Plus, the Obama Foundation loves artists, Botticelli comes to America, and Brad Pitt discusses his new life as a sculptor.
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In a year that saw the record-smashing sale of Leonardo’s da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, our most-read stories of 2017 reflect a different kind of economy. In the social media era, few are immune to the kinetic tug of controversy, the luster of celebrity, or even the shenanigans of a certain media-obsessed president. And the art world is no exception: artnet News’s most-read headlines of the year are filled with outrage-provoking artworks, A-listers making, buying—and even losing—paintings, and of course, Donald Trump and his cohorts sending ripples big and small across the cultural landscape. Below, revisit 15 stories that captured our readers’ attention in 2017 and made this bonkers year one to remember—whether you’d like to or not.
August 2, 2017 — “Not only does this provide a generous look into her process for her fans, it also raises the question: Is Cindy Sherman using Instagram to make new work?” Read more.
Cindy Sherman. Photo via Instagram @_cindysherman_.
June 14, 2017 — “Cobain’s musical pedigree is obvious—her father was the late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, and her mother is Courtney Love of Hole—but it’s her talent with pen and paper that is winning the young artist fans of her own.” Read more.
L: Frances Bean Cobain. Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Marc Jacobs. R: Frances Bean Cobain’s It’s a Good Day For Penance and Pity (2017). Courtesy of Gallery 30 South.
August 18, 2017 — “…some savvy observers have spotted another message in the letter (we first saw Hunter College art history professor Michael Lobel notice it.) If you read just the first letter of each paragraph, there’s a little something extra in there.” Read more.
The open letter to President Trump from the resigning members of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, with our attempt to decode its very subtle message.
October 18, 2017 — “…eagle-eyed art lovers might have noticed what looked like a painting by French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir hanging on a wall behind the president-elect. The especially astute might have noticed that it looked suspiciously familiar.” Read more.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Two Sisters (on the Terrace) (1881). Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images, courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
September 26, 2017 — “Although these works have been exhibited in museums in Asia, Europe, and the United States, the Guggenheim regrets that explicit and repeated threats of violence have made our decision necessary…” Read more.
Huang Yong Ping, Theater of the World (1993). © Huang Yong Ping.
March 21, 2017 — “It’s not acceptable for a white person to transmute Black suffering into profit and fun,” Black argues. Read more.
Protesting Dana Schutz at the Whitney. Image via @hei_scott Twitter.
May 25, 2017 — “Ivanka Trump has regularly showcased the collection on Instagram, posing in front of the artwork in posts tied to her business. Yet in required financial disclosures, Kushner, a senior advisor and son-in-law to President Trump, failed to report the couple’s art collection.” Read more.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in Washington in February 2017. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images.
August 18, 2017 — “The White House put out a statement in the afternoon saying that the president had decided not to renew support for the Presidential Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, calling it a waste of money.” Read more.
Lol @realDonaldTrump you can't break up with us after we broke up with you LMFAO https://t.co/bNy240RNQA
— Kal Penn (@kalpenn) August 18, 2017
January 24, 2017 — “As well as sixteen works by Botticelli—many life-size works from Italian museums and churches—viewers can also expect six works from his master Filippo Lippi.” Read more.
Sandro Botticelli and workshop, Venere (Venus) half body detail. Image courtesy of Galleria Sabauda, Turin.
February 27, 2017 — “Mellon collie and the infinite sadness descends upon the museum after the high-priced sculpture was damaged.” Read more.
Yayoi Kusama, All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016). Photo by Cathy Carver, courtesy of Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore; Victoria Miro, London; David Zwirner, New York. © Yayoi Kusama.
September 26, 2017 — “The Obama Foundation specifically seeks artists who are at a turning point in their careers, but who currently lack access to the networks that can help take their work to a bigger stage.” Read more.
US President Barack Obama addresses troops with First Lady Michelle Obama at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kailua on December 25, 2016. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.
May 3, 2017 — “In a new interview with GQ Style, Pitt says: ‘I’ve literally been squatting in there [Thomas Houseago’s studio] for a month now. I’m taking a shit on their sanctity.’” Read more.
Brad Pitt, photographed by Ryan McGinley exclusively for GQ Style, 2017.
March 24, 2017 — “I was given two years and 10 months [jail time] only because I painted Turkish flags on destroyed buildings. However, [the Turkish government] caused this. I only painted it…” Read more.
Zehra Doğan and her painting. Courtesy of the Voice Project.
June 16, 2017 — “In one of the more striking details from the complaint, the government says that the Picasso, titled Nature morte au crâne de taureau, had been gifted to DiCaprio accompanied by a handwritten note from a friend of Low’s. It read “Dear Leonardo DiCaprio: Happy belated Birthday! This gift is for you.” Read more.
Leonardo DiCaprio. Photo: Mike Windle/Getty Images.
April 13, 2017 — “Some of the animals were dead before Hirst came around, while others met ends tailored to their artistically-conceived resting places. They are all united by their final resting place: the domain of the thanatotic artist.” Read more.
Damien Hirst’s I Am Become Death, Shatterer of Worlds (2006). Photo courtesy of Ben StansallAFP/Getty Images.
