Google “Ayn Rand’s theory of art,” and the second item you will find [as of this writing] is an article with that title in the online magazine Hyperallergic. Published in September 2012, the article—which prominently cites the book I co-authored on Rand’s theory—has been known to me for some time. But it is such a […]
Response to My Stuckist Critics
By far the most comprehensive and nuanced review of Who Says That’s Art? to date is that offered late last year by J. W. Bourne and D. F. Bailey on the Stuckismwales website.[*] Nine single-spaced pages long, it testifies to their close reading of the book, and to their fair-minded reflection on the various points […]
An Open Letter to Art Educator Jerome Hausman
Dear Jerry, Let me begin by thanking you for reviewing my book in the December issue of Arts & Activities, a magazine widely read by K–12 art teachers. Since nothing is worse for an author than being ignored, I’m grateful for your calling attention, however critical, to Who Says That’s Art?. All the more grateful in view of […]
That’s Not What I Wrote
There’s so much about today’s artworld that art critic Joan Altabe and I agree on (see her three Aristos Awards—search for “Joan Altabe”) that I’m more than a little astonished by the objections she raises to Who Says That’s Art? in a brief review published online on August 18, which I only recently learned of. […]
Slings and Arrows (not the TV variety!)
As might be expected, my critics have begun to weigh in, the first being Professor Paul Duncum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In his one-star “review” on the Amazon.com page for Who Says That’s Art? he dismisses my ideas as “grounded in Kantian aesthetics as reworked by right wing ideologue Ann Rand.” Anyone […]