Top Ten Best And Top Ten Worst Art Moments Of The Decade (PHOTOS)

As 2010 winds down and we begin looking forward to 2011, we thought to look back at the highest highs and the lowest lows of the past 10 years. Two esteemed Arts bloggers, Dorothy Spears and Mat Gleason took on the challenge with glee and determination and thus, their best and worst lists, respectively...

BEST: Over the past decade, several extraordinary moments have electrified the artworld. There were the exhibits whose impact, breadth and, yes, timing, have revealed themselves over subsequent months and years. The traveling retrospectives, for example, of Robert Smithson in 2004, Gordon Matta-Clark in 2007, Martin Kippenberger in 2008, and William Kentridge in 2009, addressed an alternative, but equally active interest in post-studio, multi-media contemporary practices. And in addition to more traditional retrospectives, there have been a handful of encounters that have triggered an abrupt shift of perspective on ourselves--and our world. Subjective by its very nature, weighted toward New York, which is where I live, and too full of men for my liking, this list presents my best stab at a "greatest hits" compilation in a decade of unforgettable moments. - Dorothy Spears

WORST: It was a decade that saw the rise and fall of art fairs as centers of power. But when it came to the worst of the decade in the art world, nothing succeeded quite like the totality of tackiness that put all the conspicuous art fair consumption to shame. Tacky exhibits, tacky ponzi schemes, tacky budgets, tacky commentators ignoring disasters and then pretending the solutions would hold even more dire consequences. Despite all the tacky attempts at censorship, it wasn't the art world's most shameful decade (it wasn't great enough for that). There was just lots of tacky art and of course, that means the art world was filled with people who are pretty damn tacky. - Mat Gleason