The Defining Art Events of 2021
In 2020, it became clear that few things in the art world—and the world at large—could remain as they once were. After that whirlwind year, 2021 brought with it dramatic shifts of its own. Some of the most significant ones were felt in institutions. Some museums in the U.S. and Europe weathered controversies that heralded permanent changes in the way they function; others diversified their leadership and made steps forward. Meanwhile, after Covid-related long delays, long-awaited museums in Europe and Asia finally arrived, and established themselves as major institutions on the international playing field.
Artists were key in pushing various discourses forward, shaping the way certain pressing issues are discussed around the world and even paving the way for the rise of a new medium. Meanwhile, within the market, prominent figures helped bring back events like fairs, marquee auctions, and more, which had been sorely missed by some last year.
Below, a look back at the defining art events of 2021.
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A Jasper Johns quantum-survey opens in two cities
Image Credit: Photo Ron Amstutz Taking “Mind/Mirror” as both a title and a prompt, a momentous and highly ambitious two-part survey of work by Jasper Johns opened simultaneously at the Whitney Museum in New York and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The probing and prismatic exhibition (which continues into February) features galleries in different locations that sometimes echo one another and other times take up different aspects of a common theme. The two curators involved—Scott Rothkopf at the Whitney and Carlos Basualdo in Philadelphia—clearly had a lot to talk about when organizing a show with such scope. And all the work by Johns—who at the age of 91 ranks as one of our most important living artists—clearly has a lot to say. —Andy Battaglia
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An Indianapolis museum's job listing leads to a national outrage
Image Credit: Courtesy Newfields The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields did not find favor when it posted a job listing—for a new director no less—that included within its description a stated aim to “attract a broader and more diverse audience while maintaining the Museum’s traditional, core, white art audience.” The museum quickly reversed course, issuing a statement that read: “Our audience—and most museums’ audiences—have historically been, and currently are, too homogeneous, and we are committed to changing that and intentionally diversifying our audiences. We deeply regret that in our job description, in our attempt to focus on building and diversifying our core audience, our wording was divisive rather than inclusive.” But tempers were not calmed, and shortly thereafter, Charles Venable, the museum’s president, resigned. —Andy Battaglia
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François Pinault’s long-awaited Paris museum arrives
Image Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images Mega-collector François Pinault has been trying to open a museum in his home base of Paris for two decades. His dream was at last realized this year when the Bourse de Commerce, a massive private art space set in a former stock exchange in Paris, finally began welcoming visitors. After years of anticipation and a $195 million upgrade from Tadao Ando, the Bourse de Commerce now provides a luxurious home for the Kering founder’s blue-chip collection. The exceptional quality of what is on view is hard to ignore. When the museum opened after two Covid-induced delays, there was a David Hammons survey—a highly unusual presentation for an artist whose work is rarely ever seen in bulk. Alongside it were works by Cindy Sherman, Ser Serpas, Urs Fischer, and more. Its inaugural presentations offered proof that the Bourse de Commerce was not just a major entry to Paris’s already-rich museum scene, but also to the international scene at large. —Alex Greenberger
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Cuban artists speak out against human rights abuses
Image Credit: AP Photo/Ismael Francisco Throughout 2021, Cuban artists led vocal protests against human rights abuses and censorship in their country—and periodically faced the threat of imprisonment because of it. As many took to the streets, artists such as Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara were detained for extended periods of time. A groundswell of activism exploded around the Havana Biennial, with more than 400 cultural workers from around the world, including Tania Bruguera, Teresita Fernandez, and Walid Raad, signing an open letter renouncing the human rights abuses committed by the Cuban government in the past year. Bruguera, a frequent target of police scrutiny in Havana, was a vocal proponent of the boycott campaign that spread across social media under #NoALaBienalDeLaHabana. Artists Julie Mehretu, Theaster Gates, and Marina Abramović, as well as curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, were some of the high-profile figures to publicly lend their support to the boycott. As of November, several participants had heeded their calls and pulled out of the exhibition. —Tessa Solomon
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Klaus Biesenbach makes a surprise departure from MOCA Los Angeles
Image Credit: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has weathered many storms in the new millennium, having seen a string of directors from New York come and go. When Klaus Biesenbach was appointed in 2018, after running MoMA PS1 for over a decade, many believed he might actually be in it for the long haul. But during his short tenure, he lost two major curators—Mia Locks, whom he had recruited to be senior curator, and Bryan Barcena, who left for the commercial gallery Regen Projects—as well as the museum’s director of human resources, Carlos Viramontes. Earlier this year, Biesenbach was named artistic director, essentially demoting him as the museum began a search for an executive director who would oversee the institution’s daily management and operations as well as long-term staff-related initiatives. The board eventually appointed Johanna Burton, who made her name at the New Museum in New York before being named executive director of the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, in 2019. The joy seemed palpable. It lasted all but a week, when Biesenbach made the announcement that he would be leaving the institution to run two Berlin institutions, the Neue Nationalgalerie and the forthcoming Museum of the 20th Century. The job change was reportedly even a surprise to MOCA’s board, which had undertaken measures to keep him at the museum. Burton soon became the institution’s full director and started in November. —Maximilíano Durón
