Changing Dreams at the AJC

As an experiment to see if anyone indeed EVER reads my rarely updated Counterforces blog, I shall take this opportunity to suggest that the AJC's revisionary bet has paid off so far as visual art is concerned. I have had nothing to do with the Features section since last April so I'm entitled to my opinion.

The coverage of Shepard Barbash and Vicki Ragan (see the previous post) was excellent, and subsequent stories on artwork owned by Atlanta collectors has given those In the Know an insight into the scene that they (or I, at least) did not previously have: viz., that work subsequently available in Atlanta has often already been acquired by certain collectors (in the case of photographs) at the New York gallery. This is an improvement on the days when collectors would see work in Atlanta and then fly to New York to buy comparable pieces from the artist's gallery there.

Lisa Kurzner's review of Tina Barney contextualizes the work more in depth than I would have thought permissible in a review for the general public, and the return of formalist analysis to the pages of the AJC is, for me, a most welcome development. The articles intended to bring an audience up to speed on contemporary issues are, indeed, comparable to what is done for the sciences or world geopolitics, and visual art has long deserved the courtesy. Now it appears to be receiving it.

Yay.