Skin Fruit is out of vogue — it’s too glitzy. Peter Schjeldahl unearths a few themes I hadn’t noticed, but God his prose are thick. The piece is needlessly hard to read.
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Skin Fruit is out of vogue — it’s too glitzy. Peter Schjeldahl unearths a few themes I hadn’t noticed, but God his prose are thick. The piece is needlessly hard to read.
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I didn’t think it was that hard (though I had to look up ‘sansculottes’ and ‘unctuous’); I like it because he seems so confident being big, epochal
peter > jerry x 5
I didn’t think it was that hard (though I had to look up ‘sansculottes’ and ‘unctuous’); I like it because he seems so confident being big, epochal
peter > jerry x 5
“The posturing of ‘Skin Fruit’—roughly, noblesse oblige, laced with a left-libertarian raciness—cannot long deflect the mounting potency of class resentment.” Interesting take but how accurate is it? The premise of the show was debated extensively on AFC and other places where Schjeldahl’s “howling sansculottes” might dwell. The tenor of these discussions wasn’t so much “death to the rich” as “Is the NewMu fulfilling its original mission?”
“The posturing of ‘Skin Fruit’—roughly, noblesse oblige, laced with a left-libertarian raciness—cannot long deflect the mounting potency of class resentment.” Interesting take but how accurate is it? The premise of the show was debated extensively on AFC and other places where Schjeldahl’s “howling sansculottes” might dwell. The tenor of these discussions wasn’t so much “death to the rich” as “Is the NewMu fulfilling its original mission?”
I think the take is accurate, it’s just not complete. That show exudes money. If this show and others are correct, the NewMu is not fulfilling its original mission as committed to new art. I don’t have a problem with directives changing and whatnot, but this seems a little extreme. I’d like to see emerging art and artists not be marginalized or excluded for once. I’m not convinced Younger Than Jesus is the only way that can happen. I mean, it’s not like biennials and triennials are known for giving artists a lot of room to explore new ideas. It’s simply a form to display ones that already exist – typically poorly.
I think the take is accurate, it’s just not complete. That show exudes money. If this show and others are correct, the NewMu is not fulfilling its original mission as committed to new art. I don’t have a problem with directives changing and whatnot, but this seems a little extreme. I’d like to see emerging art and artists not be marginalized or excluded for once. I’m not convinced Younger Than Jesus is the only way that can happen. I mean, it’s not like biennials and triennials are known for giving artists a lot of room to explore new ideas. It’s simply a form to display ones that already exist – typically poorly.
The accuracy I was questioning was whether “class resentment” is a force sufficient to bring us a new crop of artists, galleries, and infrastructure, if Schjeldahl is correct that the current one is too incestuous and glitzy. The discussion on AFC prior to the show was mostly about ethics, not hanging Gagosian in effigy. I didn’t sense that commenters wanted to dismantle our current top-heavy system, just make the players more accountable. Kind of like “too big to fail” in the financial sector–Koons gets less bonus but gets to keep his job.
The accuracy I was questioning was whether “class resentment” is a force sufficient to bring us a new crop of artists, galleries, and infrastructure, if Schjeldahl is correct that the current one is too incestuous and glitzy. The discussion on AFC prior to the show was mostly about ethics, not hanging Gagosian in effigy. I didn’t sense that commenters wanted to dismantle our current top-heavy system, just make the players more accountable. Kind of like “too big to fail” in the financial sector–Koons gets less bonus but gets to keep his job.
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