The Progress 1000: London's most influential people 2019 – Creative Arts: Art

Director of the British Museum
Though less visible on our airwaves than his predecessor Neil MacGregor, Fischer has embarked on a quiet but impressive re-thinking of the BM’s galleries, together with an excellent exhibition programme that includes classic shows like Troy and radical ones like Manga.

Directors, Hauser & Wirth
Hauser & Wirth has a stellar artists’ roster and a presence across the world from Somerset to Zurich, New York to LA… and now Minorca. The Wirths don’t say much publicly, but they’re probably London’s dominant commercial gallerists.

Director, Tate
In 2018, Tate Modern became the most visited of all British museums, and the Tate as a whole seems a happy ship with Balshaw at the helm, with Tate St Ives winning 2018’s Museum of the Year, Tate Liverpool buzzing with its Keith Haring show and Tate Britain busier than it has been for years.

Director of the National Portrait Gallery
Cullinan might just be the director with the biggest in-tray: he’s announced an exciting new building project and overseen a stellar programme of shows — with cutting edge artists alongside the Pre-Raphaelites and Hockney on the horizon. But he’s also dealing with a difficult funding environment: the withdrawal of Sackler funding and now calls from artists to cease working with BP.

Director, Frieze Art Fairs
After a difficult Frieze New York fair in a heatwave in 2018, all eyes were on Frieze’s Los Angeles fair earlier this year. Happily it was a huge success and returns to LA next year. Siddall at the helm is seemingly unflappable, even when the subject of Brexit’s potential effect on the art market arises.

Artistic director, Serpentine Gallery
In Yana Peel’s resignation statement as she stepped down as CEO at the Serpentine, she rightly described Obrist as “incomparable”. Working with an excellent team of curators, he consistently delivers one of London’s best programmes of exhibitions, performance, talks and, of course, pavilions — as well as its premier summer party.

Director, Tate Britain
Under Farquharson, Tate Britain has been consistently thronging in a way it hasn’t for years, with acclaimed and alluring shows of Don McCullin, Frank Bowling, Mike Nelson and Vincent Van Gogh. William Blake and Mark Leckey are next.

Director, Victoria and Albert Museum
With the V&A’s Dundee outpost shortlisted for Museum of the Year and shows like Dior attracting the hordes to South Kensington, Hunt is overseeing a potentially golden age for the V&A: the key will be in delivering V&A East, the groundbreaking new two-part museum in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, opening in 2023.

Artist
Highly esteemed among artists and curators for years, Leckey is about to get his biggest public moment with a show at Tate Britain, which will feature, among much else, a life-size replica of a bridge over the M53 in Leckey’s native Merseyside.

Director, Studio Voltaire | NEW
Of all the London galleries, Scotland’s Studio Voltaire punches most above its weight: a tiny space in the Clapham back streets, it has become a bastion for some of the most radical and diverse programming in London; its House of Voltaire line of limited editions and products is characteristically inspired.

Chair, Arts Council England
Still a formidable voice in the arts, even if many still find it hard to fathom why he took on one of the toughest jobs in the arts, amid falling public funding, uncertainty in the private sector and increasing ethical debates.

CEO, Royal Academy of Arts | NEW
The former National Gallery curator is back in London after a spell at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam to lead a Royal Academy in rude health: can he sustain its momentum?

Artist | NEW
Protest campouts are not uncommon, but Daudy’s Am I My Brother’s Keeper hit home: a used UNHCR tent which housed a Syrian refugee family was installed in the heart of St Paul’s Cathedral this year, drawing attention to the global immigration crisis.

Chief executive of Southbank Centre
Bedell was appointed the first female CEO of Europe’s largest arts centre in its 66-year history in May 2017. An East End grammar schoolgirl, during her first year she persuaded Michelle Obama to come and talk to a packed audience.

Art dealer
More than 30 years since she opened her first London gallery, Miro continues to nurture a superb roster of artists, from loyal longstanding greats like Chris Ofili and Grayson Perry to younger talent, such as Njideka Akunyili Crosby, one of the stars of this year’s Venice Bienalle.

Maureen Paley, founder | NEW
The New York-born owner of her eponymous Bethnal Green gallery, Paley has represented many of the best artists in Britain, including Turner Prize winners Gillian Wearing and Wolfgang Tillmans. Paley was one of the first people to exhibit works by YBAs.

Whitechapel Gallery, director
Blackheath born and raised Blazwick (OBE) has been the director of the Whitechapel Gallery since 2001. During that time she has remained one of the most important influences on the London art scene. Credited with ‘discovering’ Damien Hirst.

Theatre designer and artist
Born in Kingston upon Thames, this London-based artist has established herself as the world’s most influential set designer — most recently the rotating design for Sam Mendes’s play The Lehman Trilogy. She often works for the fashion and music business, and in 2017 was included in a Netflix documentary series Abstract: The Art of Design. Last year she was elected a Royal Designer for Industry for theatre design.

The Progress 1000, in partnership with the global bank Citi, is the Evening Standard’s celebration of the people changing London’s future for the better. #Progress1000