Sunday, August 12, 2007

Shit I Read On The Plane.


There's an interesting article in the latest Art + Auction about APT, a kind of mutual fund for artists and their art. Nice to see someone thinking outside the box. Although, I don't know how happy it makes some of the people who own the boxes.

Unfortunately, in the same issue, I also came across the the tidbit that the crap writer, Richard Polsky, is going to unleash a follow-up crap book to his other crap book I Bought Andy Warhol. Oh, lucky us. IBAW was a perfect bad storm of self-importance and self-loathing channeled through really bad writing and bad taste. Definitely one of the top five worst books I've ever read. It easily replaced Amanda Filipacchi's Nude Men as the MOST ANNOYING book I'd ever come across. Ugh.


Ever since Modern Painters switched from their quarterly publishing schedule it's just felt, well, less special. I probably feel that way just because of the stock they've used since they went bimonthly. Seriously. The quality of the writing, the attitude, and ingenuity has remained the same. The July/August issue is a good example of that.

Karen Kilimnik's fake interview with Brigitte Bardot is as confusing, wonderful, and warm as Kilimnik's art is to me. If you didn't get a chance to see the artist's retrospective at the ICA in Philadelphia I am bummed for you.

Speaking of warm, the previously unpublished Sol LeWitt interview by Sara Kent is just one more record of the artist's generosity. Conducted in 1971, the interview is a total treat from beginning to end. A must-read.

Two reviews are instant classics. Richard Prince's review of, um, Richard Prince is hilarious and full of piss. He thinks his show at Neuberger Museum of Art SUCKS. First line: "This was a complete show of crap." Brilliant. Chicks On Speed kill it when they review Dian Hanson's Vanessa Del Rio: Fifty Years of Slightly Slutty Behavior. A porny review for a porn star. Totally unruly. Like, not ruly at all.

I just reviewed two magazines. It is soooooo summer.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

did you listen to eva lake's interview with polsky?

Heart As Arena said...

Ooh. No. Thanks for the tip, Martin.

Heart As Arena said...

OK, Martin. I listened. Sorry. I'm not sure how to take someone seriously who flippantly says, "Jean-Michel Basquiat, you know, the graffiti artist." (Especially in reference to the part of J-M B's career to which he was referring.), and later asks Eva if she remembered the Guerilla Girls. That was when I realized that this guy would never have anything interesting to say to me ever in the history of our shared everness. Let me quote Coil here, "Constant shallowness leads to evil." Evil and really boring interviews. I know I'm being harsh here. Polsky seems like a nice enough guy. He's just wildly useless to me when it comes to understanding art or the market in a way I care to. I'm glad he can help his rich, dumb clients though. Somebody has to.