Front Page of the Art World: What’s Hot & What’s Not — 10 Dec 2021
What’s on the front page news of the art world? Read on to discover what’s hot and what’s not this week — from the hyperlocal to the global.
- Art Review’s Power 100
The annual ranking of the most influential people in art.
Discover the Top 100 list from Art Review.
2. Non-Fungible Tokens Are Deemed the Most Powerful Entity in the Art World in ArtReview’s 2021 Power 100 Ranking
Some of the usual, sentient, suspects still made the cut.
3. Why Does ArtReview’s ‘Power 100’ Skip Over the Actually Powerful? + Other Questions I Have on the Week’s Art News
Plus, what do art audiences really want?
4. Your Concise New York Art Guide for December 2021
Your list of must-see, fun, insightful, and very New York art events this month.
Read the guide from Hyperallergic.
5. THE ARTISTS’ ARTISTS: Twenty-three artists reflect on 2021
To take stock of the past year, Artforum asked an international group of artists to select a single exhibition or event that most memorably caught their attention in 2021.
6. To Adapt to a Changing Market, Art Basel Is Eliminating Old Rules That Barred Younger Galleries From the Fair
The change is part of a broader overhaul of the historically strict criteria galleries need to meet in order to apply.
7. Signs of Sea Change at Art Basel Miami: More Galleries of Color
Changes to eligibility requirements enabled more diversity at the fair, which roared back for the first time since the pandemic.
Read the story from the New York Times.
8. Buyers hustle at Art Basel Miami Beach as Covid fears return
Satellite fair success; South South platform seeks to evolve; Gagosian gains new China rep; Old Masters sales in London.
Read the story from the Financial Times here.
9. New Study on NFTs Deflates the “Democratic” Potential for the Medium
Coverage of NFTs in 2021 has been chock-full of utopian buzzwords that hail their “revolutionary” and “democratic” potential for upending the art market. A new study published in Nature Scientific Reports confirms detractors’ suspicions that the NFT market is likely reproducing similar dynamics at play in the art world today.
Read the story from Hyperallergic.
10. Review: The Getty Villa’s gem of a Peter Paul Rubens show
“Rubens: Picturing Antiquity,” the exhibition that opened last month and continues to Jan. 24, is a concise outline of the ways in which the artist exploited the classical past. His aim: to advocate for the aggressive Catholic Counter-Reformation that was roiling 17th century Europe.
Read the story from the Los Angeles Times.
11. Critic’s pick: Carrie Mae Weems Sets the Stage and Urges Action
In “The Shape of Things” at the Park Avenue Armory, the artist tells us how we got to this political moment, and asks us to decide what comes next.
Read the story from the New York Times.
12. Available now: Victory over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon
Victory over Death: The Art of Colin McCahon takes up the question of the afterlife of the work of art by looking at the work of the painter Colin McCahon, who is often described as one of the most important Australasian artists of the twentieth century.
View the book on the publisher’s site and order online.
13. What Comes Next for an Artist Whose Work Goes Viral?
With the animated video series “2 Lizards,” Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki captured the essence of 2020. Now, Bennani’s at work on a documentary about living in limbo.
Read the story from the New York Times Style Magazine.
14. Stream These 15 Titles Before They Leave Netflix in December
The end of the year means a lot of expiring licenses. Check out these movies and TV shows before they disappear for U.S. subscribers in the coming weeks.
Read the story from the New York Times.
15. The Confounding Lightness of Helen Pashgian
Long underrecognized for her innovations, a trailblazer of the Light and Space Movement is suddenly juggling three tribute shows to her six-decade career.
Read the story from the New York Times.
16. Collecting: the blooming market for Dutch floral paintings
Floral still life from the golden age of Dutch painting has been having a cultural moment, inspiring a generation of floral designers (including Emily Thompson, Thierry Boutemy and Mark Colle), ad campaigns (Gucci and Loewe) and photographers (Nick Knight frequently cites the Old Masters as a reference). It’s all fuelling a renewed interest in the carefully observed, meticulously painted output from the period, when hundreds of practitioners worked prolifically to fulfil an unprecedented demand for art.
Read the story from the Financial Times.
17. The Metropolitan Museum of Art scores its largest capital gift ever — $125 million
Even before the pandemic, money was tight at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. But now, the museum has announced its largest capital gift ever — $125 million. The ambitious project has been talked about for more than a decade, but had to be delayed due to a lack of funds.
18. Proceeds From Rare Treasures Sold at Auction Help Steady Jewish History Museum
In June, Stuart Weitzman sold one-of-a-kind collectibles through Sotheby’s. Now, he’s using the proceeds to secure the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia.
Read the story from the New York Times.
19. For Andy Warhol, Faith and Sexuality Intertwined
The Brooklyn Museum shows how Catholicism seeped into his art, complicating our view of the Pop master.
Read the story from the New York Times.
20. Book review: Magritte, Surrealism and the Pipe That Is Not a Pipe
“Magritte did not intend the image as a self-portrait, although it does physically resemble the artist, a sober presence who wore a suit and slippers when he painted and eschewed bohemian adventure. […] He was, in other words, the embodiment of Flaubert’s famous dictum that artists should live in an orderly fashion and reserve their wildness for their work. His art was brilliantly subversive and based on his belief that everyday life is shrouded in mystery.”
Read the story from the New York Times.
21. Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden Redesign Is Approved
The much-debated plan by Hiroshi Sugimoto will overhaul the Brutalist design by Gordon Bunshaft, adding open-air galleries, a new water feature and improved access.
Read the story from the New York Times.
22. With Armory Show, the World Is Catching Up to Carrie Mae Weems
“The Shape of Things” confronts current issues of identity and injustice that the artist has been exploring throughout her 40-year career.
Read the story from the New York Times.
23. A Collector Who Fills His Los Angeles Home With Carefully Sourced Clutter
Jonathan Pessin has stuffed his apartment with the fruits of his obsessive search for the “best, weirdest version” of seemingly everything.
Read the story from the New York Times Style Magazine.
24. Looking at Surrealist Art in Our Own Surreal Age
When viewed as a vehicle for various forms of liberation, the movement remains highly resonant even a century after its heyday.
Read the story from the New York Times.
25. Array Collective, a Belfast-Based Group Whose Winning Show Consisted of a Pub, Takes the 2021 Turner Prize
For the first time in the award’s history, the pool of shortlisted nominees exclusively included collectives.
