Tom Jeffreys takes you through a jam-packed year on the London art scene.
Wow, what a year. After the relatively mundane happenings of 2010, 2011 was a pretty dramatic one for the London art world. We had controversy, corruption, funding cuts, and protests against ill-advised corporate tie-ins. We had Emin, Miro, Degas and Richter. We had a raft of openings, some re-openings, a renovation or two, and many a closure. We had Frieze, of course, and the new White Cube. We had da Vinci.
Meanwhile, the Turner Prize left London for Gateshead, Ai Weiwei was arrested, bailed, and then accused of all sorts of things by the Chinese authorities, and the Venice Biennale was almost entirely overshadowed by the size of Roman Abramovich's yacht. And we don't mean that as a euphemism.
Here's our summary of the highs and lows of 2011:
Money
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the major art news in London was all about money. On 30th March, the Arts Council announced their funding decisions for the three years between 2012 and 2015, with 'strategic cuts' seeing the number of London-based organisations on the National Portfolio fall from 277 to 250. Faced with a tough situation by DCMS, the Arts Council's decisions were at least logical and transparent, for the most part.
With the dollars in short supply, 2011 saw a number of organisations beginning to look at new sources of income. Most prominently, the ICA: hit by a whopping 42% cut in ACE funding (ahem Ekow Eshun) nonetheless, under the direction of Gregor Muir, and with the help of Pablo Bronstein's critically acclaimed exhibition, the talk is now of a “new era” for the beleaguered Institute. November saw it host a strange fund-raising day called Intercourse, which by all accounts was a big success. More such events are now likely.
Less imaginatively, Tate announced new partnerships with Nigeria's most profitable bank, Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank, and, more controversially, Vodafone. Vodafone have been under fire for some time for allegedly not paying a £6 billion tax bill, and being let off by Dave Hartnett, the big boss man at Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and so it was hardly surprising that UK Uncut comprehensively sabotaged the launch of 'Tate Debate'. Never has corporate sponsorship and the arts been a more prominent issue.
Blockbusters
With the major museums celebrating 10 years of free entry in November, the importance of the blockbuster exhibition as a key source of revenue has continued to mount. Nobody aced it more than the National Gallery, whose Leonardo da Vinci exhibition (which we found poorly curated) has been the talk of the town all year. Following the decision to limit the number of visitors, there's been queues outside the gallery every morning and tickets on sale on various resale sites for as much as £400.
Other high-profile blockbusters included: Tracey Emin's retrospective and British Art Show 7 at the Hayward (both pretty dreadful); Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy (ghastly); Postmodernism at the V&A (OKish); and Orozco and Miro (both Tate Modern, both deeply flawed).
More successful exhibitions included Tate Britain's re-appraisal of John Martin; the Royal Academy's explorations of Soviet art and Degas and the Ballet; Tate Modern's Gerhard Richter survey; and the ever-brilliant Wellcome Collection's engagement with the subject of Dirt. Surprisingly, we also really enjoyed Tacita Dean's Turbine Hall film installation (despite the awful artist's statement) and, less surprisingly, we absolutely loved the British Library's sumptuous exhibition of medieval Royal Manuscripts.
Art Fairs
Once again Frieze dominated the London art fair landscape, and, for a number of disputed reasons, was more ghastly than ever. But despite SELECT never getting off the ground, 2011 did see the launch of a number of art fairs that offered something a little different – the genuinely exciting, if patchy, Sluice Art Fair, the video-focused Moving Image London and the innovative but slightly disappointing Other Art Fair. Affordable Art Fair also launched a second London instalment in Hampstead, whilst Moniker and SUNDAY returned for their second years, and The Future Can Wait teamed up with Saatchi/Channel 4's New Sensations.
New openings
A host of commercial art galleries fell victim to the recession/their own incompetence and closed, whilst, interestingly, almost as many new ones opened – among them EB&Flow, Cob Studios and the hugely promising Hoxton Art Gallery. Meanwhile, the exquisite neo-Gothic mansion Two Temple Place opened to the public, and the National Maritime Museum unveiled its £36.5 million new wing, in the process prompting a re-evaluation of the very nature of knowledge. Of course, the real biggie was White Cube's new space in Bermondsey, which was swamped by teeming hordes of hangers-on. It's Bermondsey we feel sorry for...
The highlights
By and large, and rather refreshingly, the best exhibitions in town this year all took place outside of the major mainstream institutions. Tessa Farmer cemented her position as one of our favourite contemporary artists with brilliant solo shows at Danielle Arnaud and The Crypt Gallery (in collaboration with DJ Amon Tobin); whilst Alice Anderson's show at the Freud Museum was surely the highlight of her career so far.
Kaleid Editions' residency at the Saison Poetry Library showed how the independent and the public can collaborate effectively; whilst Counterpoint looked at art by and about refugees to shed new light on ideas of identity as a political status. Meanwhile, Richard Nagy's exhibition of works by Egon Schiele was an unadulterated triumph, and Daniel Wallis' first solo show with Simon Oldfield served notice of an exceptional talent. Those were the twin highlights of 2011.
From a personal perspective, we had a genuinely fascinating interdisciplinary exhibition curated by SALON (LONDON)'s Crystal Bennes right here in Spoonfed Towers, and were supremely privileged to be granted a three-hour face-to-face interview with none other than the great Brian Sewell. 2011 – we'll miss you.
Click here to see all London exhibitions.
Click here for things to do in London.
Return to Spoonfed's London Art homepage.
Image credits, from top to bottom: medley; Tate; National Gallery; Frieze 2010 by Linda Nylind; Stuckism; Daniel Wallis; Richard Nagy
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