Haig Aivazian, Two Women at a Fountain, 2016, yellow copper, wood, 27 1/2 × 38 3/8 × 59". From the series “Rome Is Not In Rome,” 2016. From Marrakech Biennale 6. Photo: Jens Martin.
IN TIMES OF TUMULT, little matters more than culture—and criticism: the mediation of how we look, what we see, whom we believe, how we react. So for Artforum’s Best of 2016 issue, we invited a renowned group of critics, artists, and curators from around the world to take stock of the year in art—in images, gestures, words, and things. In the pages that follow, twelve contributors count down their top ten highlights, while five others select the single exhibition that, for them, rose above the rest. To cap this survey, we invited three thinkers to reflect on THE YEAR IN SHOCK, a moment of continuous upheaval and—on the cusp of a Trump presidency in the US—cataclysm.
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