[Tom Edgerton]

A client in DC sent me the article about a week ago.

What is glaringly evident from the beginning is that no curators or critical supporters of traditional art forms were interviewed in an attempt to balance the point of view. The thrust of the article is that "everyone I talked to said this kind of art is dead." And it's a LONG article to make no more point than that.

Anyone taking a true art historian's view of the last 35 years or so can't possibly miss the resurgence of realist art in all media. And what fuels this resurgence is that the public at large for the most part prefers it.

Again, read "The Painted Word." The point that Tom Wolfe makes is that abstract art in the mid-20th Century was the invention of a handful of critics and painters in NYC, and that the whole movement was basically propped up in the critical press in spite of huge indifference on the part of the public. Duh. Today, it's the same dynamic, only the styles and content have changed.

For another really interesting and insightful piece by Wolfe on the traditional/contemporary art battle, find his article on sculptor Frederick Hart in the New York Times Sunday Magazine from a few years back.

The problem with critique is that you are making your living commenting on and interpreting the work of others that you can't do yourself. As a result, you don't have a true understanding of the process and technique, yet you have to appear to be an "expert." So a common thread in a lot of critique is a "build up/tear down" model. You claim that you were the first to "discover" an artist/musician/actor or whatever, and then subsequently you claim you're the first to know when they're "washed up." The artist can't survive on such a rollercoaster, yet many manage to anyway, because the best art survives and endures on its own merit.

Nothing will be any different here. Hang in there, everyone. This article is already lining birdcages. Our paintings will be here a hundred years from now (or more) if we make them as good as we possibly can. And Tom Nash knows this, thank God.

Best--TE