Post from Sid Sachs
[Editor’s note: Sid is responding to a post by James Rosenthal, part of a series of posts on the state of art criticism in town and in general. For the full series to date, check under hot topics, left.]
Yawn yawn yawn. Do the work Jamie. Do the work.
I am too old to hear the bees buzzing the same refrain. It has been done or at least attempted. It keeps being done. Arts Exchange. The New Art Examiner. Artblog. If you want serious criticism just do it yourself. Don’t settle, don’t write journalism but do some research and think and make a damn historic stance. Don’t wait for others.
And lets praise those great people who put it on the line with Momenta,
Blohard, White Box, the Project Room, Slought [Foundation], BaseKamp.
And curators like Elsa Longhauser, Paula Marincola, Dick Torchia, Ingrid Schafner, Judith Tannenbaum.
You think Duchamp cared that no one noticed? Rudy Staffel just did the work. Georgio Morandi just did the work. Myron Stout just did the work. What are you expecting? (image top, Morandi’s “Natura Morta.”)
When Longo and Sherman et.al. were pissed about Buffalo they made Hallwalls.
Be proactive, not whiney. Just do something and don’t expect.
Break out of the box. Get involved politically; kiss Fumo’s fumes.
—Artblog contributor Sid Sachs is gallery director of Rosenwald-Wolf at University of the Arts.
