Introduction

What is The New Yorker? I know it’s a great magazine and that it’s a tremendous source of pleasure in my life. But what exactly is it? This blog’s premise is that The New Yorker is a work of art, as worthy of comment and analysis as, say, Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Each week I review one or more aspects of the magazine’s latest issue. I suppose it’s possible to describe and analyze an entire issue, but I prefer to keep my reviews brief, and so I usually focus on just one or two pieces, to explore in each the signature style of its author. A piece by Nick Paumgarten is not like a piece by Jill Lepore, and neither is like a piece by Ian Frazier. One could not mistake Collins for Seabrook, or Bilger for Galchen, or Mogelson for Kolbert. Each has found a style, and it is that style that I respond to as I read, and want to understand and describe.

Friday, November 11, 2022

Who Should Succeed Schjeldahl?

Peter Schjeldahl (Photo by Alex Remnick)
Peter Schjeldahl is irreplaceable. Nevertheless, The New Yorker needs to have an art critic. Who are some of the possibilities? I see Hilton Als had an “Art World” piece in last week’s issue. But I'm not sure he’s the right guy for the job. He's too caught up in identity politics. I’d like to see someone in the position whose values are governed more by pleasure than anything else. And I’d like to see someone who writes with an unmistakable, idiosyncratic, formally coherent personal style. Here are some candidates I’d consider if I were picking the magazine’s new art critic: 

1. David Salle 

2. Wayne Koestenbaum

3. Gini Alhadeff

4. Susan Tallman

5. Johanna Fateman

The best living art writer is T. J. Clark. But his thinking might be a shade too metaphysical for the New Yorker job. The perfect choice is Salle: see his brilliant series of art pieces for The New York Review of Books. 

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5 comments:

  1. Guilherme MadeiraNovember 11, 2022 at 8:31 AM

    John, do you like Jerry Saltz's reviews and essays?

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    Replies
    1. John MacDougallNovember 11, 2022 at 11:07 AM

      I'm embarrassed to say I've never read him. Maybe I should start?

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    2. John MacDougallNovember 12, 2022 at 7:04 AM

      I’ve just spent an hour exploring New York magazine’s archive of Jerry Saltz writing. What a revelation! I feel sheepish that I didn’t know about him. He was not on my radar. But he is now. Thank you for bringing him to my attention. I see he has a new book out, a collection of his essays and reviews called “Art Is Life.” I’m going to order it.

      Delete
  2. viduraNovember 15, 2022 at 8:30 PM

    I really like Simon Schama's writing. There's not enough of it in the New Yorker, so a regular beat as an art critic would be great.

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    Replies
    1. John MacDougallNovember 16, 2022 at 4:35 AM

      Funny you should say that. I was thinking of adding Schama to my list of candidates. He was the magazine's art critic back in the mid-1990s: see, for example, "True Grid" (on Piet Mondrian); "California Dreaming" (on David Hockney); and "Dangerous Curves" (on Ellsworth Kelly) - all brilliant!

      Delete

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