tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post6417095247437247935..comments2023-12-28T16:38:26.304-08:00Comments on ACravan: On Never Meeting The Master (Hilton Kramer Obituary From New York Sun)ACravanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-25835594131803494282012-06-28T03:09:30.507-07:002012-06-28T03:09:30.507-07:00Thank you for passing along that Kramer quote. I&...Thank you for passing along that Kramer quote. I'm going to consider it while driving to PA today. I have always had a hard (actually, impossible) time dealing with the word "post-modernism," let alone its products. As I mentioned above, I published this obituary piece here because I thought it was excellent and it caught me by surprise. It also provided an opportunity to post the paintings. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-73091775920967078442012-06-26T20:41:07.407-07:002012-06-26T20:41:07.407-07:00It is always sad when a bold voice of import passe...It is always sad when a bold voice of import passes. And so it is with the passing of HK. I've thought much or what he had to say about art to be spot on . As for his socio/political views less enthused . For me , much is summed up in a passage from HK's critique of Varnedoe's MOMA Exhibition 'High /Low' when he states "...art becomes a mere coefficient of material culture and is thus denied that element of aesthetic autonomy and transcendence that has been one of the hallmarks of the modernist spirit." It is hard to come up with any art in the postmodernist realm that is transcendent. So HK passes and 'art 'carries on. HenryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-72234329119304408932012-03-31T17:57:15.364-07:002012-03-31T17:57:15.364-07:00Agree with what you say, but am less familiar with...Agree with what you say, but am less familiar with Kimball than you are. I just liked what the Sun writer included about Porter. Would love to know more about the Brainard event. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-50877613219742525002012-03-31T11:36:37.917-07:002012-03-31T11:36:37.917-07:00Hilton was an excellent writer, and provocatively ...Hilton was an excellent writer, and provocatively disagreeable. I can't say the same about his successor Roger Kimball.<br /><br />I think Fairfield P. would have been just as celebrated without Kramer, though.<br /><br />There's a nice picture by Jane F. coming up at Sotheby's. And an ok one by Fairfield P.<br /><br />Ron Padgett is having (hosting? appearing at?) a book party at Tibor de Nagy soon for the publication of The Library of America's Joe Brainard collection.roddynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-7013216355188818732012-03-29T07:20:45.740-07:002012-03-29T07:20:45.740-07:00Oh, I agree (with you, not with Kramer about Warho...Oh, I agree (with you, not with Kramer about Warhol). I do like the Fairfield Porter comment, however, and thought it was a lovely short memorial piece. Can't decide whether to be sunny or gray here, kind of like me. But Jane's returning from Denmark later and I'm happy about that (a lot). CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-17319407380349114422012-03-29T06:31:21.711-07:002012-03-29T06:31:21.711-07:00The truth is, even among his friends and admirers ...The truth is, even among his friends and admirers it was widely recognized—even if seldom admitted—that, although being an artist was essential to his social position, Warhol was far more important as a social phenomenon that he ever was or could be as an artist. That was what gave him his special aura, after all—and his influence. As an artist he ended his career exactly as he began it— as a gifted commercial artist with a flair for the arresting graphic image and skillful layout. He was never much of a painter, and as a sculptor he didn’t exist. (As for his movies, it is probably enough to observe that, having served their purpose—which was to propagate the Warhol myth—they had long ago predeceased their creator. Of aesthetic merit they had none whatever.) Warhol’s “genius” (if it can be called that) consisted of his shrewdness in parlaying this essentially commercial talent into a career in an art world that no longer had the moral stamina to resist it: a career that would have been unthinkable, for example, ten years earlier.<br /><br />_ -- HK's obituary for Andy Warhol. Moral: Even if you are as important as Hilton Kramer thought he was, beware of pronouncements beginning "The truth is . . . ." Sorry, Hilton, I can't resist. I no longer have the moral stamina. Still, RIP.roddynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-90865431962815278882012-03-28T08:27:42.123-07:002012-03-28T08:27:42.123-07:00Thank you. I thought this was a fine piece of wor...Thank you. I thought this was a fine piece of work and particularly admired the Porter/Vuillard remarks. The Freilicher painting appeared in the original Sun obit and is beautiful. CurtisACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6720858203931120530.post-13385897807944016342012-03-28T08:16:06.679-07:002012-03-28T08:16:06.679-07:00Lovely ... and RIP Hilton Kramer.Lovely ... and RIP Hilton Kramer.anitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11950712894174167863noreply@blogger.com