Obrist knocked off top of art power list
Larry Gagosian has been named the art world's most powerful figure in the annual ArtReview ranking, replacing Swiss curator Hans Ulrich Obrist.
In the past 12 months the US collector and gallery owner, who reclaims the position he held in 2004, has staged “museum quality” exhibitions of Picasso, Monet, Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Prince and the Crash group show, a homage to JG Ballard.
Obrist, last year’s number one, was second in the list, while his compatriot Iwan Wirth, a dealer and gallery owner, came third. Swiss curator Bice Curiger came sixth.
“In 2010, for better or worse, power lay with the established commercial gallery market,” ArtReview said in its introduction to the ranking, which is decided by an anonymous panel of experts and published during the Frieze Art Fair in London.
“Funding cuts by governments internationally weakened the hand of museum directors worldwide, allowing the financial might and artist rosters handled by the likes of Gagosian and Wirth to step in,” it added.
The highest-placed artist was China’s Ai Weiwei, who recently presented his installation for the high-profile Unilever Series at the Tate Modern gallery in London.
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