Art Is A Way Of Showing The

Art Is Good, Bad, Boring, Ugly, Useful To Us Or Not. It Does Or Doesn't Disturb Optical Monotony, And Succeeds Or Fails In Surmounting Sterility Of Style Or Visual Stereotype; It Creates New Beauty Or It Doesn't.

It Took The Metropolitan Museum Of Art Nearly 50 Years To Wake Up To Pablo Picasso. It Didn't Own One Of His Paintings Until 1946, When Gertrude Stein Bequeathed That Indomitable Quasi-cubistic Picture Of Herself - A Portrait Of The Writer As A Sumo Buddha - To The Met, Principally Because She Disliked The Museum Of Modern Art.

Being Critical Of Art Is A Way Of Showing Art Respect. No Sports Writer Would Say, "well The Yankees Had A Great Season This Year." No Food Critic Would Get A Bad Meal And Say, "oh, It Was So Lovely." It Always Strikes Me As Odd When People Say, "why Do You Write Negatively About Any Art?" I Think That Everybody Has Mixed Feelings About Everything - Even Goya. I Mean, I Look At Rembrandt Sometimes And I Hear A Voice In My Head Go, "it's Pretty Brown."

The Greatest Work Of Art About New York? The Question Seems Nebulous. The City's Magic And Majesty Are Distilled In The Photographs Of Alfred Stieglitz And Paul Strand.

My Nominee For Best Picture Of The Year - Maybe The Best Picture Ever, Because It's Essentially Made Up Of And Is An Ecstatic Love Letter To All Other Movies - Is Christian Marclay's Endlessly Enticing Must-see Masterpiece 'the Clock.'