ARTnews

More about the current issue...

This Summer, we present the ARTnews 200, our annual list of the world’s top 200 collectors. We profile Jon Kessler, known for his arch kinetic sculptures. Also, we look at the scholarly controversy over Michelangelo’s drawings—and why there is so much debate around authenticating them. And in a special feature, we ask, when does shock outweigh the value of art that is designed to provoke?

The Top Ten

'The Ship Sails On'
The ARTnews 200 Top Collectors
How Far Is Too Far?

Contemporary artists have made work depicting graphic sexual acts, damaging property, injuring their own bodies, or paying others to alter theirs. But when does art cross the line from avant-garde to unacceptable?

Next month, our focus is humor. We highlight an international group of artists who are inspired by sketch comedy, creating outrageous, off-the-wall characters to riff on hot-button issues. Also, we profile the hilarious Mike Smith, a video and performance-art antihero.

We visit Carol Bove, who assembles the most unpromising elements—stacks of discarded books, chunks of cement, lumps of wax, and peacock feathers—into repositories of memory and nostalgia.

And in a special report, we look at the explosion of the art market in China, where prices for contemporary art have increased by 2,000 percent or more, fueling the growth of hundreds of new galleries and 1,600 auction houses.