The Best of the Biennale

If you forgot to book your first-class ticket to Venice and missed the world’s largest celebration of art, The Daily Beast was there for you. Art critic Anthony Haden-Guest explored the Venice Biennale pavilions. The kickoff party held for the U.K.’s representative, director Steve McQueen, was hidden in the Palazzo Pisani Moretta down a narrow alleyway and the Francois Pinault collection was a highlight—held in a dazzling new museum, it was the perfect space for Pinault’s favorite artists. But the biggest scandal came from Jacques Charlier, an artist whose exhibit of 100 “portraits” of the sexual organs of artists was deemed too outrageous for Venetians.