Artnet.com magazine is ceasing publication, according to an internal memo sent by editor Walter Robinson and obtained by A.i.A.
The e-mail noted that this includes all three of its sites, serving readers in America, France and Germany, and that the three full-time editorial staff (Walter Robinson, Rachel Corbett and Emily Nathan) are leaving the company.
A more than 16-year presence on the art scene, Artnet provided art reporting as well as widely read columns by contributors including Charlie Finch and Thomas Hoving. The magazine’s contents will remain available in an archive at artnet.com.
This development comes on the same day that CEO Hans Neuendorf resigned from his position, handing over the reins to his son, Jacob Pabst.
In an e-mail to A.i.A., Robinson said, “Hans Neuendorf gave me a great opportunity 16 years ago when he hired me to help launch the magazine. He pretty much gave me a free hand to develop our special vision of art writing—smart, funny and informative texts on art that had a grounding in social reality, i.e. including pictures of people, and reports on prices—this last something Hans was especially keen on. I always liked to say that you could read an art review in the New York Times or Art in America— where I worked for 20 years before Artnet—and not even know the damn things were for sale. We liked to mix all that up in Artnet Magazine—art criticism without too much blah blah blah.”
PHOTO: Walter Robinson in 1985. (Courtesy Timothy Greenfield-Sanders)
