Art Galleries Embrace Uncharacteristic Cheer in 2020 Holiday Cards

Art galleries worldwide have adopted unusually sincere and festive tones in their 2020 holiday communications, marking a departure from typical contemporary art reserve. French commercial galleries, Berlin institutions, and London venues have sent cards featuring cheerful imagery including Jeremy Deller's fundraising edition "Fuck You 2020," animated Christmas trees with blinking eyes, paintings of mistletoe, cheerful candles, and vintage-style greeting card reproductions. While some galleries maintained traditional approaches with works like Antony Gormley's amorphous brown watercolor, most included heartfelt messages thanking artists and audiences for support during the difficult year. This shift follows the January 2020 death of John Baldessari and occurs against a backdrop where contemporary art has typically favored serious themes, as seen in recent Documenta and Venice Biennale exhibitions focusing on human suffering and ecological collapse. The emotional openness represents a temporary crack in the art world's usual disdain for sentiment, potentially influenced by vaccine developments, election results, and the collective trauma of 2020. Though this seasonal goodwill may not extend beyond holiday communications or influence artistic practice, it represents a notable moment of unguarded emotion in an ecosystem that typically prioritizes intellectual seriousness over visual pleasure or happiness.