Off the Mark
Off the Mark is a compact early blast against criticism that misses the real question by mistaking discursive cleverness for artistic judgment. Williams rebukes Mark Van Proyen's review by invoking Robert Hughes and the unfashionable demand for quality, not as politeness or taste but as a radical critical standard. The letter is already Samizdat in miniature: public, irritated, over-articulate, and unwilling to let the art world's smart boredom pass for thought. Its sharpness comes from identifying "quality" as the forbidden term of the period, the thing too blinding and dangerous for fashionable critics to name. In retrospect, the piece reads like the seed of Williams's later polemics, where criticism must either risk judgment or admit that it is merely decorating failure.
- DATE:
- September 9, 1993
- DOCUMENT TYPE:
- Essay / Critique
- PUBLICATION / VENUE:
- Artweek
- NAMED ARTISTS / FIGURES:
- LG Williams; Mark Van Proyen; Robert Hughes
- INSTITUTIONS / VENUES:
- Artweek; Readers' Forum; Book Review
- KEYWORDS:
- quality as forbidden term; Robert Hughes unfashionable; Mark Van Proyen corrected; smart boredom as criticism; Samizdat in miniature; judgment demanded publicly; discursive cleverness vs artistic judgment; quality as radical standard