“Gauging spheres of influence and schools of thought is about more than momentary fads.
The Power 100 list is an annual tally of who and what made art happen during the past 12 months. It’s a structural portrait of international contemporary art, identifying and accounting for the figures and faces who have created, inspired and crafted the art we see. And sometimes it questions the extent to which contemporary art can be or is truly international in the first place.
Still, at heart (though heart has nothing to do with it, as it’s obviously just a matter of objective measurement, a ‘science’ if you like) it’s an attempt to illuminate how and why certain forms of art are being presented in one place, to imagine how they might manifest in another and to trace some of the strings being pulled to make that happen. It includes the artists and collectives who create the work, the curators, gallerists and museum directors who display the work, and the funders who stump up the cash to make and buy the work. The artists here (or anyone else here, for that matter) aren’t necessarily just the ‘most successful’ (whatever that means) or most visible or circulated; power is also about influence, and having the sway of emotion and insight, a spark that creates a ‘school’ around an artist….”