Where to go when you want to know what is going on?
Who is important, relevant and doing something interesting that I should know about?
Who is the new director of this museum? Which artist won this prize everyone is talking about?
These are a few examples of questions you might wonder about, or at least if you work in art should ask yourself.
Because well, we need to know this kind of stuff. And not just to seem cool when having small talk at the next opening.
We need to know it for our work. I will explain this later in this post. First let me present the titles to you. With the following you can pretty much get info on everything: the professional world, to the art market, the political side, but also the latest news regarding the newest exhibitions and of course news alert (yes there are such things in the art world).
Pictured above: José Yaque, TUMBA ABIERTA III, 2018, Art Basel, Switzerland.
- ARTNET NEWS -
To me, it is the most important one.
“artnet is the leading online resource for the international art market, and the destination to buy, sell, and research art online. Founded in 1989 with the goal of bringing transparency to the art world, artnet’s comprehensive suite of products offers a variety of art market resources to our audience of collectors, dealers, and art enthusiasts.”
Yep. It is three things, a sell/buy platform for art, a news media and an auction house. All online. You will get the deets on pretty much everything regarding the art world. Bonus a selection of their writers have a delightful sense of humor in their writings. We are definitely in need of some sarcasm and self-mockery in the art world if you ask me.
My favorite kind of post they do is the recap titled “Best and Worst of the Art World this week”.
All of the important news worldwide you need to know about!
TIP: They have many different newsletters, I would recommend to carefully chose the ones you want to receive, because they have a lot.
Pictured above: me taking a small break from this circus. – Ugo Rondinone, “vocabulary of solitude”, 2014-2016, The Bass Museum, Miami, USA.
- ART FORUM -
This is both online and printed. It is an historic very important media, which started in 1962. An article in this magazine for a gallery is very good press, think of it like a goal to reach for PR people.
Collectors read this. Of course they can also read artnet, but just as the rest of the population, some still prefer paper. The kind of content is different. Artnet is a news website. They of course also have some more in-depth article but artforum has art critics writing essays about shows, like reviews (the same you would read about a movie). And presentation of artists while reflecting on the evolution of contemporary art. Think of it more like a research space for the art market.
And last but not least a good place to do a little bit of “who’s who”.
Gotta know those names and faces.
Pictured above: The art population in its natural habitat at Art Basel, Unlimited section, Basel Switzerland.
- ART REVIEW -
Well this one you need to know about for a specific edition. Each year they publish their list, their “Power 100”, think of it like the Forbes list, but only with art-related people.
To the general public most of the names will not mean anything but to us, they are the ones ruling our stage right now. And we must know all of them. (Feel the pressure yet?) Of course we don’t need to know ALL of them, it depends on your position, your job, etc. But I still think it is good to be familiar with seeing these names. Also because for each, on the print version, they give in just a few words the reason why they made it to the list. It can be an artist who won a prize, had a major exhibition, a collector who made an important donation to a museum, a gallery which now represents important artists, etc. You get the idea. Here is the online version of the list.
So how many names have you heard of? Let us know in the comments (No judgement!)
Pictured above: The most important destination for art people Venezia during the Biennale. Hands not included.
- Bonus: the art gorgeous -
For the fun of it. A young online media targeted towards gallerinas and newly graduated art profesionnals trying to make it.
Fun, light with also real info. A good mix with a nice selection of art world memes.
So why do we need to know these things?
Well let me paint you a picture.
You are working at a gallery and are organizing a show for a young artist, you want to invite the director of a museum who could be interested by their work.
Here is the problem: they changed, your invitation went out and you got the info too late.
The contact you had is no longer working there. So you just did not loose one contact. You lost a connection with an organization through that person. And if you did not reach out to the person in their next position, then you lost another contact at their new institution. The same goes for PR.
Communication or Press managers need to know which journalist covers what for which news media. Because there are so many new shows, publications, events to see they will go write about the one they know about.
So you need to get the right information to the right person.
In order to do so (just like mentioned above) you need to know for which media they are working at. Also because if they changed maybe they do not cover the same topics as before, so you reaching out to them might be a waste of time for you and them.
I know what you are going to say, what about Flash art, frieze, Artsy, artpress, cura ______(include here any other name of art media).
To each their own.
These are the ones I check very regularly someone else might not, especially if you are living in another part of the world. These media are most definitely centered on the western scene, even if they keep an eye for international news. Please if you think I need to add another one, which I should have included, add it in the comments.
