8 times art went viral in 2024

What a year it has been. In the United States, the 2024 news cycle is dominated by a dramatic and unpredictable presidential election. Across the world, uncertainty prevails, with more than 60 other countries holding national elections with the power to immediately change governments.

Amidst the deafening political updates, arts journalism occasionally manages to get a word in. For a minute, everyone was lamenting the state of the art market. Next, a banana sold at auction for $6.2 million. Over the course of nine days, animal-themed Banksy murals popped up across London. Specific shades of green became cultural touchstones.

Author, curator and art historian Matthew Israel – his 2021 book A year in the art world Examining the contemporary art industry—applying an art historical lens to these viral moments. He sees them as continuities with, rather than ruptures with, the past: “This list… shows the cyclical nature of the art world,” he told Artsy, noting how this year’s top art stories relate to “the longer term art world. Story” related. Strategies that continue to resonate. “

Only time will tell which moments will go down in history. But Tim Schneider, founder of Art Business Digest Gray Market, offered a guess: “comedian and ‘boy ‘Green’ has had an unusual longevity because they inspire just as much negativity as positive emotion, if not more, from audiences around the world,” he said in an interview. “Conflict makes these touchpoints more relevant than consensus. viscosity. ”

Below, we take a look back at 2024, the era of viral art.

Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, has an unusual complaint: One of his performances is too similar to Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic painting last supper (1495–98).

At the opening event, a group of drag queens flanked a red carpet that served as a catwalk but also hinted at a long banquet table. In the middle of the crowd, a performer wore a blue robe and a silver halo-like headdress. Later, a nearly nude man, painted blue to resemble the Greek god Dionysus, appeared on a giant colorful plate in the center of the catwalk.

In Leonardo’s masterpiece, Jesus is also seated in the center of the table, dressed in blue. Some observers noted this visual echo and suggested that Jolly was poking fun at Christianity by repeating famous depictions of Jesus and his followers. In the ensuing backlash, a spokesman for the Games apologized, but Jolly denied that the Leonardo scene inspired the production. Art historians, meanwhile, believe the vignette’s real inspiration came from Jan van Bijlert feast of the gods (1635–40).

Reddit sleuths have come up with another theory. “This is mostly a stupid pun,” one user wrote. “‘La Cène’ (the Last Supper), ‘La scène’ (the stage) and ‘La Seine’ (the river that flows through Paris) are all pronounced exactly the same in French. This is ‘La Cène sur une scène sur la Seine’ (“The Last Supper” on the Seine River Stage).”

In August, Banksy created nine new murals in nine days in London. A goat first appeared on a white wall near Richmond’s Kew Bridge. The next piece is in Chelsea, where two elephants extend their trunks towards each other. Three monkeys followed, then a lone, howling wolf. The latter work was stolen by thieves less than an hour after it appeared on a satellite dish in Peckham.

Banks was undeterred. A pelican appears on a sign at a fish and chip shop in Walthamstow, and a panther stretches out on a wooden billboard in Cricklewood. A piranha swam past a police box in Ludgate Hill and a rhino appeared to mount a Nissan in Charlton. Finally, Banksy tagged the London Zoo gate to look like a gorilla escaping the animals inside. Londoners and the wider press eagerly follow each new piece.

This year, a complex legal saga has captured the attention of Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). Back in 2020, curator and artist Kirsha Kaechele launched an ongoing exhibition called “Ladies Lounge,” a luxurious women-only gallery space that apparently showcased notable artworks from the museum’s collection as well as personal pieces from the Kaechele family. Collection. Art historian Israel points out how the piece connects to larger feminist art installations, such as Judy Chicago’s dinner (1974-79), similarly called for attention to gender differences “through the establishment of physical space.”

In March this year, Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner reviewed a complaint from non-female tourist Jason Lau. The court ruled in his favor, and Kacheler responded by moving the artwork from the “ladies’ lounge” to the women’s restroom. MONA then appealed to the state’s highest court and won after a judge ruled that the original “ladies’ lounge” actually “promoted equal opportunity” by correcting persistent disadvantages for marginalized groups. In mid-December, the “Ladies’ Lounge” reopened to the public.

