Morning Women, the Triumph of the Trivial, Dots, the Invasion of Normandy…and Free Stuff
Open the doors. “If a supermarket paying its people $12 an hour can safely operate, so can museums whose directors, curators, and PR and fundraising flacks make multiples more.” That’s the National Review’s Brian T. Allen arguing that Texas museums are currently occupied by “Safe Space U” snowflakes and directors who equate re-openings with planning SEAL team missions and the Normandy Invasion. Although bathed in incredulity, Allen’s article does highlight one interesting point when he suggests that this is “a perfect chance for museums to do something truly radical, or truly reactionary. Just open permanent-collection galleries first.” True. Let’s forget about traveling exhibitions by the same artists for a little while—the same exhibition that you will see regardless of whether you are in Barcelona, Hong Kong, Los Angeles or the moon—and instead focus on the art within a museum’s collection. Or how about exhibiting local artists. To my knowledge, there is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that states that every art institution has to exhibit the same art or the same artist.
I suppose some will think grand re-openings make sense. After all, whether you work at a supermarket, auction house or museum, you’re expected to report to work, stock shelves, and bag the goods, right? Why would art institutions be any different? Because art, unlike culture, is not essential.
Do you also miss acerbic art criticism?I just dream it’s still by my side.
Christopher Knight wins a Pulitzer? Come on, man! And apparently for opposing a museum’s conventional desire to expand its footprint, hire the same architects that every art institution hires, and look exactly like every other art institution on the planet. That’s the controversy. If that’s equivalent to All the President’s Men, that should tell you how shallow the pool of art criticism is. Knight, as some of you may remember, is the guy—sorry, Pulitzer recipient—that got his clock cleaned by Donn Zaretsky in the fight over museums and deaccessioning. Apparently you don’t need training in journalism any more; just a blessing from God (or mom, Happy Mother’s Day!). And how does God create an art critic? He gets rid of reason and accountability.
Art criticism …RIP. If you’re thinking Kenny Schachter or Jerry Saltz are art critics, then our situation is officially dire. As in dire. As in the Mexican drug cartels just found out you swindled them out of a million dollars dire. So to the question of “who do we award a Pulitzer to, i.e.- who do we award X to, where X is an award, prize, grant, etc.,” we’re back to what I call The Edward James Olmos Effect. More on that next week! Today, I’ll point you to what I think is the new art criticism: right here!
How many of you sweat tears every time the ol’ Reaper knocks on Justice Ginsburg’s door? I bet you grab the nearest calendar and count the days until Tuesday, November 3rd.
While we’re on the subject of Let’s.Get.Rid.Of.Old.Stuff., here are two useless and pestiferous practices we should abolish, in perpetuity:
Pretense. Let’s please eviscerate the “I am so honored to be…,” and the “Humbled to be…” that so many in the artworld love to write on Facebook and Instagram. You know what I’m talking about, “I’m so honored to be in a group show with 500 other artists in a small non-profit space in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.” Or, “Humbled to have received a $200 grant from the Church of the Useless Miracle to curate my exhibition critiquing the lack of critical art in post-Colonial Nations.” No one, no one is honored or humbled by that. Ok, maybe humbled.
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