Funny how the loggorheac know-it-alls of the art blogosphere fall strangely silent when dealer Jack Tilton provides some actual inside information on the confused yet devious way the art world really works, to the point when an ugly concept like "blacklist" dominates all deals, in the blockbuster case of Robins v. Zwirner.
Lindsay Pollock solely links to Sarah Douglas’ brilliant coverage of the trial at Artinfo, but declines to comment further. Ed Winkleman is busy playing mnemomic word games with his tiny cohort of readers. Paddy Johnson, at Art Fag City, proves that she reads Artnet, by mimicking our coverage of the Abramovic staring photos, without giving us credit.
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Modern Art Notes is simply stuck in the sinkhole of its own very minor self-regard, while Culture Girl pursues and persists with a long esoteric meme on art bibliography, plus a sidebar on dirty, old pieces of silver and their nonvalue. From the New York Times, nothing about Tilton’s testimony, after a perfunctory Randy Kennedy preview piece.
The Art Newspaper, always a thorough chronicler of the scene, is reporting on the trial from its website, while Artinfo, normally repelled by controversy due to the highfalutin’ social aspirations of its principal, has wisely employed the peripatetic Ms. Douglas to kick off its old/new gossip column "In the Air."
As Artnet Magazine reported yesterday, artist Joy Garnett and blogger Hrag Vartanian have launched a much-needed dialogue, with others, about the blacklist on Twitter.
But, among the bloggers, so ready to dive in and piss around the shallow end of the pool, on any subject, only Greg Allen (no fan of yours truly) has had the guts to deal with the Robins case, in his masterful dissection of the initial filings in the lawsuit at greg.org. The whale Zwirner swims at the deep end, and the minnows flee.
CHARLIE FINCH is co-author of Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press).
