Power Curators
Klaus Biesenbach
The art world is waiting to see how the longtime P.S.1 curator will fare in a more administrative role when he takes the reins at the museum in January.
Daniel Birnbaum
The scholar, international curator and head of the Städelschule, in Frankfurt, received mixed reviews (some found it dry) for his sprawling Venice Biennale this summer.
Francesco Bonami
His massive survey "Italics: Italian Art Between Tradition and Revolution, 1968-2008," shown in Venice and Chicago, provoked criticism, but he has scored one of the biggest gigs on the curatorial circuit: the 2010 Whitney Biennial.
Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst
The London-based curator at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture is helping its director, the Russian heiress-collector Dasha Zhukova, spend her rubles wisely.
Melissa Chiu
The director of the Asia Society Museum is catapulting the New York institution to the forefront of the field of contemporary Chinese art.
Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
The chief curator of the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, in Turin, is gearing up for her role as the artistic director of Documenta 13, hitting Kassel, Germany, in 2012.
Alison Gingeras
The Pinault collection curator co-organized the inaugural exhibition at Punta della Dogana, in Venice, this summer and also had a hand in one of the buzziest shows in London this year, "Pop Life," at the Tate Modern.
Hans Ulrich Obrist
The Serpentine Gallery co-director was at just about every major biennial this year — from Sharjah to Venice.
John Richardson
The biographer and art historian partnered with dealer Larry Gagosian this year to curate a New York show of late Picassos that had gallerygoers lining up for a look.
Ali Subotnick
This former collaborator (with Maurizio Cattelan and Massimiliano Gioni) on the legendary Wrong Gallery continues to breathe fresh life into the UCLA Hammer Museum with shows like this year’s "Nine Lives: Visionary Artists from L.A."
WHW
The Croatian curatorial team behind What, How & for Whom — Ivet Curlin, Ana Devic, Natasa Ilíc and Sabina Sabolovic — earned near-universal praise this year for its Bertolt Brecht-inspired Istanbul Biennial.
Executive Power
Edward Dolman
The Christie’s CEO eked out a few bright spots in a dismal year for auction houses — among them, the $484 million-plus Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection sales.
Barack Obama
The commander in chief and his wife, Michelle, brought exciting art into the White House, including borrowed works by Glenn Ligon, Jasper Johns, Mark Rothko and Ed Ruscha.
William Ruprecht
The Sotheby’s CEO had a year of ups and downs. The day after a spectacular Impressionist and modern art sale, the company announced a $57.8 million loss for the third-quarter.
Charles E. Young
After bailing out L.A. MOCA last year, and reportedly ousting director Jeremy Strick, Eli Broad installed Young as CEO. Since then, donations have risen, and the museum held a star-studded 30th-anniversary gala in November. Young’s soon-to-end tenure may be extended six months as MOCA seeks a new director.
Power Artists
Marina Abramovic
Renewed interest in performance has kept Abramovic busy, with her curated marathon of live art at the Manchester International Festival this summer and a forthcoming retrospective at New York’s MoMA.
Ron Arad
The Israeli-born architect created a splash with his survey at MoMA and the Centre Pompidou. And he’s still hogging the spotlight with his Design Museum Holon, set to open in his native land next spring.
Mark Bradford
In September Bradford’s layered abstractions were installed with Kara Walker’s mixed-media pieces in a terrific show at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. in New York. And, oh yeah, he scored a MacArthur "genius" grant...
Damien Hirst
Hirst himself hasn’t done much to follow up on his solo auction last year, but collector Victor Pinchuk staged the largest presentation of the artist’s work to date in Kiev this spring.
Roni Horn
A retrospective as stunning yet subtle as her art toured London, New York and Avignon.
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