Time magazine’s annual list of the year’s 100 most influential people is out, and three art and culture figures made the cut: painter Kerry James Marshall, photographer Cindy Sherman and architect David Adjaye.
The creators join President Donald J. Trump, musician Chance the Rapper, novelist Colson Whitehead and philanthropist Melinda Gates on this year’s list. Compared to previous years, it seems art is becoming more influential: Yayoi Kusama was the only artist to make the list in 2016, and Chris Ofili was the sole one in 2015.
In his appreciation of Marshall, Grant Hill, NBA superstar and one of artnet News’s top 200 art collectors, declared the painter “one of the most influential artists anywhere”—not simply for portraying everyday black life, but also for forcing people “to assess the American experience through the black experience.” Marshall was the subject of a blockbuster exhibition at New York’s Met Breuer last year.
Filmmaker/artist/writer Miranda July paid tribute to Cindy Sherman’s recent work, which is focused on women of a certain age. “This is particularly piercing,” writes July, “in a moment when old-timey sexism has leaped from the grave with a grabbing hand.”
The Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden described the British architect David Adjaye as “one of the great architectural visionaries of our time” for his design of the Museum of African-American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Adjaye is also designing the expansion of Golden’s own institution.