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A controversial Robert E. Lee monument finally comes down
Image Credit: AP Photo/Steve Helber Amid Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, activists called for monuments honoring racist figures to come down, in particular monuments to Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general and slave owner. In 2021, many of these monuments finally were hauled away. The largest among them was a statue of Lee riding a horse that, for years, had stood atop a pedestal in Richmond, Virginia. Despite two lawsuits attempting to prevent its removal, the statue was removed this September. On the day the monument came down, Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, said, “Our public memorials are symbols of who we are and what we value. When we honor leaders who fought to preserve a system that enslaved human beings, we are honoring a lost cause that has burdened Virginia for too many years.” Long anticipated by many, the monument’s removal stood as proof that last year’s activism had borne fruit. —Shanti Escalante-De Mattei
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The art market returns to in-person events
Image Credit: Courtesy Sotheby's/Photo Julian Cassady After a nearly two-year hiatus as a result of the pandemic, international art fairs and top auction houses resumed hosting in-person events. For the fairs, doing so was not one without road bumps. This fall, the world’s largest fair, Art Basel, returned to the Swiss city, as did the Armory Show in New York. With timed entries for crowd control and coronavirus-related restrictions still in place, the mood at the fairs was more subdued than in years past. The big three auction houses—Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips—were more successful, however, luring audiences back to salesrooms across New York, Europe, and Hong Kong headquarters. Bringing a jolt back to the auction sector was the return of blockbuster single-owner sales, such as one of the collection of Linda and Harry Macklowe at Sotheby’s, which was watched by hundreds and generated a staggering $676 million. Not since the start of the pandemic had such spirited bidding and such grand prices been seen. —Angelica Villa
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UNESCO recommends the return of the Parthenon Marbles
Image Credit: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP Images In October, a UNESCO Advisory Board concluded its annual meeting in Paris with the recommendation that the British government reconsider the ownership status of the famed Parthenon Marbles held in the collection of London’s British Museum. It was a landmark chapter in one of the longest-running restitution controversies in history. The British government has contested that the sculpted relief panels and friezes were taken from the Parthenon in Athens by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador during the Ottoman occupation of Greece, in 1801, by illegitimate means. Greece, in response, maintained that this was a straightforward case of looting. The U.K. government has since rejected the committee’s call to investigate the circumstances of the marbles’ arrival in England, indefinitely prolonging the case—but UNESCO’s statement remains a victory for Greece, which has lobbied the issue to be heard by the committee since 1984. —Tessa Solomon
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Lee Kun-hee's rich collection heads to South Korea's museums
Image Credit: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon In a year that was tough for museums around the world, it was nice to see some institutions triumph. In April, what might have been the auction of the century instead became, in the words of the director of the National Museum of Korea and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, “the donation of the century.” The MMCA is just one of several Korean museums to be named that month as recipients of 23,000 artworks from the collection of Samsung’s late chairman, Lee Kun-hee, whose family was facing an inheritance tax bill of over 12 trillion won ($10.4 billion) after his death in 2020. When pieces from the collection, which has been valued at $20 billion, went on view over the summer, the showstoppers were pieces by the likes of Renoir, Gauguin, and Pissarro, but it is also rich in work by Korean artists from throughout history, including Yoo Youngkuk, Lee Jungseop, and Kim Whanki. —Sarah Douglas
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Black women take the lead at U.S. museum boards
Image Credit: Courtesy Art Institute of Chicago/DESIREÉ BENTON OF THE DASH COLLECTIVE/KARA MARIE TROMBETTA In April, Denise Gardner made headlines—and history—when she was elected to be the next chair of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she has long been a trustee. When she took office in November, she became the first woman and the first African American to ever lead the institution. Her appointment was soon followed by a wave of news about museum boards, which have often been particularly slow to change. In September, Seena Hodges became president of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Suzanne McFayden became chair of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, and Constance Rice became chair of the Seattle Art Museum. The election of these four Black women hopefully signals that other major museums in this country will soon follow suit. —Maximilíano Durón
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The Louvre gets its first-ever female director
Image Credit: Matthias Balk/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images It’s a well-known fact that most of the world’s top museums are led by white men, and always have been. Signs of progress were afoot when the Louvre named Laurence des Cars as its next head, marking the first time in the Paris museum’s 228-year history that a woman was going to take the helm. Des Cars’s appointment was roundly praised, given the reputation she’d accrued at the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, which she had led since 2017 and 2014, respectively. There, des Cars facilitated a series of provocative shows, including, at the Orsay, an expanded version of “Black Models,” curator Denise Murrell’s touted show about the Black subjects within famed works by Édouard Manet and others. Whether des Cars will bring that same radical energy to the Louvre still remains to be seen, since she only began a few months ago, but her appointment signifies a big step forward for an institution where change—both within the galleries and behind the scenes—has been rare and slow. “Things are really changing for women in the museum world,” she told the New York Times. —Alex Greenberger
