As an artist, and art librarian I have a vested interest in reading the various articles, blogs, and other information sources related to art and art making. So there I was trolling the Internet looking for new topics of discussion when I found what I thought might be a good one. Earlier this month Complex Magazine released an article describing the most influential artists of 2013. I had never heard of this publication, so the first thing I did was try to find out more about it. Apparently it is a magazine Founded by Marc Eko in 2002. It is a men's magazine that targets males 18-30ish in metropolitan /cosmopolitan areas. With this in mind, as I read the article I was pretty skeptical of their list. And it seems I'm not the only one based on the comments.
The article was well written and did a nice job of describing the various artists listed, where their major exhibitions were occurring, and why their work was significant. However, after reading it I was struck by the number of women artists (or lack thereof) included in the list. As I was reading through the names I made a note to myself to count the number of female artists listed when I was finished. It turns out I didn't need to do that as only 3 of the 26 were women. In addition, readers posted in the comments that very few minority artists were represented.
Given the target audience of this publication I should not be surprised. But when an article is published with the title "The Most Important Artists of 2013," I sort of expected it to be more inclusive and complete. That said, I was very pleased to see that Marina Abramovic was included in the list. She is a performance artist, and has some interesting ideas going. I dislike most performance art and I have only recently begun to follow her work, but I have been impressed with what I have seen so far.
What do you think about the artists on this list? Who would you have included?
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