The Best Art in the World - by Noah Becker & Michael Maizels (Hardcover)

About the Book

Founded in 2005, Whitehot Magazine has become one of the leading channels for contemporary art criticism. On the occasion of its upcoming 20th anniversary, founder Noah Becker and contributor Michael Maizels are compiling a critical anthology of the magazine's writings, including writing from Donald Kuspit, Noah Becker, Paul Laster, Phoebe Hoban, Cori Hutchinson, Lita Barrie and so on, and interviews with Betty Tompkins, Ross Bleckner, Zachari Logan, Shepard Fairey, John Lurie, Willem Dafoe, Bill Viola and Rita Ackermann, to name a few.

Book Synopsis

Founded in 2005, Whitehot Magazine has become one of the leading channels for contemporary art criticism. Since its inception, Whitehot has published thousands of reviews covering art from the United States, East Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and South America, with key pieces authored by critical luminaries, including Anthony Haden-Guest, Donald Kuspit, and Phoebe Hoban. The magazine is also uniquely independent in its editorial voice. Unlike other large art world publications, Whitehot is owned and managed by its founding editor rather than by a media holding company.
On the occasion of its upcoming 20th anniversary, founder Noah Becker and contributor Michael Maizels have compiled a critical anthology of the magazine's writings. The selected articles not only encapsulate the storied history of Whitehot but also provide a significant window into the evolution of art practice and art criticism since the turn of the Millennium.

Review Quotes

"Born-digital Whitehot goes to print. For two decades, the magazine's online format nurtured fiercely independent, "orthogonal perspectives" and reached global and North American peripheries alike. Now the book format--including the magazine's commitments to painting and distinctly wide-ranging interviews--prompts much-needed art historical assessment of both Whitehot's "primary sources" and the beginnings of twenty-first-century art." -- Christine Mehring, University of Chicago and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"I love this collection of 20 years of Whitehot! The interviews, reviews, and articles are my ticket to ride a big tent art world magic bus that leaves the Port Authority and touches down all over the world to fill up on creativity--and art that matters. If you're tired of the same old form of the art industrial complex, I guarantee you'll leave this grand tour renewed and refreshed." -- David Raskin, Mohn Family Professor of Contemporary Art History, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"This is what an independent art magazine looks like in an age when most of the others have become barely discernible flavors of a single soulless franchise. A publication created by an artist who wanted to create his own terms of engagement with the art world, populated with opinions that, like fire, need air to spread, Whitehot proves that codependence is integral to the vitality of independence." -- Whitehot book blurb--Carlo McCormick

"Born-digital Whitehot goes to print. For two decades, the magazine's online format nurtured fiercely independent, "orthogonal perspectives" and reached global and North American peripheries alike. Now the book format-including the magazine's commitments to painting and distinctly wide-ranging interviews-prompts much-needed art historical assessment of both Whitehot's "primary sources" and the beginnings of twenty-first-century art." - Christine Mehring, University of Chicago and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton

"I love this collection of 20 years of Whitehot! The interviews, reviews, and articles are my ticket to ride a big tent art world magic bus that leaves the Port Authority and touches down all over the world to fill up on creativity-and art that matters. If you're tired of the same old form of the art industrial complex, I guarantee you'll leave this grand tour renewed and refreshed." - David Raskin, Mohn Family Professor of Contemporary Art History, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

"This is what an independent art magazine looks like in an age when most of the others have become barely discernible flavors of a single soulless franchise. A publication created by an artist who wanted to create his own terms of engagement with the art world, populated with opinions that, like fire, need air to spread, Whitehot proves that codependence is integral to the vitality of independence." - Whitehot book blurb-Carlo McCormick

About the Author

Noah Becker is an American and Canadian editor, artist, and Jazz musician based in New York since 2005. Beyond Whitehot, Becker has exhibited work in a range of institutions worldwide, including the Vancouver Art Gallery in Canada.
Michael Maizels is an historian and critic whose work brings the visual art into collision with a broad range of disciplinary histories and potential futures. He is the author of four books, the most recent of which examines art, politics and markets in contemporary China.