On the Importance of Being Nice

On the Importance of Being Nice

A few parables for our times About five years ago, soon after I moved to Taos, NM, from New York, I went on a press trip to Los Angeles to check out some of the art in “Pacific Standard Time,” an extravaganza celebrating L.A. as a creative force for the past five or...
Alex Meets Ada

Alex Meets Ada

Alex Meets Ada Alex Katz first met his wife, Ada, at an opening at the Tangier Gallery in 1958. She immediately became one of his favorite models. “I’d been painting these all-over landscapes, and then I decided to paint details like eyes and noses and mouths,”...
Artists and Critics: Part 3

Artists and Critics: Part 3

Artists & Critics: Part Three The Critics Speak When I first started working on staff at ARTnews, a little more than 20 years ago, I was on the brink of a divorce after several years of freelancing and corporate wifedom (at which I was not very good). The magazine...
Artists and Critics: Part Two

Artists and Critics: Part Two

Artists and Critics: Part Two Zombie Formalism and the Incredible Shrinking Art Press Not to sound like too much of a fogey, but there was a time when the art world abounded with publications devoted to art—Art in America, Studio International, Arts magazine,...