Artforum

Artforum was founded in San Francisco in 1962 by John P. Irwin, Jr. Irwin was a salesman for Pisani Printing Company and would make frequent stops to the galleries around Brannan Street and the Financial District for deliveries. Gallery curators and artists, like Philip Leider, suggested to Irwin that he should start a local arts publication that catered to the West Coast arts scene since they were tired of reading about the same New York-based artists in Art in America, Arts Magazine, and Art News. Through the backing of Pisani Printing Company, Irwin successfully launched the magazine in a small office off of Howard Street. The first issue featured a cover with a work by the kinetic sculpture by Swiss painter Jean Tinguely suggesting the inchoate and indistinct identity of the fledgling publication. "That center section will contain a lot of divergent and contradictory opinion[s]," reads an editorial note in the first issue.{{Cite web|last=Allen|first=Gwen|title=Read about it in Artforum!|url=https://www.artpractical.com/feature/read-about-it-in-artforum/|access-date=2020-06-22|website=Art Practical|language=en}}

The next publisher/owner Charles Cowles moved the magazine to Los Angeles in 1965 before finally settling it in New York City in 1967, where it maintains offices today.{{Cite web|url=https://eastofborneo.org/articles/experiments-in-print-a-survey-of-los-angeles-artists-magazines-from-1955-to-1986/|title=Experiments in Print: A Survey of Los Angeles Artists' Magazines from 1955 to 1986|website=East of Borneo|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-16}} The move to New York also encompassed a shift in the style of work championed by the magazine, moving away from California style art to late modernism, then the leading style of art in New York City. One of Leider's final essays for the magazine, "How I Spent My Summer Vacation, or, Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco and Utah," is a reflective first-person account of a cross-country road trip visiting earthworks, such as Michael Heizer's Double Negative (1969) and Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty (1970). The essay grapples with the relationship between politics and art.{{Cite web|last=Allen|first=Gwen|title=Read about it in Artforum!|url=https://www.artpractical.com/feature/read-about-it-in-artforum/|access-date=2020-06-23|website=Art Practical|language=en}}

The departure of Philip Leider as editor-in-chief in 1971 and the tenure of John Coplans as the new editor-in-chief roughly coincided with a shift towards more fashionable trends and away from late modernism. A focus on minimal art, conceptual art, body art, land art and performance art provided a platform for artists such as Robert Smithson, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt and others. In 1980, after opening his own gallery in New York City, Charles Cowles divested himself of the magazine. A sister magazine, Bookforum, was started in 1994.

In 2003, the Columbia-Bard graduate Tim Griffin became the editor-in-chief of the magazine. He sought to bring back a serious-tone and invited academics and cultural theorists who were mostly suspicious of art and the market. The writers were mostly European male theorists like Slavoj Zizek, Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Toni Negri, and Jacques Rancière.{{Cite web|last=Saltz|first=Jerry|date=2018-01-02|title=Wherever the New Artforum Is Heading, I'm Along for the Ride|url=https://www.vulture.com/2018/01/wherever-the-new-artforum-is-headed-im-along-for-the-ride.html|access-date=2020-06-23|website=Vulture|language=en-us}} The magazine shed light on a new emergence of digital neo-appropriation artists such as Wade Guyton, Seth Price, and Kelley Walker and eventually featured a cover by artist Danh Vō.

