BY Andrew Durbin in Features | 29 APR 20

Welcome to the New Look of Frieze Magazine

Frieze magazine has been redesigned, beginning with our May/June issue

BY Andrew Durbin in Features | 29 APR 20

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #611 (detail), 2019, dye-sublimation metal print, 2.3 × 2.7 m. On the cover of frieze issue 212 – May/June 2020. Courtesy: the artist and Metro Pictures, New York 

In comedy, timing is everything. And what a strange time to relaunch  frieze  – with a new design, new formats for our features and a newly thematic front section of the magazine.

For May’s theme and my first issue as editor, we’re thinking about the art world’s love of comedy – from snarky meme-based criticism to the teens of TikTok to ‘artjacent’ arrivistes. As many of us are quarantined around the world, you may wonder what’s so funny about 2020? And what comedy – or art, for that matter – can offer us during such a dire moment. As it turns out, a lot of relief.

Barbara Casaveccia spearks to filmmaker Yuri Ancarani in frieze issue 212 – May/June 2020. Image: Yuri Ancarani (Atlantide, working title), 2020, production still. Courtesy: the artist, Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin, Galleria Zero, Milan, and Dugong Films

Humour, like great art and a great magazine, has the power to connect you with the world, whether you are stuck at home or far from it. Art and comedy produce a profound sense of recognition: that we are almost never really alone, even in our hardship. We wanted to address humour and art for this very reason. In the face of a crisis, sometimes all you can do is laugh, stay home, read. There’s hope in that.

The Argument from frieze issue 212 – May/June 2020.

And we hope you like the new look. A new typeface – Rhymes by Jakub Samek - is complemented by Swiss 721, a 20th-century sans-serif classic, and wider margins make for an easier reading experience. Meanwhile, a redesigned layout, by creative director David Lane and design director Lorenz Klingebiel, allows more space for images and the work of the artists we cover. These, together with a little playfulness, make up the new look of frieze.  

Franceca Wade on anarchist, critic and literary editor Félix Fénéon in frieze issue 212 – May/June 2020. Image: specially commissioned photography by Polly Brown. Courtesy: the artist 

Like what you see? Save 30% on the cover price and receive a free frieze tote bag when you subscribe to the magazine. Find out more here.  

Andrew Durbin is the editor-in-chief of frieze. His book The Wonderful World That Almost Was is forthcoming from FSG in 2025.

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