Re: Jews/'60s; Weyth
David DeRose (dderose@uclink4.berkeley.edu)
Sat, 21 Jun 1997 21:37:56 -0700
>Hughes totally ignored the incredible diversification of the art scene
>since the 1970s--virtually no women, nothing about minorities outside one
>token reference (w/cameo by HL Gates), and a remarkable timidity to
>discuss "out" gay art since the AIDS crisis. His take was entirely
>neo-modernist, essentially claiming that everything since Abst. Exp has
>been crap. There were way too many shots of Bobby posturing in front of
>the art and making snide comments about the "lower" forms of art. It's
>telling that he concluded the show with a focus on gigantic land art
>(principally by men). His oversimplifications of 60s culture underscored
>his (and I believe the program's) desire to destabilize its significance
>and pose the early postwar as the more (muscular) important period.
>
I didn't see the later episodes, but what else could we expect from the
author of "The Culture of Complaint"? His pro-hegemonic dismissal of all
things gay, feminist, racial -- you know, that "marginal," whining,
self-pitying stuff -- is famous in performing arts circles where he
characterized solo performers Holly Hughes and Karen Finley as "what's wrong
with American art."
DDR
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David J. DeRose
Center for Theater Arts
UC Berkeley
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