Academicism has its charms, too, and also a piercing undertone. The curators seem dull because they leave the Whitney caught in what it fears most. The Whitney has a more startling dilemma yet. A record number of Biennial artists live well beyond New York, notably in Texas and California. By its very act of reaching out, the Whitney reflects America's own intense nationalism, combined with the bland taste and lack of security one expects from a mass economy.
Some choices suggest a wider arena still.
I mentioned the world markets already. In the number of foreign-born artists, such as Haacke, I can hear the buzz word globalization . For the first time, too, Internet art appears, yet another mark of a decentralized, global economy. Only Richard Tuttle earned his fame before I myself got interested in art, even as older artists such as Richard Serra are producing some of their most demanding art ever. Tuttle may not predate Johns , to mention a living artist relegated by ants to the sands of time.