ARTnews and Art in America Release List of 100 Best Artworks About America

The editors of ARTnews and Art in America have published a list of the 100 greatest artworks about America, reflecting critically on U.S. art history ahead of the nation's 250th anniversary. The list includes works from the 18th century to the 21st, addressing themes such as settler colonialism, enslavement, liberation, and anti-Black racism. Artists hail from Korea, Moldova, Iraq, Chile, Vietnam, Cuba, Hong Kong, Japan, Switzerland, and Mexico, alongside Native Americans and U.S.-born creators. The selection process took over a year, with editors debating submissions in meetings and on Slack. The list includes Nam June Paik's "Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii" (1995) and Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled" (America) (1994), ranked #55. Gonzalez-Torres defined America as a place of light, opportunities, risks, justice, racism, injustice, hunger, excess, pleasure, and growth, emphasizing that democracy is a constant job.