In April, Art Basel announced that it was inviting exhibitors at its flagship Swiss fair this month to hold back at least one standout work from their digital previews, in an effort to boost excitement around the opening moments of the event.
Today, Artnet News can reveal the list of artists whose work will be part of the “Basel Exclusive” initiative, cloaked in mystery until the fair opens to VIPs on Tuesday, June 16. It includes blue-chip figures like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bridget Riley, Lucio Fontana, and Joan Mitchell, as well as emerging artists like Frieda Toranzo Jaeger and Maia Ruth Lee. (The full lineup follows below.)
Participating in “Basel Exclusive” is voluntarily, and open only to those in the main Galleries sector. Of the roughly 240 in it this time, just over 190 have opted to take part. (The fair did not provide the gallery names.)
“In most cases it is a work that is central to the gallery’s booth presentation,” said Vincenzo de Bellis, Art Basel’s global director of fairs. “Often they’ve been choosing works that really scream for a first encounter in person. Those that, seen digitally, might not tell as much as others do.”
Among the primary market works that de Bellis is most excited for visitors to see is a rare piece by contemporary artist Kai Althoff, “who doesn’t produce very much,” he said, as well as works by still-emerging names like Swiss local Lorenza Longhi.
Secondary market material includes a piece by the Abstract Expressionist Grace Hartigan, who is still gaining the visibility she deserves, and her peer Helen Frankenthaler, the subject of a major exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel.
One newcomer to the fair, New York’s Berry Campbell, has made the promotion of overlooked, 20th-century women artists its mission. “Basel Exclusive” will provide “a fresh way to engage with collectors and create a sense of discovery at the fair,” said co-founders Christine Berry and Martha Campbell.
Art Basel In Basel 2026. Photo courtesy Art Basel.
The initiative has been some years in the making, said de Bellis, who positioned it as a counterweight to the digital transactions that became increasingly common amid the pandemic. “Our initiative doesn’t want to fight against that,” he said, but his team hopes that it underscores the fair’s core appeal. “You want to offer them something they cannot see otherwise,” de Bellis said.
As the art fair calendar grows increasingly crowded, even leading events are feeling the pressure to sustain collector interest. Art Basel’s own Paris edition has become a major draw for collectors each October, and it launched a fair in Qatar this past February.
Before the rise of digital PDFs and previews, the opening moments of the major fairs were seen as remarkably high-stakes events. In 2005, dealer Emmanuel Perrotin famously snuck the advisor Philippe Ségalot into Art Basel before the official opening, leading to Perrotin being barred from participating the following year.
Here is the list of artists featured in “Basel Exclusive” below. It is subject to change, Art Basel noted.
Rebecca Ackroyd
Karl-Heinz Adler
Etel Adnan
Henni Alftan
Francis Alÿs
Pawel Althamer
Kai Althoff
Ei Arakawa-Nash
Alexander Archipenko
Arman
John Armleder
Frank Auerbach
Caroline Bachmann
John Baldessari
Yto Barrada
