Tom Jeffreys weighs up a decidedly mixed year on the London art scene.
As the year draw towards its close, it's time for some lazy reminiscing about the year just gone. It's probably fair to say that 2010 hasn't been the best of years for the arts in London. After the energy of the YBAs in the 1990s and the boom years under New Labour, it's all come crashing to the ground. People always like to overstate the present as a point of crisis, but with arts funding being cut left, right and centre, perhaps now is time for a re-think. Certainly 2010 wasn't the most exciting year to be an art critic, although amongst the dross, there was the occasional glint of brilliance.
Here's what you missed:
The Good
Interestingly, even though the big arts institutions get a lot of criticism, some of the best shows in 2010 were fairly mainstream. Whether this is depressing or encouraging is open to debate, but my personal highlights included the completely wonderful Enchanting Palace at Kensington Palace; the British Library's beautiful and enlightening Magnificent Maps, and High Society at the ever-innovative Wellcome Collection. Meanwhile, Lauren was impressed by Billy Childish's solo show at the ICA, Bill Fontana's sound installation in the passages below Somerset House and the Artangel-organised Concise Dictionary of Dress in the archives of the V&A.
In terms of smaller exhibitions, Alex Ball's first solo show at the newly relocated Arts Gallery was a triumph; Noemie Goudal's exhibition on Clerkenwell Road was quite brilliant; and Kerry Brewer's show on Cork Street was darkly enthralling.
One thing that emerged this year that we're keen on is walking. ArtFeelers and Art Licks led the way with small guided tours round oft-overlooked London galleries, whilst the Photographers' Gallery (now closed for a refurb) commissioned Lucy Steggals to do a wicked treasure trail-type thing in Soho. We even curated our own tour with Claire from ArtFeelers, which was all rather fun.
Oh, and special mention to the South London Gallery, who re-opened in June after an elegant, sensitive and really rather wonderful expansion.
The Bad
Frieze was obviously as boring as ever, and Zoo never happened, whilst the Health and Safety fiasco over Ai Weiwei's installation in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall was pretty hilarious. For those of you who won't get to walk on the work, it's pretty rubbish anyway.
Even though Anthony Hopkins came out as a painter, this wasn't the worst art news of the year. Nope; by some distance the crappest thing in 2010 was Anish Kapoor's design for a stupid sci-fi sculpture thing as part of the 2012 Olympics. It would be funny, if it wasn't costing £19.1 million. £3.1 million of this is being forked out by the London Development Agency, who incidentally are facing the axe from the Coalition.
Which brings us nicely on to...
The Politics
Before the election, all those artists whose careers had been funded by New Labour queued up for a spot of old school Tory-bashing. When that failed they tried to protest against the cuts by doing little drawings and putting together press releases. And that failed too. All along Mark McGowan urged us to vote for Cameron.
Then the cuts came. Then the Arts Council responded. Then, hilariously, it was announced that Nick Clegg is to help with the curation of an exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery. Amazing.
Elsewhere art got political at Tate Modern as artists protested against the funding given the institution by much-loathed oil giants BP, and at the ICA as it looked like the whole place might go under. Various big-wigs, including Ekow Eshun, have since departed for various reasons.
The Delicious
The food/art/design/event cross-over was big news in 2010, and looks set to get even bigger. Whilst some events were not entirely successful, some were truly brilliant. Arabeschi di Latte's pop-up pasta-making workshop thing was super fun, as was Cake Britain and Bompas and Parr's completely bonkers Complete History of Food. But the highlight of this movement was, for me, the amazing ManiFesten dinner party at Trolley Gallery – their last project at their Redchurch Street space. Probably the best night of the year.
The Tragic
From soaring highs to crashing lows, and the tragic death of Sebastian Horsley. Sebastian was a personal hero and inspiration to me, and I was lucky enough to interview him a few weeks before his death of a drug overdose the week a play about his life opened at the Soho Theatre. He is, and will always be, horribly missed.
Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in London.
Return to Spoonfed's London Art homepage.
Add an event
Frieze Art Fair to launch new section for young galleries in 2012
Frieze have today announced details for the 2012 edition, their tenth art fair in London. Taking place...