Jeff Koons
Concurrent shows of giant tchotchkes at Zwirner and Gagosian added up to twice the bad art, as Koons proved that creating eye candy on a plutocratic scale leads to intellectual decay.
Click the right arrow on the image above to see the best comedy of 2013
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If the best-of list in art seems a little light on gallery shows this year, it could be because the contemporary art scene has reached a kind of plateau or point of equilibrium after five to ten years of frenetic expansion. So overall, the energy in 2013 seemed to have belonged more to the city's museums, with strongly focused surveys of familiar names (Magritte, Claes Oldenbrug), not so familiar names (Isa Genzken) and some mostly forgotten names (Jack Goldstein). There were terrific shows of artists from Japan ("Gutai: Splendid Playground" and Africa (“Gravity and Grace: Monumental Works by El Anatsui”), offering two different globalist perspectives, and one exhibit of an artist who critiqued globalism (Cyprien Gaillard, “The Crystal World”). And finally, there was MoMA PS1's remembrance of the great Mike Kelley, who tragically took his own life in 2012. While it remains to be seen where New York's art world is heading as it approaches the midpoint of the decade, one thing is clear: Nothing stays the same in New York for very long.
The worst art of 2013
Concurrent shows of giant tchotchkes at Zwirner and Gagosian added up to twice the bad art, as Koons proved that creating eye candy on a plutocratic scale leads to intellectual decay.
Llyn Foulkes
Although the New Museum’s retrospective of this pioneer of Left Coast art wasn’t uninteresting, exactly, the works it revealed were erratic to the point of solipsism.
Best of 2013
From the best new Broadway shows to groundbreaking downtown experiments, it was a very good year for New York theater.
A century after the Armory Show first stormed New York, the art world abjures shock for pleasant surprises
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From established Hollywood auteurs to the foreign and indie fringes, cinema brought its A-game
Young experimentalists and rigorous classical ballet: The dance world is shaping up
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New faces took over for émigrés, old dogs learned new tricks, and Dave Chappelle lit up stages in New Jersey
Pro wrestling, Scientology and the ’70s art world buzz through our favorite fiction and nonfiction of the year
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We list our favorite dance- and electronic-music releases of the past 12 months.
A New Yorker helped bring marriage equality to the nation, while hate crimes against queer Gothamites surged. It was a complicated year in LGBT New York.
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Time Out New York writers single out their most memorable gigs of the year
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