Isaac Julien, most influential artists of 2019
Artsy celebrates Isaac Julien's career and achievements in 2019 as he is shortlisted amongst the most influential artists of the year
December 20, 2019
Few artists have done more to push video art forward in recent years than Isaac Julien, and in 2019, it seemed that all his efforts came to fruition.
His 10-screen film installation Lessons of the Hour (2019)—which dramatizes events in the life of the 19th-century scholar and activist Frederick Douglass with lush details and cinematic grandeur—debuted at Metro Pictures in New York in March and went on to be shown in Rochester, New York, and Savannah, Georgia.
The nine-channel film installation Lina Bo Bardi – A Marvelous Entanglement (2019), Julien’s homage to the titular Brazilian modernist architect, premiered at Victoria Miro in London in June and then made a splash stateside in December, when it was one of the standout works in Art Basel in Miami Beach’s new Meridians sector (where it was co-presented by the galleries Victoria Miro, Nara Roesler, and Jessica Silverman, in collaboration with Ron Mandos).
This year also marked the 30th anniversary of Julien’s breakout work: his 1989 paean to the Harlem Renaissance,Looking for Langston, which was shown this year at Tate Britain and San Antonio’s new Ruby City museum, as well as a special screening during Performa in New York.
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Image: Isaac Julien in his London studio. Photo Leon Chew.
Isaac Julien in his London studio. Photograph Leon Chew.