Michelle Kuo, a PhD candidate at Harvard and respected critic, was announced as the editor-in-chief in 2010 after Tim Griffin resigned to pursue other work. The magazine followed a similar, sober tone of under its new leadership with round-table discussions, book and exhibition reviews, and lively hyper-academic discourse.{{Cite web|title=Artnet News: Michelle Kuo to be editor-in-chief at Artforum, "No Soul For Sale" at Tate Modern - artnet Magazine|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/michelle-kuo-artforum-no-soul-for-sale-tate-modern5-7-10.asp|access-date=2020-06-23|website=www.artnet.com}} In October 2017, publisher Knight Landesman resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual misconduct with nine women including a former employee who filed a lawsuit.{{Cite news|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/artforum-knight-landesman-accused-sexual-misconduct-1125749|title=Artforum Publisher Knight Landesman Accused of Sexual Misconduct |date=2017-10-24|work=artnet News|access-date=2017-11-27|language=en-US}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/nyregion/knight-landesman-artforum-sexual-harassment-lawsuit.html|title=Women Accuse Knight Landesman, Art World Mainstay, of Sexual Harassment|last=Feuer|first=Alan|date=2017-10-25|work=The New York Times|access-date=2017-11-27|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/oct/31/sexual-harrasment-art-knight-landesman|title='It's hurting everyone': the truth about sexual misconduct in the art world|last=Sayej|first=Nadja|date=2017-10-31|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-11-27|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite news |date=2017-10-25 |title=Artforum Publisher Quits After Sexual Harassment Complaint |language=en |work=Bloomberg.com |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-25/artforum-publisher-quits-after-sexual-harassment-complaint |access-date=2023-05-24}} Artforum initially backed Landesman, saying the allegations were "unfounded" and suggested that lawsuit was "an attempt to exploit a relationship that she herself worked hard to create and maintain."{{Cite news|url=https://news.artnet.com/opinion/the-gray-market-knight-landesman-scandal-1132235|title=The Gray Market: What the Knight Landesman Scandal Tells Us About the Art World |date=2017-10-30|work=artnet News|access-date=2017-11-27|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnews.com/2017/10/24/artforum-responds-to-reports-of-sexual-misconduct-by-publisher-knight-landesman/|title=Artforum Responds to Reports of Sexual Misconduct by Publisher Knight Landesman|last=Greenberger|first=Alex|date=2017-10-24|website=ARTnews|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-27}} The magazine's editor Michelle Kuo resigned at the end of the year in response to the publishers' handling of the allegations.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artnews.com/2017/10/26/artforum-editor-in-chief-michelle-kuo-on-why-she-resigned/|title=Artforum Editor-in-Chief Michelle Kuo on Why She Resigned|last=Russeth|first=Andrew|date=2017-10-26|website=ARTnews|language=en-US|access-date=2017-11-27}} Kuo released a statement in Artnews noting, "We need to make the art world a more equitable, just, and safe place for women at all levels. And that can only be achieved when organizations and communities are bound by shared trust, honesty, and accountability."{{Cite web|title=Artforum Editor-in-Chief Michelle Kuo on Why She Resigned – ARTnews.com|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/artforum-editor-in-chief-michelle-kuo-on-why-she-resigned-9226/|access-date=2020-06-23|website=www.artnews.com}} Artforum staff released a statement condemning the way the publishers had handled the allegations.{{Cite news|url=https://www.artforum.com/news/id=71901|title=Artforum Staff Condemns Magazine's Management of Allegations|work=artforum.com|access-date=2017-11-27|language=en-US}}

A new era of Artforum emerged under the leadership of David Velasco in January 2018. In his first issue, featuring a self-portrait by the born HIV-positive artist Kia LaBeija, Velasco wrote a poignant statement: "The art world is misogynist. Art history is misogynist. Also racist, classist, transphobic, ableist, homophobic. I will not accept this. Intersectional feminism is an ethics near and dear to so many on our staff. Our writers too. This is where we stand. There's so much to be done. Now, we get to work." Art critic Jerry Saltz immediately praised the new direction the magazine had taken, noting, "And just like that, an Artforum that needed to disappear was gone." The new editorial direction included writing and photographic essays by Molly Nesbit, philosopher and curator Paul B. Preciado, critic Johanna Fatemen, and artists such as Donald Moffet.

Artist Nan Goldin published a harrowing text and photographic account of her addiction to the prescription pain-relief drug OxyContin in a 2018 piece that prompted the founding of P.A.I.N., a campaign to expose the role of Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family in the opioid epidemic in America.{{Cite news|last=Force|first=Thessaly La|date=2018-06-11|title=Nan Goldin Survived an Overdose to Fight the Opioid Epidemic|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/t-magazine/a-heroin-chic-photographers-new-project-tackling-the-opioid-epidemic.html|access-date=2020-06-21|issn=0362-4331}} This campaign coincided with Christopher Glazek's breaking report in Esquire{{Cite web |date=2017-10-16 |title=The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis |url=https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12775932/sackler-family-oxycontin/ |access-date=2023-02-12 |website=Esquire |language=en-us}} and several weeks later Patrick Radden Keefe's report in The New Yorker{{Cite magazine |date=2017-10-23|first=Patrick|last=Radden Keefe|title=The Family That Built an Empire of Pain |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain |access-date=2023-02-12 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}} on the Sacklers' "criminal misbranding." Both journalists reported that the drug that led doctors to believe Oxycontin was less addictive that had been reported. Goldin demanded in her essay that the Sacklers donate half of their fortune to drug rehabilitation clinics and programs.{{Cite web|title=Nan Goldin|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/201801/nan-goldin-73181|access-date=2020-06-21|website=www.artforum.com|date=January 2018 |language=en-US}} Thessaly La Force of the New York Times Style Magazine wrote of the artist, "It is rare these days to see a lone artist like Goldin — especially one both critically and commercially successful, whose work is in dozens of important museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art — step into the ring as an activist."

