ABSTRACT
The cultural landscape has lately been the scene of some remarkable incursions and conversions. Politics—or some ideological simulacrum of politics—has finally penetrated the New York art world where the word "revolution" has heretofore signified nothing more violent than the decision to paint a picture in a single color or attach a hot-water bottle to its surface. Artists, critics, and museum personnel who were pleased to pretend that even the barest awareness of the social implications of their professional pursuits constituted an intolerable violation of the purity of their tasks. The museums have been denounced for their undemocratic policies. More space, money, attention, and—alas—praise have been insisted upon for the work of black artists. The demand has been made to give "artists" more of a "voice" in making policy wherever and whenever contemporary art—or indeed, the showing of art of any period—comes under institutional sponsorship.
