Posted by jameskalm at 3/8/08 12:19 p.m.

Dear Regina Hackett,
It's gratifying to hear that you and everyone living outside of New York (that's a hell of an audience, and I did say I was a chauvinist), got a laugh from my latest column in the "Brooklyn Rail" titled "The Ethics of Aesthetics"

As I stated I'm conflicted. Your analogy to a chief cooking a meal and then reviewing it is a bit simplistic. But, if you are sitting in the restaurant watching him do it and every thing is transparent, you should be smart enough to take that into consideration when evaluating the self-critique. One of my points is that all critical information should be taken with a grain of salt, caveat emptor.

If you have a passing knowledge of New York School history, then you know the long list of conflicts of interest that's infected the community from Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz to Clem Greenberg and Helen Frankenthaler. Do we discount everything these people created because there was hanky-panky going on?

Finally, as I stated, if we're going to reform the art world lets start at the top, go for the board at MoMA.

Glad you found the piece enjoyable,

James Kalm

Posted by Regina Hackett at 3/8/08 1:45 p.m.

Hi James, otherwise known as New-York-Is-The-World. The funny part is that you presume entangling alliances are unique to your locale. I'm not challenging that; I'm laughing. It's pure, presumptive crazy, and that's why I enjoyed it.

I don't buy that you have a confict, James. If you had one, why? Why pit online writers against print as if they were from different tribes? I work in both, and so do most of the art bloggers I know.

Good sentence about the giant knot. If your essay weren't shapely, I wouldn't have bothered to respond. Regina

Posted by jameskalm at 3/8/08 8:49 p.m.

Hey Regina,
I'm not the one pitting online writing against print, its more about "the new versus the old", tribes aside, why did Oedipus have to kill his father?

I'm fascinated with the art world because this is the area culture has designated as "what should be seen". All the tragedy, pathos, and foibles of humankind are on display, always have been, always will be.

New York is not "The-World," but I'd be lying if I said it's not "The-Center-Of-The-Art-World" (check sales, galleries, artists, collectors, prestige, museums, publications headquartered here, etc.). This unique position could all change radically in the near future.

Regarding shapely essays I owe a lot to Kate, and my editor Thomas Micchelli, at the Rail,

Thanks

James Kalm

Posted by Molly Dolly at 3/14/08 4:58 a.m.

I'd say about 34-27-33.
A virtual hourglass of an essay!
Sand sifts into the coffin hole as we go.
Then the 'ding!' of death.
This is a Hallmark card and for what section?

Posted by Art Fag City at 4/12/08 11:46 a.m.

CVF had a pretty large conflict of interest, but to my mind it was his response that really screwed him. It's one thing to have a conflict, but it's another to say it's okay because other people are doing worse. There's a kind of bravado to statements like that, that only annoys people. Kalm misstepped in citing Tyler Green's location of Washington as opposed to New York as a reason for being out of touch (he's involved enough in the art world to understand the conflicts) though he's right to point out Green's over-sensitivity to conflict of interest cases. He went after Grace Glueck in 2006 for being on the board of the Clark Museum, a minor issue that should have been let alone. He could have just that woman retire in peace.