection of Fernando Botero in the world, including sculptures, like the monumentals we have outside.” He is referring to his outdoor sculpture park that is dominated by enormous bronze and marble Botero works. In 2010, Nader will lend these pieces to Fairchild Tropical Garden for the third time. The sculptures have already drawn more than 30,000 visitors to Fairchild, shining a new light on one of the city’s unique cultural treasures, a fine illustration of one of Nader’s statements: “Art is the soul of a community.”
Nader expects the sales throughout Art Basel and his subsequent two-month exhibition to be brisk and lucrative, a solid prediction based on the results of recent Latin American art auctions. A November sale at Sotheby’s in New York saw a Matta realize $2,490,500, while at Christie’s a Botero painting sold for $614,500, and a monumental sculpture garnered more than $1 million.
“I have great hopes [for good results] because it’s been proven,” he explains. “It’s nothing new; the art market—the good art market, what is blue-chip—I call it recession proof. It is always a great safe investment, because it has what no other investment has: instant gratification. When you have stocks and bonds, you have a paper. When you have a great work of art, you have a safe investment you can enjoy and everyone around you can enjoy as well.”