In 2019, Hannah Black, Ciarán Finlayson, and Tobi Haslett published an essay in Artforum titled "The Tear Gas Biennial," decrying Warren Kanders, co-chair of the board of the Whitney Museum, and his "toxic philanthropy."{{Cite web|date=2019-07-27|title=How Protest Works Now: Understanding "The Tear Gas Biennial" and its Historic Effect|url=https://momus.ca/how-protest-works-now-understanding-the-tear-gas-biennial-and-its-historic-effect/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Momus|language=en-US}} Although Kanders had donated an estimated $10 million to the museum, the source of his fortune comes from Safariland LLC, a company that manufactures riot gear, tear gas and other chemical weapons used by police and the military to impose order by force.{{Cite web|date=2020-06-09|title=Warren Kanders, Former Whitney Museum Vice Chair, Vows to Exit Tear Gas Trade|url=https://hyperallergic.com/570073/warren-kanders-tear-gas-trade/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}} Although the Geneva Convention in 1925 outlawed the use of tear gas in all international military conflict, the tear gas fired at peaceful protesters and civilians by the police and military during the George Floyd protests in 2020 as well as on migrants on the US-Mexico border is the same brand of tear gas manufactured by Defense Technology, a subsidy of Safariland.{{Cite web|last=Sadeghi|first=McKenzie|title=Fact check: It's true tear gas is a chemical weapon banned in war|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/06/fact-check-its-true-tear-gas-chemical-weapon-banned-war/3156448001/|access-date=2020-06-21|website=USA TODAY|language=en-US}} A wave of artists from the Biennial, including Korakrit Arunanondchai, Meriem Bennani, Nicole Eisenman and Nicholas Galanin, demanded immediate removal of their work from the Biennial within hours after the essay was published.{{Cite news|last=Moynihan|first=Colin|date=2019-07-19|title=Eight Artists Withdraw From Whitney Biennial Over Board Member's Ties to Tear Gas|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/arts/whitney-biennial-tear-gas-protest.html|access-date=2020-06-21|issn=0362-4331}} After mounting pressure from artists, critics, and gallerists urging the public to boycott the show, Kanders stepped down from his leadership position at the museum.{{Cite web|date=2019-07-25|title=Warren Kanders Resigns From the Whitney Museum's Board, Following Months of Protest and a Renewed Artist Boycott|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/kanders-resigns-1609330|access-date=2020-06-21|website=artnet News|language=en-US}} The essay was instrumental in his resignation, and in the museum cutting ties with Kanders' financial endowments that were directly connected to the promotion and use of military weaponry and violence during peaceful social unrest.{{Cite web|title=The Decisive Moment|url=https://www.cjr.org/special_report/artforum-david-velasco-metoo.php/|access-date=2020-06-22|website=Columbia Journalism Review|language=en}}

In December 2022, Artforum was acquired by Penske Media.

