Which Artists Made Time’s 100 Most Influential List 2024?

Jenny Holzer b. 1950, United States Follow +

Time magazine has revealed its list of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Text-brandishing artist Jenny Holzer was included in the ‘Artists’ category, along with LaToya Ruby Frazier, whose photo essays were said to capture ‘the anxiety, the beauty, and the reality of people negotiating the complexities of life on the brink.’

In support of Holzer, artist Kiki Smith recalled encountering her ‘Truisms’ while living on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

‘They were declarative, inflammatory, and provocative,’ Smith wrote. ‘She claimed no authorship but questioned the authority of language. They were rants that exemplified the predicament we faced in New York City in the late ‘70s.’

‘Since then, her work has expanded in form and voice to include poets, redacted government texts, and layered words of internationally renowned writers who address the great issues of our time,’ Smith added. ‘Her 1989 show at the Guggenheim was one of the best I’ve seen, and I’m glad that she’s having another exhibition there this year.’

One of this year’s ‘Icons’, rubbing shoulders with Michael J. Fox and Sophia Coppola, is American curator Thelma Golden.

Former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama wrote in Time that ‘Thelma knows the power of flipping an assumption on its head. Her exhibits at the Studio Museum in Harlem and, previously, the Whitney not only stop you in your tracks, they also show you so much more about the depth of the Black experience.’

‘Her steadfast dedication has given voice to a new generation of artists and curators who are ready to stir our souls too—folks who may have otherwise gone unnoticed had it not been for Thelma’s eye for talent and potential,’ Obama said.

In 2022, it was Golden writing for Time in support of ‘story quilt’ maker Faith Ringgold, who died aged 93 on 13 April. —[O]

Main image: Jenny Holzer, Survival: You live the surprise results of old plans (1984). Text on cast aluminium plaque, 15.2 x 22.9 cm. © Jenny Holzer. ARS, NY, and DACS, London 2019.