October 16, 2009

Curators are back at the top of arts most influential people

Filed under: Art News — Alan @ 3:32 am

For those who were shocked by the condition of the art world last year when Damien Hirst was name top of the Power 100 list in the Art Review magazine this year brings a little bit of respite as the artist famous for covering dead animals in formaldehyde has now dropped to 48th place.

Although in the current recession it is no secret that artists are not ranked high on the list of professional millionaires, it is a little relieving at least to hear that this year professionals in the art world, were voted the most powerful.

The top placement went to Hans Ulrich Obrist who is the co-director of Exhibitions in the Kensington Serpentine Galley. Additionally, Obrit has been responsible for being curator of around 90 other European exhibitions over the course of his career.

In second place is Glenn D. Lowery who is the director of the New York Museum of Art, and is featured in the top three without even making an appearance on the list in previous years.

Rounding out the top three is Sir Nicolas Serota also a director at the Tate museum which proves that this year the power does not belong to the artists, but instead those who take charge of deciding which artists are featured in museums.

Editor of Art Review magazine stated that the top ten list reflects the fact that the art world demands a new level of flexibility and change which curators are able to deal with appropriately compared to artists.

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2009,

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September 30, 2009

Tate Modern Andy Warhol ‘footnote’ exhibition

Filed under: Exhibitions — Alan @ 8:59 am

jeff_koonsThe Tate Modern is premiering a new exhibition entitled Pop Life that is based around the premise that all art since the 1980s is nothing more than a ‘footnote’ to the works created by Andy Warhol.

The exhibition will contain some of the 2008 Damien Hirst Sotheby’s auction as well as some of the explicit works from Jeff Koons’s collection in which the artist is seen with his ex wife La Cicciolina in some porn-esque settings.

The common thread among all the pieces in the show is that most of good art has its roots in good business.

Of course, the viewpoint is highly controversial given that the entire collection could be described as commercial given the fact that the work by Hirst collected 110million quid at auction.

Koons defends his pieces however as well as the entire theme of Pop Life by stating that artists do not primarily think about making money, as that is just a simple part of life, but instead it is the power of creating art that draws artists in the field.

He stated that artists have always made money and gained political as well as economic power since the time of the monarchs and churches and that to see any type of non-commercial art you have to look back prior to the 19th century.

Pop Life will open on Thursday to the public and also contains work from Cosey Fanni Tutti who for a short time was a pornographic model as part of her artistic expression.

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