This week the New School for Social Research will host a conference in New York City entitled “The Fear of Art.” The keynote address will be delivered (on video) by Ai Weiwei, the Chinese dissident world renowned as a “contemporary artist” and “political activist.” Ai’s reputation as a political dissident is undoubtedly well founded. It […]
Among other trends I deplore in Who Says That’s Art? is the postmodernist artworld’s growing incursion into institutions devoted to world-class private collections of the past. Such incursions—in clear violation of the founders’ tastes—are achieved by directors and curators bent at all costs on introducing “contemporary art” (a deceptive term encompassing only anti-traditional, “avant-garde” work). […]
