The Rules of the Game Brought in by my poetry elder John Ashbery in 1961, I was interviewed and then hired by the editor of Art News, Thomas B. Hess, a famous critic of that time. The avuncular Mr. Hess offered two rules: 1. Never write a review of artworks you have not actually seen. Reviews were supposed to be published when the exhibitions were still up o readers could cross-check your descriptions.  (Only newspapers manage that now.) This meant the Art News reviewer had to make … [Read more...]