One of the better dustups in recent memory took place in L.A., after David Pagel unfavorably reviewed Diane Thater in the L.A. Times. The comments rocked the house and spread to blogs, most impressively, on The Hairy Prone Companion.
I respect Pagel, but this review sounds as if he wrote it from his lizard brain. There’s a big group of artists (“fourth and fifth generation Conceptualists,” in Pagel’s condescending phrase) he can’t abide. Why go to their shows, then? Every single time out, as Marat told de Sade in another context, critics have to pick themselves up by their own hair, turn themselves inside out and prepare to see the world with fresh eyes. If they can’t entertain the possibility that an artist they don’t admire will surprise them, they need to stay home.
Diana Thater: Between Science and Magic
Pagel is King Solmon compared to Thater, however, who logged into the comments section to fight back:
Ahhhhhh this is all SO interesting! But …would you like to know why David Pagel actually wrote this incredibly personal, mean-spirited and low so-called “review” of my show?
I’ve posted a factual account of my 13-year history with David Pagel and Christopher Knight on my website. Read it and ask yourself why these people actually have jobs at a major newspaper if this is how they use their positions and the power they’ve been accorded.
Thanks to those of you who have defended me and my work against the rabid anti-intellectuals. (And will anyone ever tell me what a 4th-generation conceptualist is?????) (I’d be satisfied just to know what everyone thinks they’re talking about when the use the word “conceptual”). And is everyone who is not dumb an intellectual by default or is there an IQ minimum? Didn’t Pol Pot make a point of putting the “intellectuals” to death? Hmmmm seems like a bad road to be going down…but if that’s what Pagel is about – let’s just be glad he doesn’t have an army.
Pagel is not against intellectuals. He’s one himself. And to compare him to Pol Pot in Los Angeles, where people who survived Pot comprise a large community …I’m speechless.
On her blog, Thater recounts the time that Pagel and Dave Hickey sent a funeral wreath to the opening of a group show featuring artists whom Christopher Knight, Pagel and Hickey had all panned. That was the point of the show, that these critics wrote them off.
The wreaths were on stands and had wide ribbons draped across them. Both said; “With Deepest Sympathy” and the cards were signed by David Pagel and Dave Hickey.
The message? These two art critics didn’t just hate us and our work – they wished we were DEAD.
Note to Thater: I wasn’t there, but I don’t have to be a weather man to know which way this wind blew. Sending a funeral wreath didn’t mean Pagel and Hickey wished you were dead. It was a theatrical gesture, intended to provoke a response. They don’t like your work, but they like you and the artists in this show enough to engage. In the future, think Dada, not death threat. And leave Pol Pot out of this. You want to compare a critic to a killer, go with Attila the Hun. No one alive has a stake in his story.
Back to Pagel: It’s interesting that he wrote the review without any mention of a back story. This is not the first time he has come down from the mountain with this set of injunctions. He owes his readers the context for his comments. Once he sent the wreath, it’s part of his story. He’s now a participant on stage, not a member of the audience. To pretend otherwise is dishonest.
I understand how tricky this is. An artist once threatened to sue me. It didn’t get far, but lawyers were involved. I wondered ever after how I was going to write another review of his work. After he had filed papers in court attacking me, he gave me a reason to be way past grumpy. Fortunately for me, the occasion for a second review did not arise. Big history needs to be acknowledged, especially big negative history.
Other news:
From Slate – Michelangelo did not whistle while he worked.
My stomach’s squashed under my chin, my beard’s
pointing at heaven, my brain’s crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy’s.
Justice is done – Christoph Büchel prevailed against Mass MoCA on appeal. From John Silberman’s The Art Law Blog:
Today the First Circuit reversed
his decision, holding that “the record permits the inference that …
Museum staff members were disregarding [Büchel’s] instructions and
intentionally modifying ‘Training Ground’ in a manner that he did not
approve.” (more)
And justice is not done – From Culture Monster, Shepard Fairey will face a criminal investigation in the AP case. When did the Associated Press begin to stink of sulfur? Surely in a country brimming over with criminal conduct in high places, there are better people to investigate than Fairey.
Christopher Knight says
Your piece requires some important factual correction.
First, David Pagel did not send a funeral wreath to the exhibition cited.
Second, the cited exhibition’s text was the purported death of art criticism. The funeral wreath that was sent ironically commemorated that thematic claim.
Another Bouncing Ball says
Hi Christopher Knight. Who are you, David Pagel’s daddy? Can’t he respond for himself? I got who did and did not send a wreath from Diana Thater. You need to take it up with her. (This item appeared in a links column. I didn’t do the original reporting.) And I said the event was theater. An ironical response on this scale is theater. Regina
Christopher Knight says
You impugn the integrity of the newspaper I work for by printing false information, and then you claim that reporting is checking with a third party about what happened. Brilliant.
Hank says
I don’t think critics aligned on one side and a group of artists on the other is healthy for the artists. I wish it weren’t healthy for the critics, but they’re doing fine.
ElizabethB says
Criticism is a bully boy’s club in L.A. If the city is really the equal of New York, as Christopher Knight claims, then why are so few critical voices dominant, and why do they always agree?
JessicaB says
If only Christopher Knight lived in Seattle.
an artist from LA says
I don’t get it. Artist reviews are mild in comparison to every other field of criticism- look at film, book, and stage reviews and you will see what I mean. Pagel’s review was legit and reasonable. There are many artists who think the same about DT’s work. And by the mental gyrations DT goes through in her commentary one would imagine that she believes she’s entitled to nothing but good reviews. Okay we all feel that way from time to time, but we do not all resort to name calling and strange accusations. The bully here is Thater, not Knight or Pagel.
Max says
Regina. I think you went a little further than linking to the particulars of of this story. You took it for granted that the artist was factual and the critic in the wrong. If you only presented both sides, you could get away with saying nobody does reporting in a links piece. But you didn’t. You took her side. I think you should have called David Pagel to get his side of this story, instead of thinking that he didn’t have one.
wreath for funeral says
The wreath have different kinds. Funeral wreath in look is different than Christmas wreath. One should use vibrant colour in xmas wreath while in funeral the light colours are good to show some sorrow.
Diana Thater says
LOL.
Mr. Knight is funny – first he says Pagel didn’t do it then he tells us why it was done. How does he know why it was done if he doesn’t know who did it?
And Mr. Knight can check the THIRD party review I posted on my site – – it was written by Irit Krygier who was at the opening and reviewed the show. I think that counts as independent confirmation.
http://www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/reviews/krygier/krygier10-08-1999.asp
Please don’t be silly and say I compared Pagel to Pol Pot – I made a statement about how anti-intellectualism often ends up – you know gulags and stuff like that. That wasn’t a hard thing to understand so don’t get all freaked out when you hear Pol Pot’s name. And yes – many chairs of art departments are precisely that – anti-intellectuals. Art schools are rife with them (I’ve taught for 15 years). And I’ve read Pagel and Knight for YEARS and yes – by any definition – they are anti-intellectuals.
AND OMG they LIKE me and the other artists in the show – did you and I both read the Pagel review?
Extra bit of info: The producer of my film was at a cocktail party talking with Pagel’s wife (Alisa Tager) who told my producer that Pagel was going to “trash” me in the LAT. I can get you third party confirmation for this too if you’d like. Both the host and my producer were there and both were shocked.
Sorry so late to the table on this one but didn’t see it sooner or would have fought sooner.