We Published More Than 2,700 Stories This Year. Here Are 22 of Our Favorites

We’ve really outdone ourselves this time.

A year ago, as we sat on the precipice of 2019, we took a glance
at our archive from the previous 365 days to discover that we had
published more than 2,000 articles over the course of 2018.

In 2019, that number grew to more than 2,700, a 35 percent
increase.

And we’ve covered it all. From groundbreaking news stories to
incisive analyses to lists of all the best movies, books, and
exhibitions, we have left no stone unturned.

Maybe you didn’t have time to read everything right as it came
out. Don’t worry. We’ve put together a selection of 22 of our
favorite stories from 2019, including one by each editorial staff
member at Artnet News, for you to catch up on during your holiday
break. For context, we’ve also provided a snippet from each
piece.

Happy reading—and happy new year!

Museums Claim They’re Paying More Attention to
Female Artists. That’s an Illusion

by Julia Halperin and Charlotte Burns

“Just 11 percent of all acquisitions and 14 percent of
exhibitions at 26 prominent American museums over the past decade
were of work by female artists. According to a joint investigation
by Artnet News and In Other Words, a total of 260,470 works of art
have entered the museums’ permanent collections since 2008. Only
29,247 were by women.”

The Oops List: Here Are the 5 Biggest Missteps That
Landed Art-World Grifter Anna Delvey in Jail

by Eileen Kinsella

“While many observers have been bewildered by how Anna
Sorokin—also known as Anna Delvey—was able to fool people into
believing her story, the allegations at her trial suggested several
extensive, sometimes comical, missteps. Here are five key blunders
that led to her eventual indictment.”

Novelist Karl Ove Knausgaard Spent Too Much Money
on a Munch Artwork at Auction and Now He’s Filled With Shame: A
Q&A

by Pac Pobric

“Oh, what he could have done with all that money he spent on the
Munch! A vacation his children would never have forgotten! A
renovation of his home so each boy and girl could have his or her
own bedroom! Even a nice juice press for the family to enjoy all
the apples and pears in his garden! ‘Instead,” Knausgaard writes in
a new book, ‘they got a little picture on a wall.’”

We Revisited the Scenes of
8 Iconic Photographs on Google Street View to Capture What Has—and
Hasn’t—Changed

by Taylor Dafoe

“Google’s glitchy depictions of the world have changed the way
we think about the landscape. To demonstrate this, we picked out a
selection of famous photographs from the last 100 years and
revisited them through Google Street View. A lot has
changed. But it’s not all different.”

The Art World Is Considered
a Progressive Place, But It Has a Big Blind Spot: Supporting
Working Mothers

by Rachel Corbett

“Some say the discrimination they experience is outright; others
say it is more insidious, woven into the fabric of workplaces built
under patriarchal conditions that often fail to value men as
fathers and mothers as workers.”

Meet the Former Probation
Officer Whose Viral Political Collages Have Become an International
Symbol of Brexit

by Javier Pes

“Thousands of civil servants are being redeployed across the UK
as Boris Johnson’s government ramps up preparations for Brexit. But
for one civil servant, the deepening national crisis has meant a
very different kind of career change. Christopher Spencer, also
known as Cold War Steve, is now a full-time, in-demand artist.”

Artist and Filmmaker David
Lynch on Why ‘Painting Will Never Die’—But Why Movies About
Painters Are Boring

by Andrew Goldstein

“There are some who see David Lynch’s transcendently spooky,
mythopoetic work in film and television—and in particular his
extraordinary-for-all-its-faults masterwork Twin Peaks—as
among the greatest works of art of our time. Lynch, however, sees
cinema as one arena and fine art as another—and he has every right
to make the distinction.”

We Went to an Art Auction on a
Cruise Ship. It Was… Unusual

by Sarah Cascone

“With his pleasantly urbane accent, Robert Borotescu set his
audience at ease, acknowledging that they probably never had the
time to visit art museums and galleries. But they were here now,
and it was his job to make sure that they went home with something
they absolutely loved.”

A London Gallery Has
Curated an Art Exhibition Just for Canines. We Took Pico the Dog to
Sniff Out if It’s a Success

by Naomi Rea

“For proof that an artist’s best friend is a dog, we headed to
“The Dog Show.” A small but super dog-friendly gallery in South
London is mounting the exhibition, which is curated by the pets of
some of the city’s art-world luminaries, for its 35th
birthday.”

7 Movies Featuring
Dastardly Art Dealers That Prove Gallerists Make the Best Hollywood
Villains

by Katie White

“If you’ve ever watched a movie set in the the art world, you
know what to expect: collectors traipsing about in cocktail attire
and furs; artists being tortured by their genius; everyone speaking
in vague but definitely pretentious accents; blunt bobs and
oversize glasses in every direction; and art dealers—the
ringleaders of this whole monied hoopla—as the inevitable
villains.”

An American Couple Returned
a Looted Painting to Poland. In the Process, They Became Unlikely
Figures in the Country’s Fight for Gay Rights

by Kate Brown

“When I first met a well-dressed, tan American man named Craig
Gilmore at a party in Warsaw, I asked the same question any two
foreigners asked one another: What brings you to Poland? His
answer: ‘How much time do you have?’”

