74 new york | december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020
year in culture / the critics1.
Protests by Decolonize
This Place
In the spring, this activist group
essentially crowded out the Whitney
Biennial with a series of protests
focused on the museum’s board
member Warren Kanders, a military-
supplies mogul who eventually stepped
down. This was a major disruption
of power dynamics that often seem
imperturbable. But in the end, they
were also only perturbed; Kanders’s
resignation was just incremental
change. And while the protest shows a
path forward, an honest conversation
about toxic philanthropy and systemic
reconstruction has yet to begin. The
art world is a structure awash with
plutocrats, gross inequity, and obscene
amounts of money, which benefits
nearly everyone in the business, even
many of those who count themselves as
agents of change. Thus the whiplashing
contradictions and hypocrisies of
protesters who are well-known
tenured academics who participate in
exhibitions at these institutions. Many
of the protesters are also curators who
are paid by these institutions. Someof them are even artists who exhibit
in them and often sell art to those
very plutocrats. This is just suburban
war. So what would real war look
like? Not just claiming high moral
ground and pointing fingers. What
would it look like if the system really
changed? Whose politics, which
artists, and what constituencies
would be served? It’s almost hard to
imagine, which is what makes such
change necessary. J’accuse us all.
2.
Robert Andy Coombs
An artist I found and reposted on
Instagram who just as quickly had
his account deleted. Then, with
my help, he regained his account.
Since then, his art has captured
the imagination of many. Witness
the compellingly beautiful self-
portrait photographs of this queer
quadriplegic artist making love,
placing his life in the arms of others,
all while addressing pressing
issues of the disabled, accessibility,
unspoken fears and prejudices,
tender mercies and taboos. One
of the most radically original new
artists to emerge in some time.THE TEN
BEST
A RT SHOWS
OF THE
YEAR
By jerry saltz- ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; 2. COURTESY OF ARTIST; 3. HEIDI BOHNENKAMP/ DIGITAL IMAGE © 2019 MOMA, N.Y.; 4. DAVID ZWIRNER; 5. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK; 6. HEIDI BOHNENKAMP/DIGITAL IMAGE © 2019 MOMA; 7. MARIS HUTCHINSON/EPW STUDIO; 8. PHOTO GREGORY CARIDEO/COURTESY GORDON ROBICHAUX, NY.; 9. CHARLES BENTON, COURTESY OF LYLES & KING, NEW YORK; 10. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND CHART
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december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020 | new york 75
3.
Amy Sillman,
“The Shape of
Shape,” MoMA
As the Museum of Modern Art
toyed with removing the stick of
modernism from its own keister,
artist Amy Sillman delivered the
best single gallery of art that didn’t
follow modernist strictures, showing
the mother ship the jolt possible
when you let go of old ideas.
4.
“The Young and Evil,”
David Zwirner Gallery
Curated by Jarrett Earnest, this
large-scale group historical survey
threw a stylistic grenade at the
prejudices of modernism. Included
were early-20th-century queer artists
who were all utterly amazing without
ever embracing the cult of genius
or making formalist abstract art.
5.
Tiona Nekkia McClodden,
Company Gallery
A major standout in this
year’s Whitney Biennial, this
preternaturally gifted multimedia
artist and psycho-metaphysician—who whittled down a whole tree
to make a primitive carving tool
for that show—also had one of
the best solo shows of the year.
6.
Michael Armitage,
MoMA
As curated by Studio Museum
in Harlem director Thelma
Golden, this gripping exhibition
of Kenyan painter Michael
Armitage tells us that early- and
mid-modernist tropes are
being deployed in ways that tell
new narratives, which in turn
revitalize the tropes themselves.
7.
Nari Ward, New Museum
In a very good year for the New
Museum, the retrospective by
the Jamaican-born New Yorker
Nari Ward was extraordinary. He
filled the building with sculptural
intelligence—politics made
magical, visceral, and beautiful.
8.
