Nearly A Half-century On From Feminism, Simply

Damien Hirst Is The Elvis Of The English Art World, Its Ayatollah, Deliverer, And Big-thinking Entrepreneurial Potty-mouthed Prophet And Front Man. Hirst Synthesizes Punk, Pop Art, Jeff Koons, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Bacon, And Catholicism.

All Of Koons's Best Art - The Encased Vacuum Cleaners, The Stainless-steel Rabbit (the Late-twentieth Century's Signature Work Of Simulationist Sculpture), The Amazing Gleaming Balloon Dog, And The Cast-iron Re-creation Of A Civil War Mortar Exhibited Last Month At The Armory - Has Simultaneously Flaunted Extreme Realism, Idealism, And Fantasy.

To Engage With Art, We Have To Be Willing To Be Wrong, Venture Outside Our Psychic Comfort Zones, Suspend Disbelief, And Remember That Art Explores And Alters Consciousness Simultaneously.

Of Course Art World Ethics Are Important. But Museums Are No Purer Than Any Other Institution Or Business. Academics Aren't Necessarily More High-minded Than Gallerists.

I Like Something About George W. Bush. A Lot. After Spending More Than A Decade Having Almost Physiological-chemical Reactions Anytime I Saw Him, Getting The Heebie-jeebies Whenever He Spoke - After Being Sure From The Start That He Was A Gremlin On The Wing Of America - I Really Like The Paintings Of George W. Bush.