There’s another twist to the story: In July, Keichler revealed that she had faked Picassos in the lounge and had concocted elaborate backstories for these otherwise unremarkable artifacts to round out the entire display. Fake art, discrimination cases, beautifully decorated women’s restrooms – this news story really has it all.

Charli XCX calls it: “I set the tone, it’s my design/It sticks in your head.” When the singer releases her album boy In June, the songs became ubiquitous, as did the slime-green hue on the cover. All summer long, brands and individuals have been opting for this color for their own marketing purposes. A turning point came in late July, when Charlie tweeted “Kamala is a brat,” and the Kamala Harris campaign renamed its social media presence accordingly.

Gray market’s Schneider prediction: “boy “Green” will go down in history. “Were it not for its involvement in the already infamous 2024 U.S. presidential election, it might have been forgotten in a few years,” he said. At the very least, its impact on 2024 visual culture will be greater than Pantone’s The color of the year, Peach Fuzz, is even bigger.

Jonathan Yeo’s bizarre painting of King Charles III went viral in May. In the first official portrait after his coronation, the king’s face emerges from a red haze and a butterfly flutters over his right shoulder.

The artist claimed he was trying something new, but critics didn’t support the experiment. washington post Called the work “stylistically chaotic”. exist The GuardianJonathan Jones gave the portrait one out of five stars and lamented that he actually liked Young as a person. Even fashion writers are from new york times and tailoring Jump in and pan the work. The internet, for once, is united in fierce putdowns.

Israel takes the long view. He noted that this was far from the first time controversy had arisen over an official portrait of a leader. For example, in 1954 Graham Sutherland created a portrait of Winston Churchill that the Prime Minister hated so much that he destroyed it. In contrast, King Charles seemed pleased with Young’s work.

exist newsweekThe artist believes that on a larger scale, the artwork itself is more subtle. Most of us will never know.

Yang’s isn’t the only royal portrait to cause a stir this year. In September, Anto Brennan’s bronze sculpture of Queen Elizabeth II was unveiled in the gardens of Antrim Castle in Northern Ireland, but it was met with opposition from netizens. In the work, the monarch wears a turban and a plaid coat, with his hands solemnly clasped in front of him. Opponents complained that the bronze piece looked nothing like the former Queen and, in fact, looked more like Robin Williams’ character in the 1993 film Mrs Doubtfire. Some even called for its destruction. However, the sculptures that stand alongside the bronze Prince Philip and two bronze corgis will remain.

“Is this the worst tribute to Queen Elizabeth II yet?” bystander asked. However, it joined other media outlets in publishing images of the artist and his work and brought new awareness to the town council, who issued a statement. The council welcomed the attention, stating: “While social media may amplify some negative views, the council encourages everyone to visit Antrim Castle Gardens and experience the sculpture for themselves.”

Of all the moments on this list, Sotheby’s November auction of a work by Maurizio Cattelan comedian (2019), which sold for $6.2 million including fees, is the one most likely to remain in the cultural memory. This version of the work, which consists of a banana taped to a wall, debuted at Art Basel in Miami Beach in 2019 and sold for a relatively low price of $120,000 to $150,000.

This time, the piece was sold to Chinese-born cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun, who promised to eat the banana after the purchase. Sotheby’s executive Michael Bouhanna created a meme coin for the work before it was auctioned, bringing more attention to the sale. The two bidders who ultimately lost out to Sun also invested in the cryptocurrency. The sale became emblematic of the volatility of the art market, the place of cryptocurrencies in the contemporary art world, and — once it was discovered that the banana was purchased from a Manhattan fruit stand for $0.35 — the wealth gap in New York City and beyond.

Israel, who put the image comedian on the cover of his book A year in the art worldinterested in works that exceed their market value. “It’s a pretty complex package…bananas stuck to the wall have a lot of impact and wall power,” he said. “It has connections with many aspects of art history and wider cultural history.” Far from being a simple joke, the banana recalls ready-made works by Marcel Duchamp and Piero Manzoni, as well as Vaudeville comedy featuring banana slides, American colonial and trade history, and more.