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Power 100

Most influential people in 2012 in the contemporary artworld

61

Boris Groys

Critic - Champion of theory-based thinking

61 in 2012

  • 201261
  • 201153
  • 201070
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
  • 2006
Boris Groys. Photo: Natalia Nikitin

Groys, currently professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University and senior research fellow at the Karlsruhe University for Arts and Design, is a figurehead for how art is currently contextualised. In an interview for this issue of ArtReview, Groys dismisses art criticism as being an exercise in ‘aesthetic taste’ and champions theory-based thinking. A collection of his writing, titled Antiphilosophy, was released this year – following multiple others, including Art Power (from 2008) and Going Public (2010) – and The Guardian noted in its review that what becomes apparent from these essays is the author’s Marxist commitment to presenting philosophy not just as a way of interpreting the world, but as a weapon to change it. Such political, revolutionary grandstanding has made him ever more relevant to a post-Occupy artworld, and numerous invitations to write, deliver lectures and sit on panel discussions have since followed, including appearances at this year’s Documenta and the Kyiv Biennale.

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