Congratulations, Dwayne on the write up in the Memphis Flyer. Check it out in issue #899, May,18-May, 24, 2006.
Carol Knowles wrote a very positive review (which the show deserves) but I wish that she would take art and the artists she covers a bit more seriously. Phrases like "...and asks us to soar as fast and as high as we can," are so sugary, insipid, and pandering that they do a serious painter like Butcher a disservice. I'm not saying Dwayne doesn't have a sense of humor about his work---he may or may not---but Knowles should be able to convey the spirit of the work and the artist's point of view without light headed phrases.
I recall a review in the defunct Gamut, where she spent a good two paragraphs describing how she'd like to climb inside one of David Hall's collages and,"... dissolve into the corals and taupes that color..." etc, etc.
It's not only Carol though. A local writer named Beam, here in St. Augustine, interviewed me before my show last February and used many painful phrases like,"...colors that dance unbiddenn across the canvas..." Ugh!
I always appreciate a good review, especially of my own work, but is it too much to ask that they be intelligently written as well?
Anyway, go see Supermandamnfool !
2 comments:
WHAT? you do not think i want people to fly as fast and as high as they can?
Paul,
In fairness to her, Carol's background is in literature and poetry, thus her reviews tend toward the spectacularly descriptive and critically unexplored.
But that's what the job requires--art writing isn't supposed to be skeptical, intellectually challenging, question authority, shine light in darkened corners, etc.; rather it is to be a glorified press release.
She fills this role perfectly.
ALL IS WELLLLLLLL!
Commander Salamander
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