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This month in Artforum:
Best of 2019: A renowned group of critics, artists, and curators from around the world—Lynne Cooke, Nicole Eisenman, Jack Bankowsky, Naima J. Keith, Susanne Pfeffer, Ara Osterweil, Johanna Fateman, Christina Li, Christopher Glazek, Ruth Estévez, Sohrab Mohebbi, Ken Okiishi, Miriam Katzeff, and Henriette Huldisch—take stock of the year in art.
“What a special thing to be rendered insignificant—to be transformed, for a fleeting moment, into a disposable lover orbiting a great artist, to become astral marginalia, mere space junk in someone else’s cosmic ascent.”
—Christopher Glazek
“I do have to say that it touches my heart to see a new generation that thinks the existing world is total bullshit.”
—Ken Okiishi
David Velasco, Hannah Black, and Greg Zuccolo and Sarah Michelson assess “The Year in Friendship”:
“I sometimes don’t know what to make of art except as some remarkable proof of the existence of some person’s relationships, and in this way ‘This Marram’ means quite literally the world to me.”
—David Velasco
“Roy Cohn would have appreciated the clout theory of politics that prevails in the art world today, which can only imagine political commitments as social strategies.”
—Hannah Black
Film: Five celebrated cineasts—John Waters, Amy Taubin, James Quandt, Melissa Anderson, and J. Hoberman—select the top films of the year:
“Even its own American distributor called this film reprehensible, and I agree, yet it’s so appalling, so grotesque, so well made and bravely acted that dare I suggest you give this serial-killer movie a watch?”
—John Waters
Music: Four musicians and critics—Jace Clayton, Polly Watson, Byron Coley, and Sarah Hennies—name their highlights of the year:
“Eno-tinged NYC art-punk weirdness characterized by janky guitar work and almost operatic vocals—courtesy of West Coast hurricane Mary Jane Dunphe—that is shockingly sophisticated in its naïveté.”
—Polly Watson
Books: 12 writers, artists, scholars, and curators—Terry Castle, Pamela M. Lee, Gary Lutz, Imani Perry, Douglas Crase, Harry Dodge, Elvia Wilk, Mac Wellman, Zeynep Çelik Alexander, Marina Vishmidt, Marwa Helal, and Morgan Bassichis—choose the year’s outstanding titles:
“Pain is said to be the most isolating thing, but Anne Boyer has put the whole world in here.”
—Marina Vishmidt
And: The Artists’ Artists: Art & Language, Natalie Ball, Danica Barboza, Ellen Berkenblit, Andrea Blum, DeForrest Brown Jr., Judy Chicago, TM Davy, Andrej Dubravsky, Roe Ethridge, Hamishi Farah, Elizabeth Jaeger, Xylor Jane, Ellie Ga, Nicholas Galanin, Beatriz González, Rodney Graham, Hugh Hayden, Jane Kaplowitz, Helmut Lang, Monica Majoli, Marlene McCarty, Alan Michelson, Ima-Abasi Okon, Greg Parma-Smith, Suellen Rocca, Pieter Schoolwerth, Tuesday Smillie, Valeska Soares, Patrick Staff, Diamond Stingily, Christine Sun Kim, Sarah Sze, and Bernadette Van-Huy.
Plus: Jennifer Krasinski on the Year in Performance, Andy Campbell on Nayland Blake, and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie on Helen Frankenthaler.