On October 19, 2023, in the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, Artforum published an open letter signed by roughly 8,000 artists and cultural workers that expressed support for Palestinian nationalism in response to the Gaza war. Some of these artists included Nan Goldin, Peter Doig, and Kara Walker. Specifically, the letter pressured national governments to support a ceasefire and humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.{{cite news |url= https://www.artforum.com/columns/open-letter-art-community-cultural-organizations-518019/ |title=An open letter from the art community to cultural organisations |newspaper=Artforum |date=2023-10-19 |access-date=2023-10-28}} The following day, Artforum published a letter from art dealers Dominique Lévy, Brett Gorvy, and Amalia Dayan (granddaughter of Israeli military leader Moshe Dayan), which criticized the magazine for not explicitly denouncing Hamas' October 7 attacks on Israelis, which included hundreds of kidnappings.{{cite news |url= https://www.artforum.com/columns/response-open-letter-october-19-518144/ |title=A response to the open letter of October 19 |newspaper=Artforum |date=2023-10-20 |access-date=2023-10-28}} Notably, the letter did not mention Hamas or the Israelis who were killed.{{cite web |last=Einspruch |first=Franklin |title=Look Who's Suddenly Interested in Free Speech |website=Substack |date=2023-11-01 |url=https://dissidentmuse.substack.com/p/look-whos-suddenly-interested-in |access-date=2024-09-03}} Many artists condemned the petition for its antisemitism.{{cite web |last=Community |first=Art |title=Both Should Come Together |website=ערב רב Erev Rav |date=2023-10-22 |url=https://www.erev-rav.com/archives/english/both-should-come-together |access-date=2024-09-03}}{{cite web |last=Small |first=Zachary |title=Artists Call for Boycott After Artforum Fires Its Top Editor |website=The New York Times |date=2023-10-27 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/27/arts/design/artforum-boycott-goldin-eisenman.html |access-date=2024-09-03}} A key passage from the letter, which was criticized for being antisemitic, is as follows.{{cite web |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231020012220/https://www.artforum.com/columns/open-letter-art-community-cultural-organizations-518019/ |title=An Open Letter from the Art Community to Cultural Organizations |date=October 19, 2023 |website=Artforum |access-date=2024-09-03}}

{{blockquote|We support Palestinian liberation and call for an end to the killing and harming of all civilians, an immediate ceasefire, the passage of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the end of the complicity of our governing bodies in grave human rights violations and war crimes.}}

In response to media pressure leading some artists to withdraw their signatures from the original letter, the Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña commented that "tampering with the opinions of artists is to not understand the role of art".{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/26/arts/artforum-editor-fired-david-velasco-palestine-gaza.html?smid=tw-nytimesarts&smtyp=cur |last=Small |first=Zachary |title=Artforum Fires Top Editor After Its Open Letter on Israel-Hamas War |newspaper=The New York Times |date=2023-10-26 |access-date=2023-10-28}} On October 23, the magazine's website amended the letter to denounce Hamas' violence and hostage-taking. The Intercept investigated modern art curator Martin Eisenberg's campaign to pressure artists into retracting their signatures.{{Cite web |last=Lennard |first=Daniel Boguslaw, Natasha |date=2023-10-27 |title=Bed Bath & Beyond Scion Pressured Artists to Retract Gaza Ceasefire Call in Artforum Letter |url=https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/artforum-artists-gaza-ceasefire-martin-eisenberg/ |access-date=2023-10-30 |website=The Intercept |language=en-US}} Vanity Fair similarly reported that Lucas Zwirner, the son of art dealer David Zwirner, supported the Lévy-Gorvy-Dayan response letter and stopped purchasing advertising from the magazine.{{Cite magazine |date=2023-11-03 |title=An Open Letter, an Editor's Ouster, and the Ongoing Fight for the Future of Artforum |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2023/11/artforum-open-letter-upheaval |access-date=2023-11-30 |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US}}

On October 26, Artforum{{'}}s publisher stated that the October 19 letter was published without the typical editorial process, suggesting that the letter should have been presented in the news section with relevant context on the 2023 Gaza war.{{cite news |url= https://www.artforum.com/news/a-statement-from-artforum-s-publishers-518836/ |title=A statement from Artforum{{'}}s publishers |newspaper=Artforum |date=2023-10-26 |access-date=2023-10-28}} That same day, The New York Times reported that editor-in-chief David Velasco had been fired, leading to the resignations of senior editors Zack Hatfield and Chloe Wyma. Documentarian Laura Poitras, musician Brian Eno, artists Barbara Kruger and Nicole Eisenman, philosopher Judith Butler, academic Saidiya Hartman, and photographer Nan Goldin signed the original letter and called for a boycott of Artforum in response to Velasco being fired. They praised his leadership increasing the magazine's prominence and denounced Velasco's firing as limiting their free speech.{{Cite news |last=Nayyar |first=Rhea |date=19 October 2023 |title=Leading Artists and Scholars Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza |work=Hyperallergic |url=https://hyperallergic.com/851479/artists-and-scholars-call-for-immediate-ceasefire-in-gaza/ |access-date=7 December 2023}}

