NEW YORK—Criticism is in crisis, said Carey Lovelace, vice president of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA), at the group's annual awards ceremony at the Jewish Museum in New York.
 
While her comment about the present state of art criticism seems inauspicious, it's worth noting that AICA itself was originally formed in crisis, albeit one of a different order: It took shape in Paris in1948, as part of UNESCO, to revive critical debate destroyed by Fascism and war.
 
Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of The New York Times, presented the first award, for best show in an alternative space, toThe Drawing Center, for 3x Abstraction: New Methods of Drawing byHilma af Klint, Emma Kunz, and Agnes Martin.
 
Takashi Murakami and the Japan Society won the award for best thematic museum show in New York for Little Boy. Murakami said he was very happy now, but that a year ago, when he was organizing the show, he was very depressed! Now we get to the win!
 
New York's Whitney Museum cleaned up at the awards, winning both the best national monographic museum show (for Robert Smithson) and the best New York monographic museum show (for Tim Hawkinson).
 
This is something Ive not heard of, Kimmelman joked, when announcing the award for best project in a public space. The Gates?
 
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, sitting alone throughout the evenings ceremony, strode up to accept the award. I thank my grandfather, who had good genes, Jeanne-Claude said. Christo thanked eminent critic John Russell, who was the first to write about The Gates25 years ago.
 
Russell himself, who was art critic at London's Sunday Times for 25 years before serving as the The New York Times critic from 1982 to 1991, took home the award for distinguished contribution to the field of art criticism. AICA secretary Irving Sandler praised Russell, saying his aim was always to teach but not topreach. And Kimmelman, with a lump in his throat, said, John, I love you very much.
 
For his part, the modest Russell smiled, and said simply that he neither expected nor deserved the award. What advice does he have for today's young critics? Human contact. See everything. Read Everything. Then youll be home.




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