Artist-Curators: From Warhol's Raid the Icebox to Today's Institutionalized Practice

Simone Menegoi examines the rise of the artist-curator, tracing its evolution from a rare experimental model to a codified genre in contemporary art. He cites recent examples: Ed Ruscha curating at Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna (September 26, 2012), Hubert Duprat's 'Dernière Bibliothèque' at HEAD Geneva, and earlier cases like the Palais de Tokyo's 'Cartes blanches', Simon Starling's 'The Inaccessible Poem' at Fondazione Merz (2011), Francis Alÿs's 'Fabiola' at DIA Beacon/Hispanic Society (2008), and Richard Prince's 'American Prayer' at BnF (2012). The landmark precedent is Andy Warhol's 'Raid the Icebox' at RISD Museum (1969). Menegoi argues the phenomenon's expansion stems from appropriation and recontextualization practices becoming a starting point rather than an endpoint, as seen in artists like Goshka Macuga, Pierre Leguillon, Jeremy Deller, Willem de Rooij, Anton Vidokle, and Dora Garcia. He also notes the reciprocal trend of curator-artists, citing Raimundas Malašauskas representing Lithuania at the Venice Biennale as both artist and curator, and the 2010 e-flux debate sparked by Vidokle's 'Art Without Artists?'.