On Saturday, December 14, 2013, Glasstire invited cultural critic Dave Hickey to come to Houston to speak in front of a full house at Rice University’s Sewell Hall auditorium.
Part 1: in which Glasstire founder Rainey Knudson introduces Hickey, and he disses Glasstire, Texas, Houston, stupid liberals, Rice University, and questions why art should be popular.
He goes on to theorize on the futility of the NEA and alternative art institutions, and reminisce about the the good old underground at Max’s Kansas City. Remember: “there is no in.”
Part 2, in which Dave eulogizes the undergound of the late 60’s and early 70’s, explains how everything has gone wrong with the artworld since.
He explains how the cold war led to the incorporation of art into the liberal arts at universities, and the disaster of placing older artists in charge of the productions of younger artists, ruining lives.
Part 3, in which Dave bemoans the NEA, the administration of art history, the permanent reign of postminimalism, and the impossibility of stylistic innovation. Did you know that fair=mediocre, and that Christopher Wool is the worst artist ever?
Hang in there- Dave deals with a heckler (YO!) at 14:50.
Part 4, in which Dave points out the constraints of identity art at universities, galleries, museums and other bastions of hell. He tells how Nixon used the NEA to emasculate private art collectors as arbiters of public taste:
1 comment
I am a fucking art professor. And worse, I am a fucking artist. I sit in my office and draw toy dinosaurs while listening to lectures by cantankerous old shit bags. And this was Fucking great!
And the only thing worse than being a fucking art professor that I can think of must be being a fucking art history professor, at least according to the president of the united states. Well at least I’m not a phtographer.