Workers at the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts adding President Donald J. Trump’s name to the building on December 19. hoto by Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Over the past year, the art world watched trends rise and fall, much of it shaped by the political and social forces that defined 2025. Between tariffs, a sluggish economy, climate change and the never-ending machinations of the Trump administration, the sector took a clear hit. Debates over freedom of speech and censorship intensified, galleries shuttered, art dealers sued one another and auction records were shattered, even as some players surged ahead while others fought simply to stay afloat. Through the turbulence, Daddy was there to track the most unforgettable moments of 2025—and the ones we would rather forget. The year left me with plenty to unpack, and what follows are the defining art world moments of 2025, in no particular order.

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Jason Farago’s open acknowledgment of fair fatigue

This year, critics finally said what many of us have been thinking for the past few cycles: art fairs are exhausting. What once felt essential now often feels like just another obligation, and the spectacle has gotten repetitive. That exhaustion was articulated most clearly in Jason Farago’s analysis of the Art Basel trifecta in a quiet takedown of the fair’s predictability. By dissecting what Basel, Paris, Miami and Hong Kong each reliably deliver, Farago exposed how routine the experience has become, with branding and scale increasingly standing in for risk, discovery or intellectual surprise.

That critique sharpened further in this month’s Miami Basel roundups, many of which lingered on the fair’s tackiest and most excessive aspects, from influencer theater to overproduced booths to luxury spectacle posing as cultural engagement. Reading them, I kept returning to a question that once felt unsayable but now seems unavoidable: Is Art Basel Miami Beach tacky, and are we finally allowed to admit it? What was once defended as playful maximalism now risks looking hollow, and the fact that critics are willing to name that shift suggests something deeper than fatigue and points to a growing discomfort with the fair model itself.

The Guggenheim-Asher Implosion

This was one of the most unhinged art world lawsuits in years. Former business partners Barbara Guggenheim and Abigail Asher sued one another after nearly 40 years in business, and the details were wild. Guggenheim filed a complaint in August 2024 that became public in 2025, accusing Asher of misappropriating more than $20.5 million in company revenue........

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