According to the British magazine “ArtReview”, the US artist Nan Goldin is currently the most influential figure on the international art scene. The magazine, published in London, placed the 70-year-old artist and activist at the top of the annual “Power 100” list of the most important artists. The Berlin-based artist Hito Steyerl follows in second place.
“The Power List is a ranking of the hundred living personalities who shape art,” writes the magazine. The importance of such lists – last week the German magazine “Monopol” also presented a ranking comprising 100 positions with Isa Genzken at the top – is put into perspective by “ArtReview”. “Who should be where is a topic that no one cares about “What makes someone influential in London or New York is not necessarily what makes someone influential in Lagos or Kuala Lumpur,” the post reads.
Addict fighter in the opioid crisis
The photographer and filmmaker Goldin, who also lived in Berlin for a long time, recently became known for her fight against the American Sackler family, the owners of a pharmaceutical company that is held responsible for the opioid crisis in the USA .
The artist herself had become addicted to a painkiller sold by the company. She captured her own experiences and the extensive protests in her pictures. Laura Poitras’ documentary “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” about this fight won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
From ArtReview’s perspective, Goldin is the “most visible and prominent model” of an artist who not only documents and witnesses, but also acts as an activist and ethical voice.
Artist and oracle
“ArtReview” sees Steyerl as a pioneer of post-internet art whose work examines the connection between technology and digital culture with capital and conflict. “Sensing and representing the seismic shifts in culture and society have made Steyerl a kind of oracle,” writes the magazine.
The top ten of the “Power 100” are strikingly diverse and female. The action and performance artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (third place), who works between Bangkok, Berlin and New York, can also be found, as does US artist Simone Leigh (fourth place), a long-time fighter for black, feminist art. Four other artists follow: the British Isaac Julien, the Ghanaian Ibrahim Mahama, the US conceptual artist Theaster Gates and the British director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”), for whom the confrontation with racism is part of their artistic work .
The indigenous group Karrabing Film Collective and the Chinese media artist Cao Fei complete the top ten ranks of the “ArtReview” list.
