Artforumhas a new top editor.
Ryan, 40, is a longtime contributor toArtforumand other art publications.
Before that, she worked in the department of modern and contemporary art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Tina Rivers Ryan, the new editor in chief ofArtforum.
Her appointment follows several months of turmoil atArtforum.
Numerous staff members left and contributors pulled pieces after Velascos firing.
Voguespoke with Ryan earlier this week ahead of the announcement.
The cover ofArtforum’s Summer 1967 issue. Artwork: Larry Bell,Memories of Mike, metal and glass, 24" square, 1966-7.
Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Vogue:How did your interest in the art world first develop?
Tina Rivers Ryan:I was always a student of history.
I thought I was going to be a medievalist.
How did your work as a museum curator develop out of that?
And why the pivot now to publishing?
I am and have always been a writer.
English was always my subject when I was a kid.
And that is precisely the kind of writing thatArtforumhas always excelled at supporting and finding audiences for.
How will your expertise in media artdigital art, video art, etc.play a role inArtforumunder your leadership?
I agree with many people who oppose this rhetorical structure of virtual or digital versus real or physical.
And so from where I stand, there is no contemporary art without media art, without digital art.
Im not saying that everything has to be digital now.
The cover ofArtforums Summer 1967 issue.
Artwork: Larry Bell,Memories of Mike, metal and glass, 24" square, 1966-7.
How will you cover this kind of art in the magazine?
One of the things that Im very excited about is expandingArtforums digital offerings.
But to be clear,Artforums existence as a printed magazine is really the core of the magazines identity.
I personally have a real attachment to the print issues.
Okay, maybe not literally every single back issue, but a lot of them.
I am also very inspired by this moment of multimedia publishing.
When I was a student, 20 or 30 years ago, textbooks started coming with CD-ROMs.
This was in the days before the ubiquity of online digital video.
What, to you, is the role of theArtforumeditor in chief at this moment in time?
