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Power 100

Most influential people in 2019 in the contemporary artworld

15

Wolfgang Tillmans

Artist - Celebrated photographer assuming the mantle of an art elder-statesman

15 in 2019

  • 20226
  • 202146
  • 202023
  • 201915
  • 201811
  • 201711
  • 20169
  • 201511
  • 201436
  • 201344
  • 201243
  • 201089
  • 2009
  • 2008
  • 2007
Photo: Georg Petermichl

Tillmans is smoothly assuming the mantle of an art elder-statesman, his investiture now complete with To Look Without Fear, a vast retrospective opening this year at MoMA, New York. Organised chronologically and installed, as always, by the artist and his team (over 16 days and nights, he says), it provided an easy image of the photographer’s journey from nightclub imagery to a more wide-ranging experimentation in representing the world around him (and beyond: astronomy is a passion). Meanwhile, Fragile, a show touring African cities over the past five years, arrived at its final stop across two venues in Lagos; his solo at Mumok, Vienna, closed after an extended run in August. And then Tillmans was back in London for a round of fundraising on behalf of the ICA, where he has been chair since 2019. Demonstrating that his penchant for hedonism isn’t over, Tillmans outlined plans to make the art institution party central, including a licence to serve alcohol until 6am.

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