1802 quotes by critics for you to enjoy

At 'The Village Voice,' there were all these fevers inside the offices, that would break out into full-scale rumbles between writers. James Wolcott

Out Would Inside Voice Writers Between Were Offices Break Village

Slashing its way to the finish line, 'Black Swan' is the first ballet movie for highbrow horror fans for whom ballet itself signifies little to nothing. Those of us who know and love ballet can only look on it with a different kind of horror. James Wolcott

Love Fans Black Finish Line First Nothing Way Those Kind Horror Finish Only Highbrow Know Look Ballet Line Itself Different Movie Swan Little Different Kind Us Who Whom Slashing

What stars do in their off-hours is a never-ending source of diddling curiosity to the tabloid sensibility. James Wolcott

Stars Tabloid Never-Ending Source Curiosity Sensibility

The days when the words 'Hollywood actor' framed Ronald Reagan like bunny fingers as an ID tag and an implied insult seem far-off and quaint: nearly everybody in politics - candidate, consultant, pundit, and Tea Party crowd extra alike - is an actor now, a shameless ham in a hoked-up reality series that never stops. James Wolcott

Politics Reality Words Party Tea Extra Everybody Framed Alike Seem Fingers Crowd Tag Consultant Shameless Never ID Implied Days Quaint Like Insult Reagan Ham Bunny Candidate Stops Ronald Reagan Hollywood Tea Party Series Now Actor Nearly

Historically, Hollywood comedy has arrived in skinny envelopes. From fence post Buster Keaton to herky-jerky Jerry Lewis to wiry nerve-bundle Woody Allen to hung-loose Richard Pryor to whippy contortionist Jim Carrey, its comics and clowns have tended to be sliced thin and bendable. James Wolcott

Post Comedy Jim Sliced Jim Carrey Allen Comics Fence Arrived Historically Pryor Woody Woody Allen Clowns Hollywood Richard Richard Pryor Skinny Keaton Buster Jerry Thin Lewis

If you were to hold me down and tickle me to pick my favorite 'plus-comic,' it would have to be Kevin James, a broad physical pratfaller capable of deadpan underplay, a technique honed from years of reaction-shot close-ups on TV, where every teeny fraction of a squint registers. James Wolcott

'The Night Cafe' and 'The Starry Night' still emit such pathos, density, and intensity that they send shivers down the spine. Whether Van Gogh thought in color or felt with his intellect, the radical color, dynamic distortion, heart, soul, and part-by-part structure in these paintings make him a bridge to a new vision and the vision itself. Jerry Saltz

Soul Heart Cafe Vision Thought Radical Down Distortion Van Van Gogh Spine Structure Color New Make Him Felt Still His Intellect Density Itself Send Gogh Intensity Pathos Dynamic Whether Bridge Paintings Starry Night

As I made my way through 'On Line,' the austere, stridently dogmatic, sometimes revelatory exhibition 'about line' at MoMA, I found myself thinking, 'Someone please wake me when the seventies are over!' In the empire of curators, the sun never sets on the seventies. It is the undead decade. Jerry Saltz

Myself Me Sometimes Made Thinking Sets Please Seventies Way Sun About Someone Through Never Empire Over Dogmatic Exhibition Line Wake Austere Decade Found

Summer is a great time to visit art museums, which offer the refreshing rinse of swimming pools - only instead of cool water, you immerse yourself in art. Jerry Saltz

Art Time Great You Yourself Water Swimming Summer Visit Immerse Only Instead Great Time Offer Refreshing Which Pools Cool Museums

After its hothouse incubation in the seventies, appropriation breathed important new life into art. This life flowered spectacularly over the decades - even if it's now close to aesthetic kudzu. Jerry Saltz

Life Art New Life Important Appropriation Seventies Over New Aesthetic Close Decades After Breathed Even Now

When the purse strings tighten up at museums, the institutions usually cut back and cancel shows. That's exactly the wrong reaction. In fact, now is a good time for them to loosen up - a chance to breathe and experiment a little - and go for the juicy solution lurking in their own basements. Jerry Saltz

Time Good Good Time Own Experiment Back Strings Solution Exactly Fact Purse Wrong Institutions Reaction Tighten Loosen Go Juicy Up Cancel In Fact Little Them Breathe Cut Shows Now Lurking Chance Museums

The secret of food lies in memory - of thinking and then knowing what the taste of cinnamon or steak is. Jerry Saltz

Food Memory Thinking Secret Lies Steak Knowing Taste The Secret Of Then

Probably only an art-worlder like me could assign deeper meaning to something as simple and silly as Tebowing. But, to us, anytime people repeat a stance or a little dance, alone or together, we see that it can mean something. Imagistic and unspoken language is our thing. Jerry Saltz

Alone Me Together People Simple Language Dance Our See Silly Something Only Could Unspoken Like Repeat Anytime Little Mean Meaning Us Stance Deeper Deeper Meaning Assign Thing

Where Cezanne captured and intensified shards of the eternal (every pear far more sharply defined than it could be in life), Monet portrayed the changeability and flux of every moment. 'The Water Lilies' give you a jittery, amorphous sense of a world seen at the speed of light. Jerry Saltz

Life You World Water Light Seen Sense Every Speed Flux Defined Give More Could Sharply Lilies Than Intensified Where Eternal Far Moment Captured Portrayed

The New York art world readily proves people wrong. Just when folks say that things stink and flibbertigibbet critics wish the worst on us all because we're not pure enough, good omens appear. Jerry Saltz

Art Good People World Pure Wish Enough Say Worst Critics Folks Wrong New Readily Because Proves Stink Art World York Just New York Us Appear Things

It's great that New York has large spaces for art. But the enormous immaculate box has become a dated, even oppressive place. Many of these spaces were designed for sprawling installations, large paintings, and the Relational Aesthetics work of the past fifteen years. Jerry Saltz

Work Art Great Become Past Enormous Immaculate Dated New Box Sprawling Aesthetic Were Years Oppressive York New York Spaces Place Fifteen Large Many Paintings Even Designed

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. Jerry Saltz

Spending Saw About Something Wing Having More He Almost Spoke Like Reactions Him Sure George George W Lot George W. Bush Than Decade America Getting Gremlin Whenever Being After Anytime Bush Really Paintings Start

Now people look at 'The Scream' or Van Gogh's 'Irises' or a Picasso and see its new content: money. Auction houses inherently equate capital with value. Jerry Saltz

People Money Value Van See Picasso New Look Houses Content Equate Auction Gogh Scream Capital Inherently Now

I don't often go to curator or artist walk-throughs of exhibitions. For a critic, it feels like cheating. I want to see shows with my own eyes, making my own mistakes, viewing exhibitions the way most of their audience sees them. Jerry Saltz

Of all the biennials, triennials, quadrennials, internationals, and massive group shows, Documenta, established in 1955 and held once every five years in Kassel, Germany, is seen as the most serious. A statement show. Jerry Saltz

Seen Group Every Once Statement Most Massive Years Five Germany Established Held Show Shows Serious

Galleries began growing in both number and size in the late seventies, when artists who worked in lofts wanted to exhibit their work in spaces similar to the ones the art was made in. Jerry Saltz

Work Art Made Late Seventies Similar Both Exhibit Began Artists Size Wanted Spaces Galleries Worked Who Growing Number

Quotes by Critics