By MARGARET STUDER

Hauser & Wirth Gallery

BIG SELLER: Philip Guston's 1978 painting 'Orders'—in which the soles of upturned shoes look like prehistoric monuments—sold for $6 million at Hauser & Wirth.

In the packed corridors of Art Basel this week, the economic gloom of the outside world seemed far removed.

"The art market seems to have cut off from all the negative economic news," says Urs Meile, who runs a gallery in Beijing, China, and one in Lucerne, Switzerland. "We are selling to collectors all over the globe." At his stand at Art Basel, 12 monitors flash 8,000 photos taken between 2002 and 2012 by Chinese art star Ai Weiwei. The photographs show the artist's happy moments through images of friends, enjoyed foods, pets and his travels. The installation is selling in an edition of 12 for about $200,500.

At Switzerland's Art Basel, the leading international contemporary and modern art fair, more than 300 galleries from 36 countries are showing around 2,500 artists until Sunday. The works on display range from abstract and figurative paintings to video and performance art. U.S. galleries have the largest presence at the fair, with 73 galleries in attendance.

At the booth of New York's Sean Kelly Gallery, a naked man and woman stand passively at the entrance, where visitors have to walk closely between them. They are two actors hired to re-enact Marina Abramović's famous performance "Imponderabilia." The actors are not for sale, but a video of the original 1974 performance costs about $225,600. One video was acquired immediately at the VIP opening Tuesday.

At Hauser & Wirth of Zurich, London and New York, the mood was also upbeat. Quickly sold were Philip Guston's painting "Orders" (1978), a desolate landscape with an horizon of upturned shoes looking like prehistoric monuments, for $6 million; Louise Bourgeois's sculpture of an arched figure from 1993, for $2 million; Paul McCarthy's wooden sculpture in black walnut "White Snow and Prince on Horse" (2012), for $1.8 million; and a large drawing based on this sculpture for $350,000. David Zwirner of New York also saw a number of sales early in the fair, including a painting by Germany's Neo Rauch for $850,000 and a small portrait of a man by Belgium's Luc Tuymans for $600,000. At Sprüth Magers of Berlin, an abstract collage in orange, yellow and brown by American artist Sterling Ruby sold immediately for $95,000; one of German artist Rosemarie Trockel's textile creations from 1986 sold for about $476,000.

On Friday, Marlborough Fine Art had yet to sell one of the most high-profile works on offer at the fair, a large abstract-expressionist painting by Mark Rothko, priced at $78 million. The gallery says the work is currently on reserve for a major collection and that two additional collectors have expressed "firm interest."