The New York Canon

From Jerry Saltz for New York Magazine's 40th Anniversary

"A canon is antithetical to everything the New York art world has been about for the past 40 years, during which we went from being the center of the art world to being one of many centers. I skipped some art in which New York itself figured prominently—I hated Christo’s The Gates, and I didn’t like Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc either—and instead chose artists who threw New York curves, who changed the context of making art here. I left out the influential German artists who landed here en masse in the eighties, like clowns from a Volkswagen. There were too many, and they weren’t our clowns. I could have added Julian Schnabel; he’s a great New York huckster who gives people fits, but Jeff Koons goes him one better. Paula Cooper opened the first Soho gallery, and the Guerrilla Girls changed institutions—but omit an artwork in favor of a dealer or a group? In the end, an individual thing that made me open my eyes anew always won."

Read his list here.