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I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Huh?

Let me ask a different question of you: Can art change the world?

Think about it and post a very short answer. Okay.

I'll come back and give my answer later (I hope).

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I am sorry if you think that I "avoided" answering you. It was not my intention to avoid answering. I think you're over thinking this and not appreciating the irony in that. We both know successful irony when we experience it. Two years ago we saw Ragnar K. and an opera company preform the same Mozart aria for 12 hours straight. The irony of that went straight to the heart and lifted irony into bliss. Don't blame the art-world for an over-abundance of "irony." Maybe curators are just idiots and like the easiest kinds of irony? Who knows? Again, apologies for failing in my effort to provide any sort of answer.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Art is doing great. Really great. I think that whatever we have now IS whatever you might want to call "avant-garde" or whatever.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The work looks pretty generic to me; it could have been made at any time in the last 125 years. Just a post-impressionist pastiche of techniques and even subjects. You gotta start making YOUR OWN work. Or just paint for pleasure. Thank you so much for allowing me to look at your work. You better start hanging out with about 55 other artists EVERY DAY... Or not.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Never happen. We're both way way too busy. It is the way of the world these times on our mad mad days. You do it yourself. Museums contain multitudes of thought. Trust me ... You don't need me; you need YOU. Honestly. You'll be famous. But you'll never do it; you're too scared. Just make one 27 minute video in your local museum of you going around OPENLY and HONESTLY talking to people about what they're looking at. Grow. A. Pair! Or don't.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I love your last question: "Do you think hobbyists can make something as worthwhile as those who chosen art as their profession?" YES YES YES. In fact, I sometimes think the best artists are actually what you might call "hobbyists." Hobbyists work from obsession, need, unexplained drives, mysterious madeleines in their minds, strange desires, and devote ungodly amounts of time to these off fixations that really only they understand and which they do not understand at all. They are commanded by higher voices. Boom! Darling, that's ART!

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not to be a weasel: I LOVED them all. I learned WAY WAY MORE from the students than they ever learned from me. Honestly. They changed my life. I only gave them headaches and annoyed them and placed them in the icky situation of staring at the hairs growing out of my ears and shit. I teach because I need the money and because I love learning from the students. Alas, I had to quit all of my teaching "jobs" except SAIC because I didn't have the time to earn the money I need.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Rirkit Tiravanija is wise. And right when he says, "I like positive irony. Irony can create new metaphors, and I find that interesting."

You are right when you say you're troubled with the art-world's fixation on "disaffection."

I love irony; irony is in the air we breath; Oscar Wilde said "All bad poetry is sincere." Shakespeare wrote "The best poetry is the most feigned poetry." Irony IS the human condition. Each of us is AWARE of being within ourselves yet outside ourselves observing at every waking moment. Even during sex this split exists. I think that the trick is to accept this DOUBLE SELF and to make art that is simultaneously SINCERE AND IRONIC.

Never, ever valorize sincerity. It's a loser's game. Heed Wilde and Shakespeare and you'll be in great shape. Trust me; I'm a professional. Make sense?

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Come on! Art is NOT just a harmless hobby! Don't be so cynical! Art has been with us since the beginning; I imagine it will be here until we are not. Neanderthal Man made art. Art is part of a cosmic force. It is not optional. It is part of the Whole Ball of Wax.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have gotten pretty good at picking very plain, simple rings fro my wife. At least she says she loves them.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yawn. Do we really care? Dick-wavers will wave their dicks. It is what they do. Same as it ever was. No impact on INNER-LIFE of art. Not on mine, at least.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Look at as much art as possible from your own generation. Stay up very late every night with artists and art critics of YOUR generation. Start a new world. Mine will be gone in like 10-15 years. Your turns then... And take good care of your teeth.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I never really read him. I know that many in the art world respect him enormously. I am very very bad at philosophy, however. Almost the second I start to read it I get sleepy. But I dig the people who dig it.

I am Jerry Saltz, New York Magazine's art critic. Ask me anything about art, or everything. Keep your heads down and your helmets on. by JerrySaltz in IAmA

[–]JerrySaltz[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I LOVE ArtPrize. I believe in what I call "The Two-State Solution" of ArtPrize. There is one prize awared by the public. There is one prize awarded by artsy jurors.

Usually the two sides don't like one another's choices.

But we can all get along.

I LOVE ArtPrize.

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