After last year’s much-anticipated move to the Grand Palais, Art Basel Paris 2025 (October 24–26, with previews on October 22 and 23), under the direction of Clément Delépine, is more than just an art fair: it is an expanded dialogue with Paris itself, a city long synonymous with experimentation and exchange.
This year, 206 leading galleries from 41 countries will gather, with 65 of them operating in France. The fair’s flagship Galeries sector will once again serve as the beating heart of the event, presenting works that range from early 20th-century trailblazers to ultra-contemporary innovators. The overarching focus: the avant-garde, a theme that feels both rooted in Paris’ history and urgent for the present.
Highlights from the Galeries Sector
- Paris’ Galerie Le Minotaure delves into Dimensionism, the avant-garde movement inspired by Einstein’s theories of space-time and articulated in Charles Sirató’s 1936 manifesto. Watercolors by Fernand Léger from the late 1910s appear alongside László Moholy-Nagy’s photograms, collages, and plexiglass pieces, drawing a through-line from interwar experimentation to today’s cross-disciplinary practices.
- From New York, Van de Weghe offers a powerful look at Jean-Michel Basquiat with Untitled (1983), a silkscreen on canvas pulsing with the artist’s raw energy. The work is contextualized alongside pieces by Picasso and Warhol.
- Xavier Hufkens (Brussels) stages a cross-generational dialogue between Louise Bourgeois, Tracey Emin, Charline von Heyl, Mark Manders, and Cecilia Vicuña. Emin’s new painting Hunter (2025) and von Heyl’s Menelaos (2024) sit beside Bourgeois’ late bronze (2005) and Manders’ monumental assemblage, creating a constellation of voices that bridge figuration, abstraction, memory, and poetry.
- Michael Rosenfeld Gallery and Jeffrey Deitch join forces in a shared booth to pair Bob Thompson’s bold figurative canvases with Karon Davis’ sculptural works. Thompson’s Black Monster (1959), painted during his Paris years, resonates with Davis’ reflections on history and resilience, bringing past and present into sharp, emotional focus.
Emergence, staged on the Grand Palais’ balconies, showcases 16 solo presentations from some of today’s most compelling artists. With eight first-time participants, the sector reaffirms Paris as a site of discovery. Among the standouts: Blindspot Gallery (Hong Kong) introduces Xiyadie, whose intricate papercut works transform a traditional Chinese folk craft into radical queer storytelling. Sophie Tappeiner (Vienna) presents Jala Wahid’s Stealth Technology, an installation exploring the intersections of invasion, migration, and love through the lens of Kurdish diasporic history.
The fair’s Premise sector, now in its second edition, offers curated thematic presentations that stretch even beyond the 20th century, reminding visitors that Paris’ avant-garde legacy has always been rooted in a deep dialogue with history. Outside the fair’s walls, Art Basel Paris spills into the city through an ambitious Public Program spread across nine iconic venues. This year’s edition features Oh La La!, a re-hanging project art-directed by filmmaker Loïc Prigent, as well as a Conversations series with guest curator Edward Enninful, and large-scale projects realized in collaboration with partners across the creative industries.
With its mix of rediscoveries and radical new propositions, Art Basel Paris 2025 reinforces the city’s place as a living laboratory of the avant-garde—a site where art doesn’t just reflect cultural history but actively shapes it. See you in October in the City of Light!
Discover more: www.artbasel.com/paris
Pic 1: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1983
Art Basel Paris
October 24–26; previews October 22 and 23
Grand Palais
