Former Poets Who Became Art Critics Comments

(for John Olson, who is not former)
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Robert Hughes and Peter Schjeldahl were unsettling to the academically trained curatoriat. Even so they succeeded, because the true gray eminences wanted to hear an erstwhile poet's voice reporting back from aesthetic encounters in real time. In the latter's case, a little wise-assery didn't hurt. But there was a Dionysian glee in their re-purposing of narrative to trace beauty's will-o'-the-wisp across a canvas, then maybe following its tale into the context of gestation. Their evocations could be another kind of art. A trained art critic keeps recapitulating an edifice of theory that is more or less agreed-upon. A maverick critic throws himself into the abyss of lived aesthetics, then emerges to button-hole us about it. As for the maverick beyond critique, he remains a poet and mostly reports back when his head emerges between abysses, where they segue into each other. He keeps moving from world to artistic creation and back, where the mirror re-liquefies to quicksilver and yields multiple reflections when chased. And a touch of tomfoolery keeps everything picaresque.
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