 12/01/06 Artforum
What were the artistic successes of 2006? Monica Bonvicinis takeover of a Los Angeles mall for West of Rome, Inc.? Jean-Luc Godards curatorial coup at the Centre Pompidou, Paris? Fischli & Weisss travelogue at Londons Tate Modern? In the Artforum tradition, a global crew of critics, curators, artists, and art historians provide their answers in Decembers year-end roundup. Among the top tens, read Daniel Birnbaum on Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster; Chrissie Iles on Cerith Wyn Evans; David Rimanelli on Christopher Williams; Francesco Bonami on Maureen Gallace; Alison M. Gingeras on David Hammons; and much more from Okwui Enwezor, Jessica Morgan, Elizabeth Schambelan, Rita Kersting, Thomas Lawson, and Mike Kelley. Im a sucker for ectoplasm, and this show proved that fake photography is nothing new. --Mike Kelley on The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Plus: Thomas Crow, Carol Armstrong, Bruce Hainley, Lynne Cooke, and Yve-Alain Bois pen essays focusing on what were, in their minds, the best exhibitions from the past year. Damien Hirst drew new strength from an impeccably conceived and crafted installation, lending his thinking as an artist a coherence and sustained intensity that I have not seen anywhere before. --Thomas Crow on Damien Hirst at Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City Also in this issue: Matmos, Kode9, Christina Kubisch, Wendy Fonarow, and Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard survey the year in music; John Baldessari, Yvonne Rainer, Claire Bishop, Chris Kraus, Terry Eagleton, Josiah McElheny, and many others write up their best books; and John Waters, Amy Taubin, James Quandt, Barbara London, and Jonathan Romney select the highlights in cinema. The film is so depressing and great that I wish I could see it with an all-female prison audience. --John Waters on Sherrybaby And: Artforums annual On the Ground series, where insiders give the lay of the land in different cities. This year, Matthew Higgs surveys New York, Rachel Kushner roams Los Angeles, Melanie Gilligan takes stock of London, Massimiliano Gioni imagines Milan, Nina Möntmann combs through Mumbai, and Philip Tinari weighs events in Beijing. The recent changes at the citys not-for-profits constitute a profound shift in ambition and attitude, and, maybe, an equally profound opportunity to reanimate an entire culture. --Matthew Higgs on New York The ascendance of the market in Beijing made 2006 a year not only of new cars and apartments but also of deep-seated neurosis and anxiety among artists, curators, and gallerists trying desperately to shore up their places in an ambiguous new order. --Philip Tinari on Beijing At the Serpentine, Dan Graham delivered a short diatribe against Rem Koolhaass architecture, punctuated by an attack on the professionalization of art: Theres a disease, and its called Goldsmiths. --Melanie Gilligan on London Plus: The Artists Artists. The toughest judges divulge the shows that inspired and influenced them this year, with contributions from Vito Acconci, Jennifer Bornstein, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marine Hugonnier, Luisa Lambri, Kalup Linzy, Daria Martin, Damián Ortega, Rob Pruitt, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Richard Tuttle, Rebecca Warren, and Andrea Zittel. Munch came at me like a spider monkey! --Amy Sillman on Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul at the Museum of Modern Art, New York Visit Artforum online at http://www.artforum.com To subscribe, visit http://www.artforum.com/subscribe Visit artguide--Artforums free directory to the international art world, listing art fairs, auctions, and current gallery and museum shows in more than 400 cities--at http://www.artforum.com/guide |