Elisabeth Kley and
Tabboo!, Gordon
Robichaux Gallery
This collaboration betweenceramicist and painter
Elisabeth Kley and painter,
designer, and legendary drag
queen Tabboo! (a.k.a. Stephen
Tashjian) was a garden of
optical and material delights.
9.
Mira Schor, Lyles
& King Gallery
The early-’70s work of this artist’s
artist, longtime activist, and
respected critic showed how strong,
personal, and pointed her art has
been from the very beginning.
An institutional survey is in order.
10.
Sarah McEneaney,
Tibor de Nagy
Gallery, and
Shona McAndrew,
Chart Gallery.
With portraits of their lives,
homes, friends, and intimacies,
these two figurative painters
of different generations
took us deep into the heart
of obsession, solitude, and
observation. The retinal radical
vulnerability of their work- ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES; 2. COURTESY OF ARTIST; 3. HEIDI BOHNENKAMP/ DIGITAL IMAGE © 2019 MOMA, N.Y.; 4. DAVID ZWIRNER; 5. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND COMPANY GALLERY, NEW YORK; 6. HE gives new hope to living life.
ID
I BOHNENKAMP/DIG
ITALIMA
GE © 2019 MOMA; 7. MARIS HUTCHINSON/EPW STUDIO;- PHOTO GREGORY CARIDEO/COURTESY GORDON ROBICHAUX, NY.; 9. CHARLES BENTON, COURTESY OF LYLES & KING, NEW YORK; 10. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND CHART
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Amy Sillman,
“The Shape of
Shape,” MoMA
As the Museum of Modern Art
toyed with removing the stick of
modernism from its own keister,
artist Amy Sillman delivered the
best single gallery of art that didn’t
follow modernist strictures, showing
the mother ship the jolt possible
when you let go of old ideas.
4.
“The Young and Evil,”
David Zwirner Gallery
Curated by Jarrett Earnest, this
large-scale group historical survey
threw a stylistic grenade at the
prejudices of modernism. Included
were early-20th-century queer artists
who were all utterly amazing without
ever embracing the cult of genius
or making formalist abstract art.
5.
Tiona Nekkia McClodden,
Company Gallery
A major standout in this
year’s Whitney Biennial, this
preternaturally gifted multimedia
artist and psycho-metaphysician—who whittled down a whole tree
to make a primitive carving tool
for that show—also had one of
the best solo shows of the year.
6.
Michael Armitage,
MoMA
As curated by Studio Museum
in Harlem director Thelma
Golden, this gripping exhibition
of Kenyan painter Michael
Armitage tells us that early- and
mid-modernist tropes are
being deployed in ways that tell
new narratives, which in turn
revitalize the tropes themselves.
7.
Nari Ward, New Museum
In a very good year for the New
Museum, the retrospective by
the Jamaican-born New Yorker
Nari Ward was extraordinary. He
filled the building with sculptural
intelligence—politics made
magical, visceral, and beautiful.
8.
Elisabeth Kley and
Tabboo!, Gordon
Robichaux Gallery
This collaboration betweenceramicist and painter
Elisabeth Kley and painter,
designer, and legendary drag
queen Tabboo! (a.k.a. Stephen
Tashjian) was a garden of
optical and material delights.
9.
Mira Schor, Lyles
& King Gallery
The early-’70s work of this artist’s
artist, longtime activist, and
respected critic showed how strong,
personal, and pointed her art has
been from the very beginning.
An institutional survey is in order.
10.
Sarah McEneaney,
Tibor de Nagy
Gallery, and
Shona McAndrew,
Chart Gallery.
With portraits of their lives,
homes, friends, and intimacies,
these two figurative painters
of different generations
took us deep into the heart
of obsession, solitude, and
observation. The retinal radical
vulnerability of their work- HE gives new hope to living life.
D
BOHNENKAMP/D
G
TAL
MA
GE © 2019 MOMA; 7. MARIS HUTCHINSON/EPW STUDIO;
- PHOTO GREGORY CARIDEO/COURTESY GORDON ROBICHAUX, NY.; 9. CHARLES BENTON, COURTESY OF LYLES & KING, NEW YORK; 10. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND CHART
4169