Alvaro Barrington
Lenora de Barros
Geraldo de Barros
Hernan Bas
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Hans Op de Beeck
Katherine Bernhardt,
Alighiero Boetti
Erwin Bohatsch
Soumya Sankar Bose
Louise Bourgeois
Katherine Bradford
Herbert Brandl
Cornel Brudascu
David Byrd
Alexander Calder
Antonio Calderara
Vlassis Caniaris
Patricia Fernández Carcedo
Enrico Castellani
Han Mengyun Cheng
Judy Chicago
Giorgio de Chirico
Tiffany Chung
William Copley,
Joseph Cornell
Tony Cragg
Tania Pérez Córdova
Angela de la Cruz
Svenja Deininger,
Diambe
David Diao
Anju Dodiya
Kees Van Dongen
Jean Dubuffet
Marcel Duchamp
Giuseppe Ducrot
William Eggleston
Olafur Eliasson
Tracey Emin
Nikos Engonopoulos
Zhang Enli
Max Ernst
Luciano Fabro
Márcia Falcão,
Shao Fan
Zeng Fanzhi
Ângela Ferreira
Lucio Fontana
Helen Frankenthaler
Scott Fraser
Kira Freije
Yang Fudong,
Gilbert & George
Vinicius Gerheim
Adrian Ghenie
Sam Gilliam
Beatriz González
Arshile Gorky
Laura Grisi
Wang Guangyi,
Shilpa Gupta
Philip Guston
Keith Haring
Grace Hartigan
Hans Hartung
Cynthia Hawkins
Jeppe Hein
Sabine Hertig
Irma Hünerfauth
David Hockney
Ferdinand Hodler
Klára Hosnedlová
Peter Hujar
Leiko Ikemura
Yee I-Lann
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger
Arthur Jafa
Ann Veronica Janssens
Poppy Jones
Atsushi Kaga
Wassily Kandinsky
Mike Kelley
William Kentridge
Yves Klein
Julije Knifer
Dominique Knowles
Eleonore Koch
Jutta Koether
Joseph Kosuth
Jannis Kounellis
Antonia Kuo
Yves Laloy,
Maia Ruth Lee
Jochen Lempert
Zoe Leonard
Dan Lie
Kim Lim
Duane Linklater
Hew Locke
Sophia Loeb
Lorenza Longhi
Amadeo Lorenzato
Morris Louis
José Loureiro
Sarah Lucas
Sammi Lynch
Liz Magor
Maruja Mallo
Marepe
Enzo Mari
Roberto Burle Marx
Soshiro Matsubara
Jan Merta
Meuser
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas
Joan Mitchell
Nour Mobarak
Lucia Moholy
Yuko Mohri
Giorgio Morandi
Sveta Mordovskaya
Sabine Moritz
Olivier Mosset
Matt Mullican
Lee Mullican
Juan Muñoz
Rei Naito
Bruce Nauman
Armineh Negahdari
Louise Nevelson
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Isabel Nolan
Asemahle Ntlonti
Albert Oehlen
Shinro Ohtake
Hélio Oiticica
Precious Okoyomon
Claes Oldenburg
Roman Ondak
Uriel Orlow
Laura Owens
Seung Ah Paik
Mimmo Paladino
Giulio Paolini
Clemen Parrocchetti
Nicolas Party
Henrique Pavão
Yan Pei-Ming
Niki de Saint Phalle
Francis Picabia,
Pablo Picasso
Walter Pichler
Otto Piene
Tobias Pils
Joanna Piotrowska
Daniel Pitín
Wildredo Prieto
Robert Pruitt
Yao Qingmei
Martial Raysse
Marina Rheingantz,
Gerhard Richter
Bridget Riley
Pamela Rosenkranz
Ed Ruscha
Robert Ryman
Amano Ryuichi
Christine Safa
Prem Sahib
Salvo
William Schaeuble
Chanakya School,
Jan Schoonhoven
Thomas Schütte
Gerard Sekoto
Seurat
Jamel Shabazz
Katharina Sieverding
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
Keith Sonnier
Frank Stella
Jessica Stockholder
Myron Stout
Emily Sunblad
Eduardo Terrazas
Paul Thek
Guim Tió
Niele Toroni
Antoni Tàpies
Thu-Van Tran,
Francisco Tropa
Antonio Társis,
Janaina Tschäpe,
Cy Twombly
Günther Uecker
Alvaro Urbano
Victor Vasarely
Erika Verzutti,
Cecilia Vicuña
Oriol Vilanova
Raphaela Vogel
Andy Warhol
Gillian Wearing
Peter Fischli / David Weiss,
Franz West
Cathy Wilkes
Rachel Eulena Williams
Hu Xiang
Su Xiaobai
Zhao Yang
Manoucher Yektai
Ding Yi
Tang Yongxiang
Yoo Youngkuk
Urban Zellweger
Xu Zhen