tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369527.post112924259067905441..comments2023-09-22T02:55:23.209-05:00Comments on ART OR IDIOCY?: "There are so many people in the art world that know abso-fucking-lutely nothing"The Artist Extraordinairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02290864849176199041noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369527.post-1129747017287631582005-10-19T13:36:00.000-05:002005-10-19T13:36:00.000-05:00I interviewed Hickey prior to a lecture he gave he...I interviewed Hickey prior to a lecture he gave here in Memphis 4 years ago, when I was the art critic for the local newsweekly. He said that he took a position in the academy for the same reasons anyone else leaves the world of freelance and short-term employment--economic stability and health insurance. <BR/><BR/>Anyone who has seen critic cough, strain and snort through one of those lectures, watched him consume mass quanities of coffee and cigarettes, can understand how the pragmatist in Hickey might resign himself to the institution that he loaths.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps too, as witnessed by his controversial rise into art world prominence, he likely gets devilish joy in storming the citadel.<BR/><BR/>This blog, which I accidently discovered tody, is so awesome.<BR/><BR/>David HallDavid Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00558679145059858491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369527.post-1129331347621481122005-10-14T18:09:00.000-05:002005-10-14T18:09:00.000-05:00Quoting Jim: "He dislikes all academic education, ...Quoting Jim: "He dislikes all academic education, whether it is in universities or art schools."<BR/><BR/>Why, then, does Hickey teach art education at a university? That is the definition of hypocrisy, no?jkfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16232565426339240796noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369527.post-1129324851119723952005-10-14T16:20:00.000-05:002005-10-14T16:20:00.000-05:00Okay, a brief summary.Hickey has a definite politi...Okay, a brief summary.<BR/><BR/>Hickey has a definite politics and message. He is consistent and unambiguous.<BR/><BR/>1. He believes that there is no escape from the uniformity of the art world, which has been ruined by (a) the mind-numbing world of late capitalism, (b) the identical educations all Americans receive, and (c) the rise of identity politics and the insistence that art express an ethnic, gender, or political message. <BR/><BR/>2. He dislikes all academic education, whether it is in universities or art schools. <BR/><BR/>3. He thinks that art students and young artists lack the breadth and depth of cultural reference that people in an older generation possessed, making their art superficial and endlessly self-similar.<BR/><BR/>4. He is annoyed by and alienated from poststructuralism, the "October" crowd, the Frankfurt schol, and much of the current concerns of the humanities, and he finds some models and affinities in older art (especially Romanticism) and authors (for example, William Hazlitt, Bernard Shaw). <BR/><BR/>These things are at times obscured by his penchant for outrageous one-liners. I'm very glad I invited him to the roundtable (which was the central event in the art criticism series) because he is so seldom asked to speak with people from the academic side of things. The dialogue we had was interesting, and I will be glad to share it with anyone after it's edited, in a couple of weeks. Whatever art criticism is, it includes Dave as well as people who are just as likely to be snubbed by academics, such as the much less famous but equally interesting James Panero (who was there, and who writes for the New Criterion).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8369527.post-1129266577496701292005-10-14T00:09:00.000-05:002005-10-14T00:09:00.000-05:00Well - i certainly admire all the work you put int...Well - i certainly admire all the work you put into relating what hickey said, but what did you think? i think that behind there words there was a message. i am not sure if you got it, don't see it in what you wrote, but you seemed to have captured the subtler lapses of coherences and moments where the gross generalizations just didn't work....<BR/>i am asking because i was deeply moved by hickey. he seemed to be either be talking to a past that is dead or a future that is dawning. i can't figure out which, and i don't really have a way with words - remembering or speaking them - so i am hoping that someone else could essentialize his message for me. something pocket-sized, so i can pull it out and share it with others. <BR/><BR/>my inclination is to say that he was saying that the critic is dead because he should be. the sort of public that gave birth to him is long gone. we should get out and speak for ourselves. fuck art school and make something. i heard someone call art school a pyramid scheme and i am inclined to agree...<BR/><BR/>the voting thing, i sorta lost him there too, but that was the crux of his talk for me. blend it with the ambiguous birth of "identity art" and what he seemed to have been saying was abandon these frames, these devices for building structures to do your thing. it is like we do the world with a 10-foot pole and he was saying, drop the pole. perhaps the critic is part of that "pole". okay, lousy analogy, but get it? hope so. btw, i think we are getting there, where he wants.<BR/><BR/>oh, and i don't see why it wasn't okay that so many people lined up for him. better him than vito acconci.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com