Lists are a fact of journalistic life but only the Art Review 100 list comes with its own critique of the spuriousness of lists in the form of David Hickey’s 2003 essay “on power” where he dismisses the importance of anyone on the list:

people whom the press designates as powerful usually fall into one of three categories. There are very nice people who used to have some power and are in the process of losing it (I would fit this category). There are people who are powerful in some other arena (business, politics, showbiz). And, finally, there are those unfortunates who have been involuntarily outed – an eventuality which is invariably disastrous for the outee, since one’s first appearance in the press prefigures the day that one will disappear from it, leaving the impression of sudden and abject obsolescence.

1. Larry Gagosian
2. Hans Ulrich Obrist
3. Iwan Wirth
4. David Zwirner
5. Glenn D. Lowry
6. Bice Curiger
7. Sir Nicholas Serota
8. Eli Broad
9. RoseLee Goldberg
10. François Pinault
11. Adam D. Weinberg
12. Jeffrey Deitch
13. Ai Weiwei
14. Agnes Gund
15. Alfred Pacquement

Art Review Power 100 (Art Review)