December 2006 in Artforum
What were the artistic successes of 2006? Monica Bonvicini’s takeover of a Los Angeles mall for West of Rome, Inc.? Jean-Luc Godard’s curatorial coup at the Centre Pompidou, Paris? Fischli & Weiss’s travelogue at London’s Tate Modern?
In the Artforum tradition, a global crew of critics, curators, artists, and art historians provide their answers in December’s year-end roundup. Among the top tens, read Daniel Birnbaum on Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster; Chrissie Iles on Cerith Wyn Evans; David Rimanelli on Christopher Williams; Francesco Bonami on Maureen Gallace; Alison M. Gingeras on David Hammons; and much more from Okwui Enwezor, Jessica Morgan, Elizabeth Schambelan, Rita Kersting, Thomas Lawson, and Mike Kelley.
“I’m a sucker for ectoplasm, and this show proved that ‘fake photography’ is nothing new.” –Mike Kelley on “The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Plus: Thomas Crow, Carol Armstrong, Bruce Hainley, Lynne Cooke, and Yve-Alain Bois pen essays focusing on what were, in their minds, the best exhibitions from the past year.
“Damien Hirst drew new strength from an impeccably conceived and crafted installation, lending his thinking as an artist a coherence and sustained intensity that I have not seen anywhere before.” –Thomas Crow on Damien Hirst at Galería Hilario Galguera, Mexico City
Also in this issue: Matmos, Kode9, Christina Kubisch, Wendy Fonarow, and Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard survey the year in music; John Baldessari, Yvonne Rainer, Claire Bishop, Chris Kraus, Terry Eagleton, Josiah McElheny, and many others write up their best books; and John Waters, Amy Taubin, James Quandt, Barbara London, and Jonathan Romney select the highlights in cinema.
“The film is so depressing and great that I wish I could see it with an all-female prison audience.” –John Waters on Sherrybaby
And: Artforum’s annual “On the Ground” series, where insiders give the lay of the land in different cities. This year, Matthew Higgs surveys New York, Rachel Kushner roams Los Angeles, Melanie Gilligan takes stock of London, Massimiliano Gioni imagines Milan, Nina Möntmann combs through Mumbai, and Philip Tinari weighs events in Beijing.
“The recent changes at the city’s not-for-profits constitute a profound shift in ambition and attitude, and, maybe, an equally profound opportunity to reanimate an entire culture.” –Matthew Higgs on New York
“The ascendance of the market in Beijing made 2006 a year not only of new cars and apartments but also of deep-seated neurosis and anxiety among artists, curators, and gallerists trying desperately to shore up their places in an ambiguous new order.” –Philip Tinari on Beijing
“At the Serpentine, Dan Graham delivered a short diatribe against Rem Koolhaas’s architecture, punctuated by an attack on the professionalization of art: ‘There’s a disease, and it’s called Goldsmiths.’” –Melanie Gilligan on London
Plus: “The Artists’ Artists.” The toughest judges divulge the shows that inspired and influenced them this year, with contributions from Vito Acconci, Jennifer Bornstein, Thomas Hirschhorn, Marine Hugonnier, Luisa Lambri, Kalup Linzy, Daria Martin, Damián Ortega, Rob Pruitt, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Richard Tuttle, Rebecca Warren, and Andrea Zittel.
“Munch came at me like a spider monkey!” –Amy Sillman on “Edvard Munch: The Modern Life of the Soul” at the Museum of Modern Art, New York