SPECIAL REPORT VISITOR FIGURES2015 The grand totals: exhibition and museum attendance numbers worldwide VISITOR FIGURES 2015 The grand totals: exhibition and museum attendance numbers worldwide THE DIRECTORS THE ARTISTS They tell us about their unlikely Six artists on the exhibitions blockbusters and surprise flops that made their careers U. ALLEMANDI & CO. PUBLISHING LTD. EVENTS, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS MONTHLY. EST. 1983, VOL. XXV, NO. 278, APRIL 2016 II THE ART NEWSPAPER SPECIAL REPORT Number 278, April 2016 SPECIAL REPORT VISITOR FIGURES 2015 Exhibition & museum attendance survey JEFF KOONS is the toast of Paris and Bilbao But Taipei tops our annual attendance survey, with a show of works by the 20th-century artist Chen Cheng-po atisse cut-outs in New attracted more than 9,500 visitors a day to Rio de York, Monet land- Janeiro’s Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil. Despite scapes in Tokyo and Brazil’s economic crisis, the deep-pocketed bank’s Picasso paintings in foundation continued to organise high-profile, free Rio de Janeiro were exhibitions. Works by Kandinsky from the State overshadowed in 2015 Russian Museum in St Petersburg also packed the by attendance at nine punters in Brasilia, Rio, São Paulo and Belo Hori- shows organised by the zonte; more than one million people saw the show National Palace Museum in Taipei. The eclectic on its Brazilian tour. Mgroup of exhibitions topped our annual survey Bernard Arnault’s new Fondation Louis Vuitton despite the fact that the Taiwanese national muse- used its ample resources to organise a loan show um’s total attendance fell slightly during its 90th that any public museum would envy. Keys to a anniversary year. Passion included works by Modern masters from More than 12,000 people a day—locals and coa- New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and chloads of visitors from mainland China—visited Guggenheim, London’s Tate, the Centre Pompidou the Taipei museum last year. They saw exhibitions in Paris, the Munch Museum, Oslo, and the Hermit- on subjects as diverse as the work of female Chinese age, Pushkin and State Russian Museum in Russia. artists of the 16th and 17th centuries, paintings of The high-wattage works attracted 4,100 visitors a fish and Chinese book binding. day to the Frank Gehry-designed building in Paris’s Local pride helped make a survey of paintings by Bois de Boulogne. a Taiwanese artist the most-attended show of 2015. Chen Cheng-po was one of thousands killed in a Puppy love 1947 massacre that remained taboo for decades. The artist, whose work combines modern Western and Jeff Koons continued his quest for world domina- traditional Chinese influences, was shot by Chinese tion with a touring retrospective, organised by New Nationalist troops during an anti-government upris- York’s Whitney Museum of American Art in 2014. ing known as the February 28 Incident. It was the year’s most-visited exhibition in Paris, drawing nearly 5,000 visitors a day to the Centre The universal lure of loans Pompidou. Koons proved even more popular at Jeff Koons was all smiles at his Guggenheim the Guggenheim Bilbao, the home of his giant Paintings by brand-name artists on loan from Eu- Bilbao retrospective, which attracted 5,182 Jeff Koons continued floral Puppy, where the retrospective attracted ropean museums continue to draw crowds. Late visitors a day; his Centre Pompidou show was 5,182 visitors a day. The combination of two crowd paintings by Monet from the Musée Marmottan the year’s most visited in Paris. Above, Chen his quest for world (and market) favourites—Koons and Jean-Michel Monet in Paris attracted more than 10,000 visitors Cheng-po’s final painting, Accumulated Snow domination with a Basquiat—helped the Bilbao museum’s attendance a day to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, on Jade Mountain (1947), was included in overtake that of New York’s Guggenheim by more the closest rival to the Taiwanese blockbusters. his survey at the National Palace Museum in touring retrospective than 200,000 visitors. Paintings of everyday life from the Louvre in Par- Taipei, the most-attended show of 2015. The is, including works by Vermeer, Rembrandt and Taiwanese artist was among thousands killed that was visited by Whitney rising in New York Titian, were slightly less popular at the National by Chinese Nationalist troops in 1947 Art Center, Tokyo (7,640 visitors a day). more than 5,100 MoMA continues to dominate the New York scene. A loan show from Madrid’s Reina Sofía of It organised 14 of the city’s top 20 most-visited Spanish artists including Picasso, Dalí and Miró people a day in Bilbao shows. Its Robert Gober exhibition (5,380 visitors a IMAGES GILLENEA/AFP/GETTY ANDER KOONS: THE ART NEWSPAPER SPECIAL REPORT Number 278, April 