Art World Here Are the 12 Biggest Controversies That Rocked the Art World in 2020—and Why They Won’t Disappear Next Year From turmoil inside museums to extremely bad public sculptures of women, here are a dozen issues that got the art world talking in 2020. By Eileen Kinsella & Julia Halperin, Dec 31, 2020
Auctions Bidders at the Big Three Auction Houses Are Overwhelmingly Male. Why? Women May Have a Different Sense of Art’s Value Interviews with those in the trade suggest that women collectors are more interested in creating value than buying trophies. By Julia Halperin & Tim Schneider, Dec 2, 2020
People Why Did the National Gallery Postpone Its Guston Show? The Museum’s Director Says the Public Doesn’t Need a ‘White Artist to Explain Racism’ Right Now The director discusses the decision to postpone the museum's highly anticipated Philip Guston retrospective. By Julia Halperin, Oct 6, 2020
Art World Most People Plan to Visit Museums Just as Much as Ever and 5 Other Takeaways From Our Survey on Art Engagement Post-Lockdown We polled nearly 2,000 Artnet News readers to find out how their art-going habits would change after venues reopen. By Julia Halperin & Taylor Whitten Brown, Jul 28, 2020
People Gary Garrels, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Longtime Chief Curator, Resigns Amid Staff Uproar Garrels, one of the country's most prominent curators, said that not collecting the work of white men would amount to "reverse discrimination." By Julia Halperin, Jul 11, 2020
Auctions Who Was the Best-Selling Artist at Auction Worldwide in May? There’s a Clear Winner—by a Long Shot Perhaps even more surprising than the identity of the artist is the total amount of sales it took to come out on top. By Julia Halperin, Jun 30, 2020
People Christo, Who Transformed Landscapes Around the Globe With Monumental Public Artworks That Delighted Millions, Has Died at 84 The artist, who died at home in New York on May 31, will be remembered for his tireless pursuit of public art that seemed impossible. By Julia Halperin, May 31, 2020
People Three Museum Directors Offer a Behind-the-Scenes Look at How They Are Tackling the Challenge of Reopening Their Institutions Post-Lockdown The directors of the Walker Art Center, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Toledo Art Museum discuss their approach to reopening. By Julia Halperin, May 27, 2020
On View MOCA Director Klaus Biesenbach Is So Addicted to Visiting Artists’ Studios That He’s Doing It on Zoom (and Letting the Public Ride Along) As his institution faces deep cutbacks, the MOCA director is still finding time to speak with artists around the world. By Julia Halperin, Apr 30, 2020
Auctions Global Auction Sales Fell 76 Percent Last Month as the Lockdown Battered Markets, But Demand Is Steady for Lower-Priced Items We broke down worldwide auction results from March to see what segments of the market are shrinking the fastest—and where signs of hope remain. By Julia Halperin, Apr 30, 2020
Auctions The Good News? Global Online Auctions Grew 63 Percent Last Month. The Bad News? That May Not Be Nearly Enough The next two months will be a test of whether auction houses can build on their recent momentum. By Julia Halperin, Apr 22, 2020
People How Do You Start a New Job as a Museum Director When Your Institution Is Closed Indefinitely? Just Ask Laura Raicovich of the Leslie-Lohman Museum The former Queens Museum director says now is the time to "radically reimagine" who museums serve, and how. By Julia Halperin, Apr 8, 2020
Galleries With the Launch of Two More Online Sales Initiatives, Mega-Gallerist David Zwirner Says He Is Already Envisioning Less Need for Art Fairs Zwirner's "Studio" platform kicks off with Wolfgang Tillmans, while its "Exceptional Works" secondary-market venue debuts with Josef Albers. By Julia Halperin, Apr 6, 2020
Art World ‘This Is the Biggest Challenge We’ve Faced Since the War’: How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Exposing the Precarious Position of Museums Worldwide As museums lose money amid indefinite closures, points of weakness are starting to appear. By Julia Halperin & Javier Pes, Mar 26, 2020
Art Fairs TEFAF New York Spring Will Be Postponed to an Increasingly Crowded Fall Art Calendar The news closely follows the cancellation of Frieze New York. By Julia Halperin, Mar 20, 2020
