Art Is Good, Bad, Boring, Ugly, Useful

All Of Koons's Best Art - The Encased Vacuum Cleaners, The Stainless-steel Rabbit (the Late-twentieth Century's Signature Work Of Simulationist Sculpture), The Amazing Gleaming Balloon Dog, And The Cast-iron Re-creation Of A Civil War Mortar Exhibited Last Month At The Armory - Has Simultaneously Flaunted Extreme Realism, Idealism, And Fantasy.

I Don't Plan Out My Visits Rigorously, But I Do Have A List Of About 125 New York Galleries, Alternative Spaces, Museums, And So Forth That I Visit Regularly. That's The Closest Thing I Have To A Strategy: I Go To A Lot Of Places, Many That Artists Don't Visit.

I Don't Know Much About Auctions. I Sometimes Go To Previews And See Art Sardined Into Ugly Rooms. I've Gawked At The Gaudy Prices, And Gaped At Well-clad Crowds Of Happy White People Conspicuously Spending Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars.

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.

Turns Out Picasso's Passion For Uncertainty, Mystery, And The Thrill Of Life Never Ended.