The 10 Best-Attended Art Exhibits of 2011

The 'art world' is a concept just as tricky to define as 'art' itself. Opinions on what distinguishes 'good' from 'poor', 'high-brow' from 'low-brow', 'contemporary' from plain bizarre are essentially endless. No one seems quite sure what qualifies an 'artist' to be labeled as such. And what is this 'world', this community, they belong in?

One thing all artists and art enthusiasts cannot dispute, however, is a cold, hard fact. The Art Newspaper serves up an annual batch of exhibit attendance figures to reveal which exhibitions were best attended. No matter what your taste or opinions, 2011 brought an eclectic jumble to the forefront; here are 10 of the most attended exhibits.

1. The Magical World of Escher

Where: The Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Visitors per day: 9,677

This exhibition brought together the best-known trippy drawings and prints by the Dutch artist.

2. Kukai’s World: the Arts of Esoteric Buddhism

Where: The Tokyo National Museum
Visitors per day: 9,108

Featuring 99 items - some certified national treasures - related to Kukai, the famous Japanese Buddhist priest, this exhibit celebrates 'Esoteric Buddhism'. Kukai brought the practice with him from China during the early 9th century.

3. Landscape Reunited

Where: The National Palace Museum
Visitors per day: 8,828

Reuniting the two halves of Huang Gongwang's Chinese scroll painting Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains, this exhibit pieced together the 660-year-old work from the sections formerly split between China and Taiwan. The piece, considered one of the most important in Chinese painting, has not been exhibited in its entirety since 1940.

4. Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Where: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Visitors per day: 8,025

The Costume Institute's posthumous tribute to Alexander McQueen featured his groundbreaking works of fashion.

5. Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Where: The Grand Palais
Visitors per day: 7,609

The likes of this exhibit had been MIA in Paris for years, making this collection of over 200 impressionist Monet works even more of a must-see.

6. Photoquai

Where: Musée Quai Branly
Visitors per day: 7,304

A free, outdoor celebration of non-Western photography, Photoquai held its third edition in 2011.

7. Mariko Mori: Oneness

Where: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Visitors per day: 6,991

Toyko-born, New York-raised Mariko Mori designed this contemporary exhibit to be interactive, with some pieces visually interpreting attendees brainwaves, and others lighting up when touched.

8. Monumenta: Anish Kapoor

Where: The Grand Palais
Visitors per day: 6,967

Kapoor's temporary, site-specific installation challenged the confines of the Grand Palais belle epoque exhibition hall.

9. Laurie Anderson

Where: Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil
Visitors per day: 6,934

For her first solo show in Brazil, Anderson chose to feature 31 works that "told stories".

10. The Prado Museum

Where: The Hermitage
Visitors per day: 6,649

Madrid's Prado Museum created its own little 66-piece museum inside of St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum as the first of a two-part exhibition exchange. The Hermitage Museum will be featured at the Prado through March 2012.

[via Flavorwire]