The Gray Market: Why
Sterling Ruby’s Fashion Shows Won’t Save the Art Market (and Other
Insights)

by Tim Schneider

“Personally, I support Ruby’s commitment to branching out. I’m
just skeptical that couture solves the larger economic and
philosophical problems disillusioning him about the contemporary
art world.’”

In Ralph Rugoff’s Venice
Biennale, the World’s Artists Take Planetary Doom as a Given, But
Search for Joy Nonetheless

by Ben Davis

“The title curator Ralph Rugoff chose for his 2019 version of
the Venice Biennale is “May You Live In Interesting Times.” The
phrase has a suggestive backstory: It is a fake Chinese proverb,
first uttered by a British diplomat in the context of the rise of
fascism in Europe. So the name contains a lot in it that
potentially resonates with the world as it is unfolding around us,
in Italy and beyond—about representation and mis-representation,
about the struggle to find metaphors to describe a world slouching
ever closer towards the brink of disaster.”

Michelangelo Was
Left-Handed? Yes, and So Are These 21 Other Acclaimed Southpaw
Artists (We Have Proof)

by Caroline Goldstein

“Barack Obama is one, so is Oprah, Angelina Jolie, and Cloris
Leachman. Not to mention Don Rickles, Bill Gates, and Jerry
Seinfeld. What do all of these impressive people have in common?
They are all golly-handed, gibble-fisted, port-sides,
southpaws—that is to say, they are all left-handed.”

‘Have Faith That What
You’re Trying to Do Matters’: Dealer Sukanya Rajaratnam on How the
Late Artist Alma Thomas Inspires Her Work

by Noor Brara

“Sukanya Rajaratnam is a force to be reckoned with. A partner at
Mnuchin Gallery, where she’s worked for over a decade, Rajaratnam
has become one of New York’s most influential art dealers,
overseeing the gallery’s high-level institutional sales and the
organization of landmark exhibitions for such artists as Cindy
Sherman, David Hammons, Sam Gilliam, and Ed Clark.”

Yoshitomo Nara Drunkenly
Doodled on the Walls of This New York Dive Bar. Ten Years Later,
the Mural May Now Be Worth Millions

by Nate Freeman

“A decade ago, the artist Yoshitomo Nara finished installing a
gallery show and got a few drinks at the East Village bar Niagara,
a punk scene mainstay on Avenue A that stands out even in a
neighborhood full of similar dives. After a while, flush with
inspiration, Nara began to draw directly on the walls, conjuring up
a bevy of his signature figures: angsty boys and girls, lonely and
besotted with rock ‘n roll, banging out tunes on drums and guitars.
When he was done, he signed and dated the work, and left.”

Young Black Artists Are
More in Demand Than Ever—But the Art World Is Burning Them
Out

by Melissa Smith

“One might think that the recent swell of interest in black art
would have eased some of the burdens faced by those who have spent
years systematically excluded from major galleries and
museums. But many black artists say that the paradigm brings
unique challenges of its own—and, at the same time, hasn’t
corrected for the legacy of racial bias in the mainstream art
world.”

The Rubell Effect: How the
Miami Couple Brought the Midas Touch to Generations of Young
Artists

by Janelle Zara

“‘Whether we like it or not, wherever art goes, it changes
neighborhoods,’ Mera says. And, admittedly, ‘we’re
benefiting.’”

For Years, Iran’s Art Scene
Has Been a Pioneer in the Middle East. Now US Sanctions Are
Knocking Its Artists Back to the 18th Century

by Rebecca Anne Proctor

“Under the terms of the sanctions, Iranians cannot wire money to
any foreign bank account nor can they receive international wire
transfers. Many European, British, and international companies are
also withdrawing from Iran to protect themselves from US
sanctions.”

Museum Workers Across the
Country Are Unionizing. Here’s What’s Driving a Movement That’s
Been Years in the Making

by Catherine Wagley

“The forces driving this push—ranging from a mandate to
diversify staff to the rising cost of living in urban centers—are
not necessarily specific to the art world. Similar efforts have
rippled through higher education, as adjunct professors organize,
and across the publishing industry.”

How One Contrarian Art
Dealer Created Space for Black Artists Decades Before the White Art
World Cared at All

by Hilarie Sheets

“Bryant, now 69, has clearly never been shy about confrontation.
At 12, she announced at a family dinner in Columbus, Ohio, that she
was going to be Picasso’s first black mistress—’because I’m going
to be an artist and that’s the only way the world will look at my
art,’ she recalls now, laughing.”

‘We’re Closer to Mexico
Than We Are to Any Major American City’: How Artists in Texas Are
Addressing the Border Crisis

by Henri Neuendorf

“One of the most politically charged works in the show is a
domed outdoor sculpture by Cortez made of chainlink interwoven with
strips of mylar. The work responds to the Trump administration’s
policy of separating migrant families at the border and detaining
children.”

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Here Are 22 of Our Favorites appeared first on artnet
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