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Hong Kong's long-awaited M+ museum opens
Image Credit: Kin Cheung/AP More than a decade in the making, Hong Kong’s M+ museum arrived at long last in November. With 700,000 square feet of space and an array of major donations from collectors, including a world-class one of more than 1,400 works from Uli Sigg, the museum is almost as big as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, both in size and ambition. Set in a building shaped like an inverted T that was designed by Herzog & de Meuron, M+ promises to be a major arrival on the international playing field and a potential destination for art lovers. Yet questions hang over whether it can show art that broaches hot-button political issues, in particular ones related to the Chinese government—an Ai Weiwei photograph never made it on view because of that, arousing controversy—and so it remains to be seen whether its dream of rivaling MoMA can be fulfilled in that regard. —Alex Greenberger
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An NFT boom takes the art world by storm
Image Credit: Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP In the last months of 2020, as people sheltered in place, the world watched as the crypto bull run saw Bitcoin and Ethereum jump in value. By the first months of 2021, a then-little-known phrase had started entering the mainstream lexicon: “non-fungible token.” Though NFTs have been around since the 2010s, only blockchain enthusiasts really knew what they were until recently. After cryptocurrencies jumped in price, however, people quickly noticed just how much money could be made selling digital artwork to people newly flush in Ethereum. It wasn’t until Beeple sold Everydays: The First 5000 Days (2021) for $69 million at Christie’s that the art world—and the rest of the world—really took NFTs seriously. For digital artists, this revolution was a dream come true. Traditional artists also quickly saw the appeal, given that most NFTs guarantee artists an immediate 10 percent cut of resale prices immediately after the work trades hands. Not everyone was quite so pleased. Critics have claimed that most NFTs are not high-quality art and that the space is still dominated by white men, and scams and theft remain common. But the billion-dollar industry is still in its infancy, after all, and watching how the space develops in the years to come should prove fascinating. —Shanti Escalante-De Mattei
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Christo's dream of wrapping the Arc de Triomphe is realized
Image Credit: Lionel Urman/Abaca/Sipa USA(Sipa via AP Images The image of Jean Chalgrin’s Neoclassical icon looking alternately as though it had been mummified or cast out on the curb for scrap is one for the ages. Adding a eulogistic note to the proceedings was the fact that Christo had worked on the project for decades but it had only been realized after his death. Arguably the most loaded and stupendous of the artist’s wrap jobs since the Reichstag in 1995, the piece acquired, in 2021, some valences it might not have had in other years: muting a symbol of France’s glory is in keeping with an emphasis on decolonization being felt right now, and muting of anything at all is in keeping with rolling lockdowns. —Sarah Douglas
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The Met removes the Sackler name from its walls
Image Credit: Photo Seth Wenig/AP In the late 2010s, as museums came under pressure to distance themselves from the Sacklers, many institutions said they would stop accepting gifts from the family, which has been accused of selling the painkiller OxyContin while fully aware of its addictive properties. (The family has denied wrongdoing, and it recently settled legal claims through a payout of $4 billion. Purdue Pharma, the company that sold OxyContin, was also dissolved this year.) At the time, few institutions committed to taking down the family’s name altogether. That’s why it was such a landmark moment when, in December, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which has received millions of dollars from the Sacklers over the past half-century, said it would strip various spaces of the Sackler name. Among those spaces is one of the most heavily trafficked sections of the museum, a gallery where the Temple of Dendur is held. The Sackler family said it was “passing the torch to others who might wish to step forward to support the Museum.” That the Met did so was largely owing to activism by figures such as artist Nan Goldin, whose P.A.I.N. group led a high-profile protest at the museum in 2018. Shortly after the news was announced, Goldin took to Twitter to remark, “We did it!” —Alex Greenberger
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Germany initiates the return of hundreds of Benin Bronzes
Image Credit: Daniel Bockwoldt/dpa via AP Protests over the Benin Bronzes—a cache of artifacts plundered from the Kingdom of Benin in 1897 by British troops—have gained traction in the past few years. When Germany announced plans to send back hundreds of objects from the group in 2022, proof had officially arrived that museums were beginning to listen to activists’ calls. Before the announcement was made in April, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin said in March that it would not show its Benin Bronzes, which was already a bold declaration from a museum that had only just opened. Then the German state followed suit, and said that it was plotting a wholesale return to Nigeria, with the intention of having some of the objects appear at the not-yet-built Edo Museum of West African Art in Benin City when it opens. The news was a welcome surprise: Germany holds few Benin Bronzes when compared to the U.K. and other countries, and yet it set a new standard for others to follow. And follow others did: the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Museum of African Art were among those to send back some of their Benin Bronzes in the months after Germany’s announcement. Germany’s declaration was a sign that Western museums had, at long last, begun to recognize their role in colonialism, leaving many across the world cautiously hopeful that future repatriations were possible. —Alex Greenberger