THE BELIEVER 2007
ART ISSUE.
- - - -
The 2007 Believer Art Issue is now available (in fact, for the next three days, it's $2 off and Believer subscriptions are $5 off), and it's a work of art in itself. We poked four holes in the cover, where Charles Burns's illustrations normally are, and visible through these holes are four illustrations by Charles Burns—except they're actually temporary tattoos, which can actually be applied to any washable area on your body. Open the cover and you'll see that the whole rest of the first page is filled in with more temporary tattoos by artists such as Marcel Dzama, Raymond Pettibon, and Ron Regé Jr. Once you get past the tattoos (allow between five and seven days), there are essays and interviews about what you'd expect: the visual erotics of mini-marriages, art that sets itself on fire, food in Iraq, Las Vegas carpet patterns, East German cars that hydraulically transform into lowrider El Caminos, etc. Among the issue's most fun items is Sheila Heti's conversation with art critic Dave Hickey, a slice from the middle of which follows.
SHEILA HETI: How much is the performance important? I think of somebody like Warhol or Pollock, and they had such strong public personas. Who they are communicates their art as well, and, in Warhol's case, his image is part of the work's meaning.
DAVE HICKEY: Well, the thing is, the work is not really sufficient. Most famous artists are created by their work and the idea of them as a character, and if they're smart and ambitious, they reinforce that character because they want to win. They want their views to prevail. And you must want to win. I don't want to be rich, but I want to win. I want my enemies to fall in shambles. I do not want to be fair. I want the art I hate to go away. If you want your art to stay around, and I hate it, get your own fucking critic! So I am not in favor of art—I'm in favor of the art I like.
SH: Yeah, totally. But so do you think an artist has to be part of the discourse? Has to talk? To give interviews?
DH: It's a social discourse. There ain't no Frank Stellas at Montana State. But you've got to be there, and you've got to be interested in other people so you can talk about them. Gossip is the currency of the discourse, so you should shut up about yourself. Never confess, never explain, never apologize, and never complain. But you got to be there. The missing are presumed dead.
SH: OK, you say that art needs talent and courage to be great or interesting, and—it's a weird generalization to make—but I wonder if you've noticed in artists that there are certain types of ambition that lead to great works of art, and if there are certain kinds of ambition that lead to shitty work.
DH: Let's put it this way. If one artist likes another artist, it's never quite the work, it's the quality of the ambition they respect. Ed Ruscha said to me once—he was talking about some artist he didn't like, and I said, "Well, the quality of the work ..." And Ed says, "It's not the quality of the work, it's the quality of the job."
SH: Quality of the job?
DH: I mean, are you doing something worth doing? That's a reasonable question. When you really respect somebody who does something different from you, your respect is for the quality of the job.
(His cell phone rings. He talks to his wife, the art historian Libby Lumpkin. They have a brief, confused discussion about whether or not she's having two lunches today. He hangs up. I ask him how long he's been married; about 15 years, he replies. Has he been married before? He's had relationships with four women, he tells me—a serial monogamist, he says.)
DH: What I do is I find beautiful, intelligent women, and invest them with enough confidence to leave me.
SH: And do they all leave for the same reason?
DH: I guess. That's the chance you take if you like bitches, if you prefer women who have their own agendas and their own destinations. I like singers, writers, dancers, social climbers, and divas. So eventually, you're passed over. Part of this is selfish, though. Writing for one is hard. Writing for two is impossible. And sitting at home writing about cowboys with cancer while Betsy Sue teaches fifth-grade music casts a pall and poses a question mark over every word you write. Living off the work of others makes you a slut or a shit. I've tried not to. Anyway, I get along with all my exes. We're actually pretty close.
- - - -
OTHER McSWEENEY'S FEATURES:
- - - -
The Believer 2007 Art Issue
On Community By Ryan Mazer
The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story By Lemony Snicket
Signs Above My Halloween Candy: 1996–2006 By Zach Oberman
An Eighth-Grader's Halloween-Costume Ideas Designed to Get Her in With the Popular Girls By Emily Axford
Red dot denotes content that is new today.
Black dot denotes newish content.