Every year, amid best-of-the-year and most-powerful lists, art blog Hyperallergic publishes my favorite art-nerd alternative: The 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World, an irreverent look at the unacknowledged cogs that make the world of art and art selling go ’round. Here are a few of the people the art world threw under the bus this year, leading, of course, with unpaid interns:
1 – Unpaid Interns: Yes, they’re still on this list, and they’ve even jumped 10 spots to take the lead. When respectable art publications, like the for-profit Artforum, have no problems blantantly advertising for unpaid internships, then we have a problem. Thankfully, the British Museum backtracked after it briefly advertised an unpaid position that sounded a lot like a real job. The awful stench of unpaid internships has contaminated every level of the art world, from for-profit galleries, art fairs, artist’s vanity projects, well-endowed nonprofit museums (like Crystal Bridges), and even nonprofit publications like Brooklyn Rail, which barely pays anyone, depending on an army of free talent. This has to stop.
7 — Artworks: This year, if people weren’t punching art, snapping fingers off ancient statues for selfies, breaking an Ai Weiwei vase, trying to upstage it (link NSFW), or ignoring the art while they use it as a prop (looking at you Beyoncé and Jay Z) then they were taking things called #artselfies.
12 – Vivian Maier: As people continue to fight over her legacy and the copyright of her artwork, it’s only natural that our thoughts turn to the artist herself: what did she want? Sadly, we’ll never know, but we can only hope that her legacy is safe.
20 – Female Artists: Did Art Basel Miami Beach depress the hell out of you because of the lack of art by women at the main fair? Yeah, us too.
Poor Vivian Maier! If Art Basel Miami Beach depressed the hell out of you too (solidarity!), you can read the whole thing here.