In order to keep the No. 1 spot open, this list has never attempted to take the measure of magazines, so up until now we haven’t had the chance to honour the longstanding influence of the assiduous Bice Curiger. One of Parkett magazine’s founders (in 1984) and its editor in chief, as well as the publishing director of Tate Etc, she has also been curator at Zurich Kunsthaus since 1993.

However, she finds herself on – and near the top of – this year’s list as recently named curator of the 2011 Venice Biennale. Not for Curiger the overheated nownownow of what’s hot in contemporary art. She has developed a rather calm, distilled, long view of what is important, reflected in her articles and curatorial selections, which should be just about right for the current climate.