2016 III Modern masters make a splash at the new Fondation Louis Vuitton (left), while Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty broke box-office records at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum TOP 100 ART MUSEUM ATTENDANCE THE TOP 10 Louvre 1 PARIS 8,600,000 British Museum 2 LONDON 6,820,686 Metropolitan Museum of Art +1 3 NEW YORK 6,533,106 ▲ Vatican Museums 4 VATICAN CITY 6,002,251 ▲+1 National Gallery -2 5 LONDON 5,908,254 ▼ Museum, which is free to visit, remained in second National Palace Museum place, with 6.8 million visitors (up from 6.7 million in 6 TAIPEI 5,291,797 ▲+1 2014). The National Gallery in London fell from third to fifth place after a series of strikes led to temporary Tate Modern -1 room closures. It was overtaken by the Metropolitan 7 LONDON 4,712,581 ▼ Museum of Art, whose 6.5 million visitors included National Gallery of Art those also who went to the Cloisters. 8 WASHINGTON, DC 4,104,331 London’s Tate Modern sees attendance fluctuate State Hermitage Museum more than its peers. It drew 4.7 million visitors in +4 2015, one million fewer than in 2014. The museum’s 9 ST PETERSBURG 3,668,031 ▲ extension, which is due to open in June, should give Musée d’Orsay it a significant boost this year. 10 PARIS 3,440,000 The power of private money CONTINUED ON PAGE XV 5 Three private museums make their debut in our 2015 survey. The Broad in Los Angeles, which METHODOLOGY opened at the end of September, attracted more than 200,000 visitors in the final months of 2015. The daily figures are calculated automatically by The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is a force to our database, which computes the number of days be reckoned with, attracting around one million for which an exhibition was open using the follow- visitors in its inaugural year. Meanwhile, Dasha ing formula: total number of days between start Zhukova’s Garage Museum of Contemporary Art date and end date, divided by seven, multiplied by reopened in a building converted by Rem Koolhaas the number of days a week the institution is open, in June. The Moscow institution attracted more minus exceptional closures. All of the data used than 538,000 visitors. But Mexican billionaire Carlos were supplied by the institutions concerned. Some Slim is still top of the pile; his Museo Soumaya in institutions offer a number of exhibitions for a Mexico City attracted more than 1.6 million visitors single ticket: these are shown as one entry. day) eclipsed the controversial Björk show (5,221 a Honourable mentions over multiple venues. Exhibitions that were free to visit—ie neither the day), although the latter had timed tickets. MoMA Javier Pes, José da Silva and Emily Sharpe, with museum nor the show had an entry fee—are saw fresh competition this year from the Whitney, The British artist David Shrigley deserves a special additional research by Maddalena Alvi, Gabriella indicated with an asterisk (*). which opened its new Renzo Piano-designed build- mention. His offbeat humour went down well in Angeleti, Aimee Dawson and Jessie Sentivan ing in May. The inaugural show of the permanent Australia; his show, which included a micturating collection, America Is Hard to See, was the most life model, attracted more than 5,600 visitors a day popular exhibition in the museum’s history. It drew to Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria Interna- MOST POPULAR EXHIBITIONS THE TOP 20 5,352 visitors a day, nearly 30% more than last year’s tional. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Museum Daily Total Exhibition Venue City Dates Koons show. The Costume Institute at the Metro- of Art (Lacma) proved, if proof were needed, that politan Museum of Art organised the city’s most there is a receptive audience for art and music collab- x An asterisk indicates that entrance to the exhibition and the museum was free crowded exhibition, China: Through the Looking orations with celebrity cachet. Steve McQueen and 13,860 1,607,736 Hidden Talent: Chen Cheng-po National Palace Museum Taipei 5 DEC 14-30 MAR 15 Glass (6,581 visitors a day). Kanye West’s video All Day/I Feel Like That attracted 13,770 1,170,443 Tusu Wine National Palace Museum Taipei 31 DEC 14-25 MAR 15 more than 3,400 people a day during its four-day 13,731 1,153,399 Angling for Years of Plenty: Paintings with Fish National Palace Museum Taipei 1 JAN-25 MAR Ai leads in London screening. Christian Marclay’s The Clock was an inti- 13,245 2,437,113 The Dao of Book Protection National Palace Museum Taipei 27 DEC 14-28 JUN 15 mate experience by comparison; it was viewed by 13,243 5,376,824 The Enchanting Splendour of Vases & Planters National Palace Museum Taipei 12 NOV 14-22 DEC 15 Ai Weiwei proved unstoppable at London’s Royal around 500 visitors a day during its two-month run.