As Art Basel Paris Beckons, Vanity Fair and Four Seasons Convene Two Star Artists

Art Basel Paris opens this week at the Grand Palais, with 211 galleries filling the massive palace on the Champs-Élysées. At the heart of the fair—beyond the endless dinners and parties, the satellite fairs and local gallery openings, the big-ticket blue chip sales, the fashion crossovers and celeb sightings—are the hundreds of artists behind the work on view and on sale. More than anyone else in Paris, the artists make Art Basel run.

And so, on the first night of a jam-packed week, Vanity Fair teamed up with Four Seasons to throw a party at the Hotel George V, celebrating Camille Henrot and Alvaro Barrington—who are both having huge years. Each has been showing in museums on different continents, with work in the most important art surveys on the globe.

Henrot currently has a new film on view at LUMA Arles, In the Veins, which previously appeared at the New Museum’s inaugural show in its reimagined campus on the Bowery. Barrington currently has one of the most talked-about installations at the Venice Biennale; in November, his Western Beef-High Line will open, where else, on the High Line in New York City.

The two had never met until I convened a conversation between them Monday night at the hotel’s Louis XIII salon, away from the city’s bustling gallery openings.

“What I like about you is you’re ambitious. I want to hear more about what you’re up to,” Barrington said to Henrot in the middle of a wide-ranging conversation about what it’s like to make art in 2026.

Henrot spoke about the process of making her first play, Commedia dell’arte—which premiered in Aspen over the summer before a run in New York—and revealed that she’d like for it to come to Paris. Barrington talked about his standout installation at this year’s Venice Biennale, Labor Day Parade ‘91, and how it was born out of a desire to transcend the way art communicates.

As the talk wound down, the party outside the Louis XIII was in full swing. Barrington and Henrot soon joined a crowd snacking on salmon blini and caviar and sipping endless flutes of champagne. (Every party this week has Champagne; we’re in Paris, of course.) The soiree also featured full-on cocktails. While planning the conversation, I got to talking with Thibault Mequignon, chef de bar at the hotel, about a special themed menu for the bar. We came up with four drinks themed loosely around a diaspora of artists and writers who fled the States—not New York, but smaller American cities—for Paris: a vodka martini inspired by Kenneth Noland, born in Asheville; a rye whiskey long drink inspired by Cy Twombly, born in Lexington, Virginia.

Even amid the swirl of events Monday—including openings at neighborhood galleries such as Gagosian, Skarstedt, White Cube, and Hauser & Wirth—those who came for the conversation stayed for the cocktails after. The guest list included collectors James and Kathryn Murdoch; Karen and Christian Boros; Richard Chang; Komal Shah; and Patrizia Sandretto re Rebaudengo, along with Eugenio re Rebaudengo. Artists Claudia Comte, Matt Copson and Kennedy Yanko were on hand to hear Barrington and Henrot. Art dealers showing in Art Basel and elsewhere this week,were out in full force: I spotted Olivia Barrett of LA’s Chateau Shatto; Mike Egan of New York’s Ramiken; Anton Kern; and Steve Henry and Simone Subal of Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Morgan Aguiar-Lucander, founder of Morgan Presents in Chelsea, was there, as was his wife, Eva Foundation founder Ecaterina Aguiar-Lucander. Joel Wachs, the president of the Andy Warhol foundation, took a seat in the front row.