War, legends and scandals - the art year 2022

From climate to psychological crisis

Now that almost all Corona measures are a thing of the past, the exhibition houses are opening the 2022 chapter right away with the really big issues: Kunsthalle Basel dedicates itself to the immersive installation Pedro Wirz. Environmental Hangover to the climate crisis, while the National Gallery London welcomes back Thomas Gainsborough's sorely missed The Blue Boy for an exhibition after exactly one hundred years. Half of those hundred years were spent on Francis Bacon's work, which the Royal Academy of Arts honored in January with Francis Bacon: Man and Beast. It looked at Bacon's borderline representations between man and beast.

The year 2022 was also dedicated to Louise Bourgeois, who died in 2010, and who used art to treat herself and settle accounts with her father. The Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre in London kicked things off on February 9 with Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child, an exhibition dedicated to the artist's last creative phase. The exhibition brings together Bourgeois' textile works - and moved on to Berlin in the fall. Other museums and galleries also explored the art and psyche of the French-born artist this year, including the Kunstmuseum Basel.

Power and money

On March 1, Picasso's La fenêtre ouverte went up for sale for the first time at public auction. It changed hands for 16,319,500 British pounds - contemporary Magritte slid up the world rankings almost simultaneously with L'empire des lumières at Sotheby's for 59,422,000 British pounds; it is the current record for a Magritte work.

It was only at the end of February that Putin declared war on Ukraine. As early as March, the street art scene in St. Petersburg practiced subversive protest against the Kremlin boss. The Russian artist group yav staged a graphic publicly in St. Petersburg. It plays with the image of two counts: they embody hope (blue) and fear (red), tracing Russia's domestic and foreign policy events of recent years. Now, after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine, they reach a new high of fear and hopelessness.

Newcomers and old lions

The 59th Venice Biennale kicked off  just in time for spring. On April 23, the panel presented the Golden  Lion to U.S. Simone Leigh (b. 1967) as best artist in the main exhibition The Milk of Dreams, to Britain's Sonia Boyce (b. 1960) for best pavilion.

The Silver Lion for Best Emerging Talent went to Lebanese Ali Cherri, while Lynn Hershman Leeson and Shuvinai Ashoona enjoyed honorable mentions in the main exhibition. Among the pavilions receiving praise were France and Uganda, which participated in the Biennale for the first time.

In Nice, the Nice Art Expo made its debut  at the Palais des Expositions at the time. 150 artists were represented at the fair. In addition, the Young Talents of Contemporary Art competition selected eight young self-taught artists and art students from France to exhibit free of constraints.

Legends

Everything is new in May - at least as far as record values are concerned. Christie's auction house sold one of Andy Warhol's infamous Marylin Monroe prints for $195 million - a new high for the long-dead Pop Art titan. Larry Gagosian made the winning bid for Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964). While an omnipresent legend like Warhol made headlines with millions, Mimosa House in London rediscovered a forgotten one: the exhibition The Baroness revived the Dadaist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven - in the 1920s, the burlesque dancer and nude model was considered a legend of the New York scene, later she disappeared under the reputation of others. Retrospectively, she was given the epithets »the first American Dada« »New York's first punk,« or »the great aunt of feminist performance art.« The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston saw potential for a new legend in Amoako Boafo. On May 27, it inaugurated Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks, the first solo museum show by the Ghanaian artist.

Scandal of the year

Every five years, documenta comes back to Kassel. June was thus the hopeful date for the art year 2022. Documenta fifteen was to be quite different from all its predecessors: for the first time, a collective held the reins, ruangrupa from Indonesia. The guiding principles were based on community, an ecosystem was to be created, and money was to be secondary. In the end, money really was. On June 18, documenta fifteen opened its doors - but not as hoped: anti-Semitic imagery marred the ruangrupa's lumbung concept on the very first day. A huge banner by the collective Taring Padi attracted all the negative attention. It was later followed by the brochure Presence des Femmes by the two artists Burhan Karkoutly (1933-2003) and Naji Al-Ali (1937-1987) - it too contained clear anti-Semitic depictions. A shadow was cast over »the museum of 100 days,« which was supposed to be remembered as the newborn documenta.

For the second part of our review, go this way.