The Art Newspaper

Online readers’ verdict: our top stories in 2011

The Art Newspaper breaks down the top five most popular articles on our website

By The Art Newspaper. Web only
Published online: 05 January 2012

The Art Newspaper had a very busy year on its website in 2011. One article in particular topped our lists of the most viewed and most commented-on articles online: our report on the photographer Patrick Cariou winning his copyright lawsuit against the artist Richard Prince and his gallery, Gagosian.

The other stories on our most visited list are:

A feature by András Szántó about China’s new Age of Enlightenment, tied to the opening of the National Museum of China, in Beijing;

The news that a report by the dealers’ federation Cinoa found that the traditional gallery system is being overtaken by fairs and online businesses. This story was also among the most commented-on articles on our website (see below for others);

An article from Australia revealing that the indigenous artist Richard Bell was unrepentant about choosing the winner of a national art prize with a coin toss;

The report that Peter Eisenman’s sprawling City of Culture in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (due to open this year), is €292m over budget and eight years late, and has been labelled an “expensive mistake” by a member of the commissioning jury.

Our readers were nearly as active as our reporters, and the articles that received the most comments online are:

The news that the artist Anish Kapoor declined a show in Tiananmen Square to show his support for the then-imprisoned Ai Weiwei;

An exclusive report revealing plans for federal droit de suite legislation that would see artist resale rights come to the US. The bill was introduced to Congress last month;

A story on the art world being up in arms about a new EU law that would classify light works by artists such as Bill Viola and Dan Flavin as electrical fittings instead of works of art.