Some Reading Suggestions

By Charles Kessler

Two challenges to accepted beliefs:
Jonathan Jones on Art, The Guardian: Surrealism? It was always old hat: The Tate's new Joan Miró show reminds me that surrealism was neither original nor revolutionary, it had clear antecedents.

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R. C. Baker, The Village Voice: The Misbegotten Career of Roy Lichtenstein: Roy Lichtenstein is the most overrated artist of the 20th century.

Tyler Green suggests Five art-related websites you could be enjoying (aside from the LeftBankArtBlog, of course).

Here's a rare interview with Jasper Johns in the Financial Times.

The New York Times has an in-depth article on the revival of LA's Chinatown gallery scene -- once I thought the most vital thing happening there; and a nostalgic article on SoHo in the good old days. 

Trisha Brown's “Roof Piece,” (1973), depicting dancers on adjacent rooftops, (Photo: Babette Mangolte) 

And while we're on New York and Los Angeles, here's a funny, and at the same time insightful, article by a New York woman who ran the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists, a group that supports emerging Jewish artists living in New York City. She's trying to do the same thing in Los Angeles. 

USA Today reports this good news: Conventional wisdom has long held that pursuing a career in the arts is a likely ticket to a life of perennial unhappiness, hunger and unemployment. But the opposite appears to be true -- graduates of arts programs are likely to find jobs and satisfaction, even if they won't necessarily get wealthy in the process -- according to a new national survey of more than 13,000 alumni of 154 different arts programs.




Charles Kessler is an artist and writer, and lives in Jersey City.