Introducing TIME's 100 Most Influential People in Art - Time Magazine
If I had to pick my favorite cover of TIME since I started working here in 2013 (thanks for asking!), it would be from the April 27, 2020, issue, which features an image made by the French artist and TIME contributor JR. Created with Paris in quarantine at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the 15-by-21-ft. artwork was formed by pasting long strips on the pavement of a quiet street in the 19th arrondissement at 5:30 in the morning. JR photographed the work at 9:30 that night after waiting for it to dry. It shows a person peeking through what look like window blinds, an image now both familiar and haunting. Feet away, a solitary woman walks by, her mask firmly in place. Looking at that photograph today brings me back to the uncertainty of that moment. It also reminds me of the creative spirit that pulled us through it.
That is what art can do, and TIME has been collaborating with artists like JR for over a century. Among the greats who have created TIME covers are Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and Robert Rauschenberg. Starting in 1978, TIME began donating many works in its collection to the National Portrait Gallery, which today holds more than 2,000 pieces first published by the magazine. Those efforts have helped secure TIME’s reputation as one of the leading popular visual storytellers of our time.
Still, it has been 50 years since a living painter has been solo on the magazine’s cover. (In fact, Rauschenberg was the last, appearing in a self-portrait on the Nov. 29, 1976, issue of TIME.) Until this week. Painter Amy Sherald appears on the new cover following a blockbuster two-year, four-museum tour of her work. The predecessors she joins in that space include Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Thomas Hart Benton, and Andrew Wyeth. Her presence announces the launch of TIME100 Art, our inaugural effort recognizing the most influential people in fine art today. The project was led by Merrill Fabry. We received strategic advice from Keith Fox, the former CEO of art publisher Phaidon.
To make Sherald’s portrait, we asked Tyler Mitchell, also on TIME100 Art, to photograph the painter. Working with stylist Law Roach, Mitchell created images whose tone and color recall that of Sherald’s own portraiture. This picture has layers: Sherald, as Belinda Luscombe writes in an accompanying profile, paints from photography herself, and it was Sherald who paid tribute to Mitchell when he was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2022. (“We found that we were kindred in spirit.”)
The gap in our attention to the influence of fine arts on the cover makes us even more excited to debut this list. Over recent months we have been seeking out the leaders who shape art, with an eye to find those who are writing the field’s most important headlines. Hito Steyerl and Refik Anadol help us understand the potential of new technology to change the world—for better or worse. Jenny Holzer and Maurizio Cattelan provoke us to ask important questions. JR and Sheila Hicks enable us to connect with our physical senses. And others, like Jeffrey Gibson and Simone Leigh, shape and share our cultural histories.
And artists don’t work in a vacuum. They are supported by a massive ecosystem, from philanthropists and nonprofits who fund work, to gallerists and advisers who shape careers, to curators, museum leaders, and beyond. Half of the people on this list are not artists themselves. They make art possible.
The past two years have been an inflection point for that pursuit. Multiple museums, including the Studio Museum in Harlem, LACMA, V&A, and MASP in Brazil, saw major expansions. They’re working to find new ways to reach viewers and to conceive of the collections they steward. Leaders need to establish the value of what they’re doing, and this reassessment can create new vision. At the same time, the global art market is starting to rebound after a few volatile years of turmoil in sales at galleries and auctions. A period of turbulence can be one of innovation and reinvention too. We are thrilled to be looking anew.
Set by Nicole Roosien; Hair by Nikki Nelms at The Only Agency; Makeup by Joseph Carrillo; Styling: Law Roach at The Only Agency; Cover look: Bora Aksu; Studio environmental: Erdem; Blue background: JW Anderson; Videos: Roksanda dress, Alexis Bittar jewels.
