Being Critical Of Art Is A Way

John Baldessari, The 79-year-old Conceptualist, Has Spent More Than Four Decades Making Laconic, Ironic Conceptual Art-about-art, Both Good And Bad.

The Art World Is Molting - Some Would Say Melting. Galleries Are Closing; Museums Are Scaling Back.

'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.

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.

These Days, Newish Art Can Be Priced Between $10,000 And $25,000. When I Tell Artists That A New Painting By A Newish Artist Should Go For Around $1,200, They Look At Me Like I'm A Flesh-eating Virus.