Amy Sherald shines on the magazine’s uneven list, Artadia names a new director, Johnny Depp's awfulness, and more in Art Movements.
Art Movements, published every Thursday afternoon, is a roundup of must-know news, appointments, awards, and other art-world happenings.
The Best and Worst of TIME 100 Art List
Artist Amy Sherald, who stood on the right side of history when she canceled her show at the Smithsonian Institution for fears that her painting of a trans woman would be censored, has been recognized on TIME magazine's list of 100 influential people shaping the arts. The list includes other laudable and deserving individuals, including Dayanita Singh and Tuan Andrew Nguyen. It also features people who range from irrelevant (Vanessa Horabuena, the Trump-adored Christian speed painter!?) to absolutely reprehensible, like billionaire hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, who derided Palestine protests on college campuses. The latter two make total sense when you remember who owns TIME magazine.
Pem Lham Wins Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize
Bhutanese artist Pem Lham has won the 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize, a $30,000 annual prize known as the largest of its kind for contemporary artists in the region. “As artists, there are moments when we wonder if our stories are reaching anyone, but this prize is a reminder that our voices matter and that there are always people connecting with the work we create,” Lham said in a statement.
What Else Happened?
- Painter Marina Adams is now represented by Peter Blum Gallery. As a longtime fan of her work who admires her inventiveness and commitment within a signature visual vocabulary, I’m excited to see where this goes.
- Allison Derusha has been named executive director of Artadia, the nonprofit grantmaker dedicated to supporting contemporary artists across the US.
- The Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis has appointed Jenny Harris as associate curator and Sarah Paulsen as Programs and Events manager.
- The Museum of the Moving Image announced its upcoming MoMI LAB artists-in-residence: Toni Dove and Sougwen Chung x SCILICET.
- Márcia Falcão is now represented by Alexander Gray Associates.
- David Reed is now represented by Rodder gallery.
- Pace Prints has acquired the printmaker and publisher Brand X Editions.
Acquisitions
- Just in time for the cooler weather, the Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum have jointly acquired Hendrick Avercamp’s c. 1625 painting “Colf Players on the Ice.” The $13 million purchase marks the return to the Netherlands of an iconic Dutch winter landscape, previously on a long-term loan at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. But what is “colf,” you ask? Read all about the chilly early Dutch sport here.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art has acquired 38 paintings by the Chinese ink painter Chang Dai-chien (Zhang Daqian) from the collection of the artist’s daughter, Sing Sheng Chang.
Johnny Depp's First Sculpture Is as Awful as You Imagined
Can't he just stop?
Facts Only
* Amy Sherald, Dayanita Singh, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen are featured on TIME magazine's list of 100 influential people in the arts.
* Vanessa Horabuena and Ken Griffin are also included on the TIME 100 list.
* Pem Lham won the 2026 Rubin Museum Himalayan Art Prize, receiving $30,000.
* Marina Adams is represented by Peter Blum Gallery.
* Allison Derusha is the executive director of Artadia.
* Jenny Harris is associate curator and Sarah Paulsen is Programs and Events manager at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation.
* Toni Dove and Sougwen Chung x SCILICET are artists-in-residence at MoMI LAB.
* Márcia Falcão is represented by Alexander Gray Associates.
* David Reed is represented by Rodder gallery.
* Pace Prints acquired Brand X Editions.
* The Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum purchased Hendrick Avercamp’s "Colf Players on the Ice" for $13 million.
* The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired 38 paintings by Chang Dai-chien from Sing Sheng Chang.
Executive Summary
The contemporary art world is experiencing a period of significant institutional movement and high-value acquisitions. Recent appointments include Allison Derusha at Artadia and new curatorial roles at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, alongside several artists securing new gallery representation. On the acquisition front, the return of Hendrick Avercamp’s "Colf Players on the Ice" to the Netherlands via a joint $13 million purchase by the Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum highlights a trend of repatriating iconic national works. Simultaneously, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has expanded its Chinese ink painting collection with 38 works by Chang Dai-chien.
Public recognition of influence remains a point of contention. While artists like Amy Sherald are praised for their integrity and inclusion on the TIME 100 list, the list's overall composition is viewed by some as inconsistent, featuring a mix of lauded creators and figures criticized for their political or social stances. These tensions reflect broader debates regarding the intersection of corporate ownership, political alignment, and artistic merit in the curation of influence.
Full Take
The strongest version of this narrative is that the art world is a vibrant, global ecosystem where merit (such as Pem Lham's prize) and institutional prestige (such as Met acquisitions) coexist with the volatile politics of cultural influence. It presents a snapshot of an industry moving through standard professional churn while grappling with the ethics of visibility.
However, the framing relies heavily on a "good vs. evil" dichotomy regarding the TIME 100 list. By juxtaposing "laudable" artists with "reprehensible" billionaires, the narrative shifts from reporting news to performing a moral audit. The claim that certain inclusions "make total sense" based on TIME's ownership is a systemic critique that implies a causal link between capital and curation without providing a detailed evidentiary trail. This is a classic instance of using a high-profile list as a proxy for a larger battle over cultural hegemony.
Patterns detected: Emotional exploitation (weaponized anger)
The root cause is the ongoing tension between art as an autonomous expression of human experience and art as an asset class managed by the ultra-wealthy. The unstated assumption is that artistic value and moral virtue are inextricably linked—that a "reprehensible" person cannot be "influential" in a positive sense. This reinforces a paradigm where the curator's political alignment is as important as the artist's technique.
This approach risks reducing complex figures to caricatures, potentially limiting the agency of the art itself by tying its value to the perceived morality of the people who fund or categorize it.
Bridge Questions:
1. Does a person's political or moral standing negate their objective influence on a medium?
2. How does the consolidation of art ownership in billionaire hands change the definition of "influence"?
3. What criteria would make a list of "influential people" objective rather than a reflection of the publisher's values?
Counterstrike Scan: An influence campaign would use this pattern by "clustering" unrelated news (gallery hires) with high-emotion political targets to make a specific political grievance feel like a general consensus within the professional community. The content matches this structural pattern by embedding personal disdain for specific individuals within a routine professional roundup.
Sentinel — Human
The text reads like an editorial or newsletter compilation, blending factual updates about art acquisitions and awards with strong, personal opinion regarding controversial figures, strongly suggesting human authorship.