David Bonetti is sick of St. Louis

St. Louis Post-Dispatch art critic David Bonetti kissed off his job at the paper and the city of its origin, where he lived for what sounds like six hard years. (Story here, link via Douglas Britt.)

I’m impressed that the Dispatch posted his remarkable essay and left it up on its site. I don’t think the newspaper where I toiled till it ceased production would have done the same. Hell, I’m sure of it.

Bonetti:

As some of you might have heard, I am leaving the Post-Dispatch. Today is my last day and this will be my last Culture Club post. Although some of the Cherokee Street clique would like to think that I was fired by an enlightened management that wants reviews of inept artists showing their woeful attempts at self-expression in vanity galleries, that is not the case. I took advantage of advanced age and a benefits package and decided to retire…

I would be the first to admit that St. Louis and I were not a match made in heaven. Indeed, my editor Christy Bertelson for the past unhappy year and a half accused me of hating St. Louis. I do hate things about St. Louis: the willed ignorance, the racism, the smugness of the self-appointed social and cultural elite, the stupidity of the political class, etc. But it is hard to hate a city where you’ve lived for more than six years. Affection grows in spite of yourself.

He goes on to list 5 things he’ll miss. Lots of drinking is one. There’s not a single artist on his list, a single gallery, nonprofit space or art museum. He won’t miss the Beckmanns at the St. Louis Art Museum? That can’t be true. Obviously, he wrote this piece in a scorched-earth mood. Bonetti plans to move to Boston. I hope he keeps writing, because he’s good.