Today—February 26—55 years ago, 50 writers, art collectors, art scholars, and artists, (including #HansHofmann, #RobertMotherwell, #StuartDavis, #AdolphGottlieb, #WillemDeKooning, and #BarnettNewman) wrote to the New York Times criticizing the leading art critic #JohnCanaday about his prejudice reviews of modern art. “Reading Mr. John Canaday’s columns on contemporary art, we regard as offensive his consistent practice of going beyond discussion of exhibitions in order to impute to living artists en masse, as well as critics, collectors and scholars of present-day American art, dishonorable motives, those of cheats, greedy lackeys or senseless dupes.” The letter then goes on to quote specific Canaday articles and concludes. “Mr Canaday is entitled, of course, to the freedom of his opinions regarding works of art. We submit, however, that his terminology of insults is scarcely adequate to describe emerging art works and tendencies, and we scorn this waging of a polemical campaign under the guise of topical reporting.” Take that! The following week, the NY Times received more than 350 responses by readers, with a slight edge siding on the artist’s side. #Motherwell, || Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 70 || (1961) #MetMuseum, Gallery 920. #MetropolitanMuseumOfArt #DeKooning #ModernArt #ModernArtist #AbstractArt #AbstractArtist #NYSchool #DailyArt #DailyArtist #ArtOfTheDay #ArtistOfTheDay #ArtHistory #HistoryOfArt #ArtEncounters (at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
