From Germany to New York to Andover...

For contemporary art lovers, there is more to the month of December than the holidays. Every December, Artforum magazine invites a range of artists, curators, and critics to reflect upon the past year in art and dedicates a section of the issue to the “best of.” This issue features detailed reviews of seven stimulating exhibitions in 2007 as well as twelve top ten lists from selected contributors. This segment of Artforum brings us from the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany to the Schaulager Museum in Basel, Switzerland and back to New York City.

Next stop, Andover, Massachusetts! The magazine also follows its usual format of reviewing current exhibitions. Pick up a copy of this month’s magazine to read the review of Class Pictures: Photographs by Dawoud Bey, an exhibition featuring photographs and personal statements by Bey’s teenage subjects who defy stereotypes of American youth during this complicated age. Usha (on right) wrote, “I can speak four languages, I am an actress, and when I was about thirty seconds old I reached up and took my dad’s glasses off his face.” The photographs of other young people from Detroit to Orlando to New York will be on view at the Addison through December 30th.

Jaime DeSimone
Charles H. Sawyer Curatorial Fellow