Archives for December 2006

Holiday shopping in P-town How Provincetown Became P-Town Because I was writing this in the middle of the holidays, I thought at first it would be a simple piece about my little trip to Provincetown, Massachusetts, where indeed I did see some art. In Artopia, every holiday is a busman's holiday. You cannot escape from art. And when it comes to art, nothing is ever simple. P-town, as it has been called from Charles Hawthorne to John Waters, was once an active and important art colony. Hawthorne, … [Read more...]

John Latham: Cluster No. 11, 1992 Chewing Time John Latham is an art hero because in 1966 he instigated an event called Still and Chew that required several participants to bite off, masticate, and then spit out pages from Clement Greenberg's Art and Culture. The results were put in a flask and returned to the library from which the artist had borrowed that influential, devilish collection of essays. Because of this, Latham was fired from his teaching job at the prestigious St. Martin's School … [Read more...]

Kiki Smith: Lilith, 1994. Siliconbronze and glass. Most art critics and art journalists avoid art issues. The products are described, sometimes adequately, sometimes not. Meanings are avoided, possibly because in most cases there are none. This might have been understandable in a time like the '80s, when art issues almost sank the ship, but nowadays, when the only issue is whether or not the art fairs will kill off Chelsea, we could use a few issues again. "Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980--2005," … [Read more...]