Lists. Artforum.

It's December 1. Here come the lists. Rex Sorgatz is already hard at work, turning Fimoculous once again into the undisputed worldwide HQ of year-end lists.

And - it's practically a tradition now - Artforum opens the season with one of the classiest collections of lists, even classier this year, as more of them appear to be online than in years past. We'll want to start with "Film: Best of 2007," naturally. Amy Taubin makes an excellent choice for her #1: Zodiac. TJ Wilcox goes for Black Book. Unfortunately not online are the lists by John Waters, James Quandt and Chrissie Iles.

There are two music lists, and one of them is Kim Gordon's. Books? The great Arthur C Danto is here. There's a fine selection of "Artists' Artists"; Debra Singer and Tomasz Fudala assess the scenes in New York and Warsaw, respectively; there's more all-round honorable mentioning of the year in art; and Tim Griffin's state-of-things editorial: "In light of a booming market whose culture of investment is continually eclipsing any sense of art’s speaking meaningfully to society at large, and against the backdrop of political developments whose increasing gravity only underscores that diminished relationship, many artists are seeking venues beyond the conventional circuitry of the art world (and scuttling any vestiges of the myth of art’s autonomy) to obtain a renewed sense of relevance and consequence in practice. Art is, it seems, in want of a little airing out."

Posted by dwhudson at December 1, 2007 5:01 AM