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About ArmaVirumque ( AHR-mah wih-ROOM-kweh) In the Aeneid, the Roman poet Virgil sang of "arms and a man" (Arma virumque cano). Month in and month out, The New Criterion expounds with great clarity and wit on the art, culture, and political controversies of our times. With postings of reviews, essays, links, recs, and news, Armavirumque seeks to continue this mission in accordance with the timetable of the digital age. Recent posts
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Feb 24, 2005 03:06 PM by James Panero
I have set my email system to delete incoming messages with the subject line ’gates.’ I have also set about designing a similar spam blocker for the culture at large. If people have never felt the need to think about art before two weeks ago, I maintain that we do not have a responsibility to listen to their dissertations now. If it takes so many tons of orange plastic in their back yard to get people going on art, maybe art isn’t their subject. Gary Condit or Scott Peterson might make better areas of inquiry for them. Friends, let’s take art out of the water cooler conversation and put it back in the galleries and museums where it belongs. I suggest you implement similar email safeguards for your computer. "What is art?" they ask coyly. Answer: if they have to ask, they’ll never know. UPDATE: Hilton Kramer has the final word in this week’s New York Observer: About the bright orange gates that have lately been erected in a defenseless Central Park in the name of art, there are no neutral opinions. Everyone has either seen or heard about this massive assault on the most beloved of the city�s parks, and everyone has formed some sort of opinion on the worth or worthlessness of this extravagant and somewhat absurd episode in our urban history. My own view is that the gates are nothing less than an unforgivable defacement of a public treasure, and everyone responsible for promoting it�including our publicity-seeking Mayor�should be held accountable, not only for supporting bad taste but for violating public trust.Read it all here.
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