As the magazine and its sister publications The Art Newspaper and Artnet lacked editorial leadership, the December 2023 "Year in Review" issue of Artforum was trimmed because critic Jennifer Krasinski, art historian Claire Bishop, filmmaker John Waters, curator Meg Onli, and artist Gordon Hall withdrew their writing from the magazine in protest of Velasco's firing.{{Cite news |last=Small |first=Zachary |date=7 December 2023 |title=Bruised by War-Related Boycott, Artforum Seeks a Reset |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/arts/design/artforum-israel-hamas-war.html |access-date=7 December 2023}} The following March, Tina Rivers Ryan was named editor-in-chief.{{Cite news |last=Boucher |first=Brian |date=2024-03-14 |title=Tina Rivers Ryan Named Editor of Artforum Magazine |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/tina-rivers-ryan-named-editor-artforum-magazine-2452557 |access-date=2024-03-15 |work=Artnet News}}

• A book by Amy Newman chronicling the early history of the magazine, Challenging Art: Artforum 1962–1974, was published by Soho Press in 2000.
• Sarah Thornton's documentary book Seven Days in the Art World (2008) contains a chapter titled "The Magazine" which is set in the offices of Artforum. In it, Thornton says, "Artforum is to art what Vogue is to fashion and Rolling Stone was to rock and roll. It's a trade magazine with crossover cachet and an institution with controversial clout."[https://pdfcoffee.com/seven-days-in-the-art-world-sarah-thornton-pdf-free.html] Sarah Thornton, Seven Days in the Art World (2008)

Note: Please keep the names in alphabetical order when adding yours to the lists. Thank you.

{{colbegin|colwidth=9.7em|gap=0em}}

• Hilton Als
• Walter Darby Bannard
• Dodie Bellamy
• Andrew Berardini
• Maurice Berger
• Hannah Black
• Yve-Alain Bois
• Lizzie Borden
• Dennis Cooper
• Arthur C. Danto
• John Elderfield
• Manny Farber
• Hal Foster
• Michael Fried
• Christopher Glazek
• RoseLee Goldberg
• Nan Goldin
• Kim Gordon
• Clement Greenberg
• Tobi Haslett
• Dave Hickey
• A. M. Homes
• Gary Indiana
• Travis Jeppesen
• Donald Judd
• Max Kozloff
• Rosalind Krauss
• Rachel Kushner
• Thomas Lawson
• Lucy Lippard
• Greil Marcus
• Annette Michelson
• Robert Morris
• Sarah Nicole Prickett
• James Quandt
• Barbara Rose
• Roberta Smith
• Robert Smithson
• Amy Taubin
• Eugenio Viola
• Edmund White

{{colend}}

• Tina Rivers Ryan (March 2024–present)
• David Velasco (January 2018–October 2023)
• Michelle Kuo (September 2010–December 2017)
• Tim Griffin (September 2003–Summer 2010)
• Jack Bankowsky (September 1992–Summer 2003)
• Ida Panicelli (March 1988–Summer 1992)
• Ingrid Sischy (February 1980–February 1988)
• Joseph Masheck (March 1977–January 1980)
• In February 1977 Nancy Foote operated as the managing editor without a head editor
• John Coplans (January 1972–January 1977)
• Philip Leider (June 1962–December 1971)

(Philip Leider left the magazine at the end of the Summer 1971 issue, but remained on the masthead until December 1971)

{{Reflist}}

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• {{Cite web |last1=Saltz |first1=Jerry |title=Wherever the New Artforum Is Heading, I'm Along for the Ride |work=Vulture |date=2018-01-02 |url=http://www.vulture.com/2018/01/wherever-the-new-artforum-is-headed-im-along-for-the-ride.html |access-date=2018-01-04 |df=mdy-all }}

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• {{Official website}}

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Category:Contemporary art magazines

Category:Magazines established in 1962

Category:Magazines published in San Francisco

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Category:Visual arts magazines published in the United States