Features

News From Around the Art World: November 12, 2018

Contemporary art’s value may be on the rise, but it comes at a greater cost

Chicago’s aborted effort to sell Kerry James Marshall’s public work teaches us something about the transactional nature of today’s culture

By Michelle Grabner, The Art Newspaper

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Kerry James Marshall named most influential contemporary artist

Kerry James Marshall, the American figurative painter who set a record at auction this year for the most expensive work by a living black artist, has been judged the world’s most influential artist in an annual contemporary power list.

Via The Guardian

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Reimagining Norman Rockwell’s America

In 2012, Hank Willis Thomas saw a poster of Norman Rockwell’s painting of a family seated around a holiday table, the matriarch presenting a turkey to her guests. For Mr. Thomas, a 42-year-old black artist raised in Manhattan, the pale complexions in Mr. Rockwell’s 1943 masterpiece did little to represent his experience of a diverse America. So he decided to create a tableau of his own.

By Lauren M. Holson, The New York Times

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What’s the Secret to Making It as an Artist? A New Study Says the First Few Years Are Key

What does it take to make it as a professional artist today? The most critical thing is to show at the right places early on, according to a new study published in the journal Science.

Data scientists looked at the careers of a half-million artists between 1980 and 2016 and found that early endorsement by prestigious art institutions was the best predictor of long-term success. The data, collected by the firm Magnus, included exhibitions at 16,002 galleries and 7,568 museums, as well as sales at 1,239 auction houses.

By Sarah Cascone, Artnet News

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