CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 3/3/2014

Show Time: The 50 Most Influential Exhibitions of Contemporary Art

As New York prepares for The Armory Show and the 2014 Whitney Biennial, both opening this week, we are pleased to announce Show Time: The 50 Most Influential Exhibitions of Contemporary Art by Jens Hoffmann. Of the "watershed" 1993 Whitney Biennial, curated by Elisabeth Sussman, Thelma Golden, John Hanhardt and Lisa Philips, he cites "a maelstrom of negative criticism, most of which accused it of being overly academic, aesthetically poor, and politically confused," while quoting the curatorial statement emphasizing an emphasis on artworks that "'confront such dominant current issues as class, race, gender, sexuality, and the family.' Other sociopolitical issues under consideration included Western imperialism and the mounting AIDS crisis. It was the most ethnically diverse Whitney Biennial to date. It also included a large number of women artists and, artists who were openly gay." Featured image, Daniel J. Martinez' Museum Tags: Second Movement (Overture) or Overture con Claque (Overture with Hired Audience Members) (1993), is reproduced from Hoffmann's chapter on the 1993 Whitney Biennial.