Well, that’s it. It looks like we’re out of time. It’s been a pretty busy year. After a rather sombre start with the passing of one of our greatest artists, Ralph Hotere, things picked up plenty. In April, construction of the Len Lye Centre began in New Plymouth. Bill Culbert’s show at the Venice Biennale was received very well. And my Art History lecturer made some wonderfully derisive comments about Caracci. I, personally, am pretty pleased with what we managed to cover on the Visual Arts page this year, but there’s still so much more left to be said. Such a shame. For posterity, I’ve compiled a list of the stories we could have written and headlines that could have been.
1. Aurélie Filippetti, France’s culture minister, proposes Sylvie Ramond replace the outgoing director of the Louvre, which would have made her the first woman to head the museum; Filippetti accused of discriminating against men, job given to another man, cue emphatic eyeroll.
2. Public uncertain whether works in the Turner Prize shortlist qualify as art. Surprise!
3. Ai Weiwei releases heavy-metal song documenting 81 days spent in detention by Chinese government
4. “I wanted to rupture certain things”—James Franco on Tim Robey’s Hitchcock-inspired exhibition
5. “I want to rupture certain things”—Salient’s Visual Arts Editor on James Franco
6. The 10 Worst-Dressed Children at Venice Biennale
7. The 10 Best-Dressed Dogs at Venice Biennale
8. The 10 Most Dog-like Children at Venice Biennale
9. “I feel like I should have been born in the ‘60s”—White Girl on Te Papa’s Warhol: Immortal exhibition
10. Tilda Swinton sleeps in glass chamber at MoMa
11. Salient’s Visual Arts Editor takes a closer look at Tilda Swinton
12. Salient’s Visual Arts Editor asked to leave MoMa
13. Theatre student pays homage to Marina Abramović on overbridge
14. Tina Barton wins Best-Dressed Lecturer Award
15. Tina Barton <3 <3
16. Salient’s Visual Arts Editor wins Drunkest Gallery Patron At Exhibition Opening Award
17. Salient Visual Arts Editor celebrates by staging performance-art piece, induces self to vomit
18. Salient’s Visual Arts Editor caught vomiting on John Morrison
19. Tumblr popularity of that one Bohyun Yoon performance piece SKYROCKETS after The National use it as cover art
20. Is Banksy still a thing?
21. Banksy’s back
22. No, I don’t want to talk about Banksy
23. Damien Hirst creates children’s book from most famous work
24. Auckland Art Gallery named World’s Best Building at World Architecture Festival in Singapore. Good for them
25. Te Papa considers moving collection from earthquake-prone city to city built around active volcanoes