Procreating With Dead
Artists
The role of the art
critic in L.A.: a public discussion
Betty Ann Brown, Peter
Frank & Michael Duncan
Butterfields (an eBay company), formerly Butterfield & Butterfield
This event was organized by the Art Dealers
Association of Southern California, for what purpose it can only be imagined. A
gentleman rises with a microphone and begins: is he Mr. Butterfield or Mr.
Butterfield? Neither; he is an ADASC representative. One by one the critics
identify themselves and explain the critical basis of their work: "all
criticism is subjective," says Betty Ann Brown, "and anyone who
disagrees is ignorant." In this, if in nothing else, L.A.'s art critics
are agreed. An advantageous position: if criticism is not objective, it is what
you or I say it is, let alone art. Clement Greenberg realized that there was
something which was kitsch and something which was something else again, and
this was a major discovery; "quality," however, says Betty Ann Brown, "is a dangerous word," because it keeps
down the socially disadvantaged. Indeed, this self-described
"feminist" critic holds that self-expression itself, the "means
of production," is too narrowly held, and it is her role as a critic to
expand its holdings. If you have read Betty Ann Brown's reviews in ArtScene,
you know her. She talks very much the way she writes.
Now, you or I may say that a critic with no grasp of his trade may well throw
up his hands and say "all is good" with a Druidical blessing, or we
might dismiss the whole business as a somewhat antiquarian vessel of wrath. You
or I have not been asked yet. First all the participants must address, for some
reason, the County Museum's Made In California
show, and this includes the moderator, who is the West Coast man for the
American Art branch of the Smithsonian Institution, a polished individual who
justifies his expertise in these matters by describing his championship of R.B.
Kitaj, who lives in Westwood. He, the West Coast SI man, has mixed feelings
about Made In California, and so do they all,
at some length. Much work that ought to have been done was not done, points out
Michael Duncan.
Here the question is thrown to the audience. One fellow asks if Peter Frank
meant that "co-creating with dead artists" precluded the work of the
living. Not at all is the reply, but as Betty Ann Brown says, none of them is a
professional journalist; they all have other jobs.