Boston art criticism

When I read lines like this: “...the less stratified, increasingly porous quality of the postboom art world seems to have made setting up shop in some form easier.” in the New York Times article of September 3, 2009 entitled The Mood of the Market, as Measured in the Galleries by Roberta Smith, I want to pop. Pop in a good way. This to me is art criticism with its pulse on the cultural flow. It’s also art in itself, a beautifully worded sentence that is full of insight.

Art criticism in Boston is often simply cronyism or paid for advertising, and the aspiring artists will take it any way they can get it. Believe me I understand that it is not easy to keep a magazine or newspaper going these days but lets face it, integrity must come first. artscope magazine (that don’t capitalize their name) is a beautiful, glossy magazine with great image reproductions. But if you want a review, be sure to place an ad. The Boston Phoenix recent review of a Tufts University group show touted one particular artist as deserving an ICA one-person show. The author was good friends with the artist. Where’s the professionalism, the integrity?

Art New England, another glossy mag which comes out bimonthly (i.e. once every two months) is often behind the times in this rapid-fire information age. For example when their front page article on the Brandeis University Rose Museum debacle made the newstands, the news was practically over. And unfortunately the Boston Globe just doesn’t seem to have the space or resources for a good look at the art scene in our area anymore.

So we must turn to the internet and online magazines and blogs. Here we have Big, Red and Shiny, The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research and .... ? Please let me know what other art blogs or online magazines are out there? Obviously this is where the Boston art scene will get its due. What we need are moonlighters, art critics who take pride in their work, don’t care if you advertise or not with them in order to get a look, and are willing to not only review the Shepard Fairey exhibit but also lesser known artists as well. Add to this a bit of insight on the artistic zeitgeist of the past, present and future and away we go.

Much of what I’m describing here is what Susan Sontag would describe as “negative epiphany” in her book of essays entitled On Photography. Although her context involved photographs of atrocities the same sense applies in that it’s an unwanted realization of reality. I’m not happy about it but it’s what I see as true. In my last big show I was fortunate enough to have the attention of Beat Magazine, an art magazine that soon after folded. I was honored by an article that was honest, that is unpaid for in any way. Looking back on it now I appreciate even more it’s significance. Significance not in the art world but to me. A good review if paid for is tarnished. No matter how glowing, one feels the dirt underneath. Maybe they’ll come back to start an online magazine or others will grab their mantle. The artist needs you.