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March 07, 2006
Won't Someone Please Think of the Children?
From a 3/7/06 NYT article by Randy Kennedy on the latest edition of Horst Woldemar Janson's brand name guide to art history "Janson's History of Art":
"I can see the reasons, artistically, for dropping Whistler's mother," said Mickey McConnell, an instructor who until recently taught a survey course at the University of New Mexico and has used Janson for years. "But it's become so well known, such a part of the culture. What if there's a cartoon in The New Yorker that uses it as a reference? Younger students aren't going to know what it's talking about."
SERIOUSLY, WHAT IF? But let's face it, Whistler jokes are as played out as Grant Wood jokes. Wait, hang on a minute:
"He also added some works that have long been cultural superstars, like Grant Wood's "American Gothic," which surprisingly had never appeared in Janson. (This might have been because Wood and H. W. Janson once taught together in Iowa and were said to have disliked each other.)"
THE DRAMA, but where's the beef?
"Mr. Jacobs said he would have liked to include Audubon and was disappointed that he had to leave out the photographer August Sander and the performance artist Ana Mendieta, among many others. But he was able to beef up both Marcel Duchamp and Robert Rauschenberg, moves he said were long overdue."
If ever there were two guys who wanted more BEEF it's Duchamp and Rauschenberg. BAZING! No word on if Jasper Johns got his overdue beefing.
Check out the full article to see who was voted off the island: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/07/arts/design/07jans.html
Posted by urcella at March 7, 2006 04:14 PM