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Starving Artist Slaps Critic

February 21, 2009 by Marion Maneker

Elwyn Palmerton wrote this letter to the New York Times in response to Holland Cotter’s story last week, “The Boom is Over: Long Live the Art!”

For years Mr. Cotter has said the same things: The art market is bad. Money is bad, and it’s making art worse. These kids are all making bright shallow things for the ravenous art market.

As a struggling artist and art writer (one who makes bright shallow things), I find these critical broadsides irritating. The implication that my entire generation has been brainwashed by M.F.A. programs and transformed into craven money-hungry fiends by the art market always struck me as slightly glib and naïve. [ . . . ] This economic crisis has been worse for artists than it has been for everyone else. Try living in New York with the debt of a higher education but without the increases in earning power and job security that this usually brings. It is not fun.

Art and Commerce: Not All Cashed In On the Boom (New York Times)

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: New York

About Marion Maneker

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