[-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 62, Issue 12

[Gerry Coulter]

And theory is not an art?

________________________________________
From: empyre-bounces at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-bounces at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au] On Behalf Of John Haber [jhaber at haberarts.com]
Sent: January 10, 2010 8:40 PM
To: empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 62, Issue 12

Johanna did a great job of cutting through the garbage.  Part of me is
uneasy with dissing on academia, since I'm surrounded by people blaming
"theory" for all that goes wrong in art, and I spend much of my time
arguing with that.  Still, it's good to hold everyone to higher standards.

Thus, with trepidation, could I argue with Michel Angelo?  On the one
hand, I'd worry he lets us off too easy.  Things really are slimy,
honest.  I'm working now on a review of an intriguing show at James
Cohan of well-known artists asked to work in the medium of tapestry.
It's a great idea, allowing for a fancy gallery to work with established
artists in a genre associated with commercial art or folk art.  Or even
with pre-Renaissance art history.  It has some very dark work and
artists as valuable to anyone's future in the arts, issues of gender and
race included, as Kara Walker.  But it turns out that the anonymous
collective behind it all is something called 'the Rug Company.'  This
should keep me busy writing tomorrow.

Conversely, his strategies seem awfully mild to me.

John
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