An artist can be imitated; the critic is inimitable, and priceless. How could one imitate a critic? I ask myself this. Moreover, the interest would be thin, very thin. We have the original, he suffices for us. Whoever said that criticism was easy did not say something very remarkable. It is even shameful to have said this: one should pursue him for at least a kilometer or two.
Eric Satie, Vanity Fair, 1921. (full article). again (used before but i can’t resist it).
returning to the richter show at the tate: it has only one complete series, the Baader-Meinhof series, and the room they hang in is the only room which is impressive. does him justice.
the rest do not work well together – i cannot imagine they were meant to be seen together, they become reliant on the typically inane contextualising by the tate, and the paint loses physical presence, the audience is given too much distance. the gallery is too sterile, too dull, and over lit. it becomes an illustrated history lesson.
his painting of his photo of his beautiful naked (then) wife becomes a bullet point in an ‘image building seminar’
the richter show made a big impact on me – i may criticise – but it’s because he deserves the attention. and the tate deserves… criticism. at best (though this wasn’t as bad as the pigs ear they made of the brancusi exhibition they had a few years back – that was bloody awful, he would have been spinning in his grave). this site was not intended to be a place for criticism but because i have taken to using it as a place to make notes for myself or explore ideas. criticism may happen. i’ll keep it minimal.