> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World: 2011 Edition - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/powerless-20-2011-edition/ - Published: 2011-10-29T16:58:34.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:19:31.000Z - Description: This year we revisit our annual tradition of highlighting the powerless among those of us in the art world. Are you on it? - Author: Hyperallergic 2 - Tags: Art, #image-position-hidden, Powerless 20, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/powerless20badge.jpg "powerless20badge") Earlier this month, *Art Review* announced this year’s [Top 100](http://www.artreview100.com/2011-artreview-power-100/?ref=hyperallergic.com) most powerful figures in the art world so it was only natural that we updated our more infamous list too. (Here are links to our [2009](https://hyperallergic.com/powerless-20/) and [2010](https://hyperallergic.com/powerless-20-2010-edition/) incarnations.) It was a hard year to figure out who the powerless actually were — there were just too many of them — but don’t worry, we gave it a shot. **Presenting the 2011 edition of “The Top 20 Most Powerless People in the Art World!”** ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/art-handlers-iart-pole-dancers.jpg) Left to right, Sotheby's art handlers on strike, an iLandscape by David Hockney, pole dancers not making art. 1 — **Sotheby’s Art Handlers** — What does an auction house that’s had a great year catering to the 1% do? Cut out some of the 99%, of course. And that’s what Sotheby’s did in early August when they [locked out](https://hyperallergic.com/protest-sothebys-art-handlers-union/) unionized art handlers and [brought in scabs](https://hyperallergic.com/sothebys-hiring-crozier-fine-arts-to-cross-teamsters-pick-line/). Keep it classy, Sotheby’s. 2 — **Artists Making Work on an iDevice Who Aren’t David Hockney**— The old guy has cornered the market, give up. 3 — **The Last Artist in the World to Ask His or Her Artist Friends to Back their Kickstarter Project** — Everyone is poor and fine artists are even poorer, so why are you asking everyone for donations. So you discovered Kickstarter, yes, you’re the only one. 4 — **LA Artists Born Before 1970 Not Included in the Ginormous *Pacific Standard Time* Art Festival** — Ouch. 5 — **Martin Luther King, Jr.** – Most important black leader in US history rendered as a constipated white man on the National Mall. Another slam dunk for design by a panel of experts. 6 — **Art Writers** — “Exposure” doesn’t pay the bills. With some wealthy art websites expecting bloggers to write for free, art magazines slashing their rates and mainstream media outlets ditching full-time art critics, this is a career path for masochists. 7 — **All These Newfangled Art Print Shops** — I mean how many posters can people “collect.” 8 — **Hosni Mubarak’s Official Portrait Painter** — After decades of honing his likeness of the modern-day Egyptian Pharoah, one friggin’ protest and he starts back at square one. Sad for a guy who probably thought he had a job for life. 9 — **Work of Art** — No one in the art world cares. The novelty has worn off. This isn’t the fast track but a diversion. 10 — **Anybody in the Developing World** — Our suggestion is you move to North America, Europe or even China. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/10/mlkjr-mailart-blu-mural.jpg) Left to right, Martin Luther King, Jr in whiteface, people at a mail art show, Blu mural getting buffed. 11 — **Jack Goldstein** — So, you thought you were going to get a retrospective at LA’s MoCA? Nope, dude, [you just got ditched](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/07/orange-county-museum-of-art-rescues-jack-goldstein-show-scrapped-by-moca-.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) for Deitch’s big graffiti/street art show. Thankfully, the Orange County Museum of Art has got your back … now, if only people actually went there. 12 — **Artists Dependent on Wall Street Banker Patrons** — Occupying Sheepishness? 13 — **Pre-post-studio Mono-medium Artists** — Fastest way to watch a jet-setting curator fall asleep. 14 — **Political Street & Graffiti Artists** — It was cute when you were starting out, still better when you were sticking it to The Man, but when it comes time to show in a museum, seems like you have to check your politics at the door. 15 — **Curators Without Make-a-statement Glasses to Tell Them Apart** — Otherwise just a herd of wan, black clad folks dropping bad jargon, pseudo-political theory and shit they heard from their therapist. 16 — **Mail Artists** — You know when they say that an artist is mailing it in? Yeah, they’re talking about you. And [if the USPS closes down](http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/05/canceled-mail-could-the-u-s-postal-service-really-close/?ref=hyperallergic.com), we just don’t think UPS, FedEx or courier artist has the same ring to it. 17 — **Pole Dancers** — Y’all aren’t artists, according to [the law](https://hyperallergic.com/lady-gaga-jennifer-rubell-pole-dancers/), well, unless you’re doing it [in a gallery](https://hyperallergic.com/lap-dance-artist-talks-power-whats-really-for-sale-evangelical-christians/) or on a supercollector’s yacht. 18 — **The American Folk Art Museum** — Maybe there’s something strange in the notion that people would pay to see amateur-ish artists. Then again, until this place was about to close and a *New York Times* critic made a [desperate plea](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/arts/design/preserving-the-american-folk-art-museums-place-in-new-york.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) for it to stay open, most of us barely knew it existed. 19 — **New York City’s Public School Art Teachers** – The Teacher’s Choice program, which was funded by the city, once reimbursed art teachers $220 dollars a year for classroom supplies and materials. But no more as the [money was cut](http://nycatr.blogspot.com/2011/06/breaking-news-nyc-teachers-agree-to-pay.html?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the past budget cycle. Now teachers are forced to pay-out-of-pocket — if they can afford it. Greatest City in the World? Meh. 20 — **Young Art Historians** – Did you know why tenured is in the past tense? Because it’s a relic of the past, stupid! Aspire to be a career adjunct instructor that forks over $500 a pop to reproduce images in scholarly articles that seventy people (including your mom) will read.