Recovered Writing

Been trying to locate this from a few years ago. So here i post for safe keeping.
I believe the title was "Dave Hickey and Me Too!"

“Then I went totally idiot. Hey, I thought, I’ve done a biennial! I have the skill set. Maybe I could do a Venice Biennale!” In Dave Hickey’s latest “ Revisions” (#9 – Idiot) he gives some commentary on biennials, critics and curators. Beginning with a slice of his own experience at Site Santa Fe in 2001 and going on to a lively account about Robert Storr and his adversaries over the 2007 Venice Biennial. Many people know all the names of people who critic, curate and deal in the art world, in fact this has become a sport for some, the more names you know the more brownie points you get. I, on the other hand, have collected my “names” through another method and like the artists I admire, the names can be counted on two hands. In fact I only realized the name, Robert Storr, after completing a number of essays on my favorites and realizing each time I felt simpatico his name was on it. For me, its important I looked up “who he is” after I admired “what he does". When I first moved to New York I treated myself to a lecture by Storr at the MET about his experience curating the 2007 Venice Biennale. Having come to admire the written voice of Storr (on artists such as Tuttle, Bontecou, Rauschenberg) it was additionally refreshing to hear him lecture. He was fairly soft spoken, obviously well educated and beyond experienced in the “art world”. Most compelling was that he held a seemingly genuine perspective and delivered his opinions with a mastery that could convert controversy to candor I say all this because in Hickey’s essay he mentions “his friend” Robert Storr. Only in the past year have I come to know Dave Hickey (thank you Art in America) who’s Revisions I patiently await every month. Being the slow name collector that I am, I guess it still should have been apparent that Hickey and Storr are “friends”. The difference between the two is that Hickey takes things a step further; he too has opinions galore but serves them salty-sweet. There exists a politically correct, “professional”, humdrum BLAH in the world at large and Mr. Hickey seems to squash this virus in the art world. Is he vicious? No, but the truth can sting can’t it? This BLAH requires that you don’t get too critical, you say commentary in a certain way, you like it all because you can learn from everything and certainly no one wishes to offend anyone else. The BLAH is watered down, safe and certainly gotten to be quite a bore. What happened to the days when Pollock and De Kooning use to argue their points out loud, face to face at a bar because they felt so strongly? Now, just say you don’t really care for the latest conceptual art film of dress up and it’s like you lack the ability to “get it”. Such attitudes are total horse poop in my book. Hickey can shovel some S@! $ by making comments like. “…not much contemporary art is very good.” or when reflecting on fluffy overseas travel offers while doing the Site Santa Fe show, “Curators may do this sort of thing, but art critics may not--- because it’s creepy.” I hear pins dropping all around me and am surprised to hear it. Due to my tamed heart I am shocked that he has been “allowed” to say such a thing. Is he saying to everyone participating in the art world “GET REAL!”? Enough fancy art schools churning out students now drowning in debt with promises of a “career”. Enough privileged trips and parties around the world to curate the next “big time” biennale. Enough youth worship where young artists are given shows at museums because of who they hang out with in Brooklyn. (How come I know who Elizabeth Peyton is and not Unica Zurn?) Here is sliver of a remedy that I propose….and I am nobody. Make Art because it matters and understand why it does. Curate for content, heart, quality and perspective. Sweat “names” less and know “work” (as in the verb) more, explore, experience, whether sensory, incidental, historical or otherwise. Have an opinion and know why you have it, then when you express it, mean it, so much so that you will stand by it. Don’t be afraid to walk on people’s toes, they have ten each. Realize the worth of being tenacious. Don’t suffer fools. Remember it’s one thing to be good and another to be great. Last, realize you don’t have to subscribe to the latest prescription, whether it be shoes, slant or school. All you need to have are some good old-fashioned guts to do what you do, to do it well and mean it. Damn it.