Who Gets to Call It Art?

Manohla Dargis in the New York Times: "It's unclear what exactly Peter Rosen's documentary Who Gets to Call It Art? is about, much less why it was made. Clocking in at 80 minutes, this glib, largely uninformative and poorly organized précis of the post-World War II art scene, with its emphasis on New York in the 1960s and the curator Henry Geldzahler, succeeds neither as history nor as art history."

Ed Halter in the Voice: "[P]oor Geldzahler, crowded out of his own documentary by the showboating Warhol clips."

Ed Gonzalez at Slant: "[W]hat the film lacks in depth it more than makes up for in zeal."

"The sensibility would be a mismatch, but modern art really needs one of those comprehensive, 10-hour Ken Burns documentaries," writes Noel Murray for the AV Club. Actually, it's had one, though not from Burns: Robert Hughes's The Shock of the New.

At any rate, let me point to David D'Arcy's review here in November, then:

Online listening tip. Rosens and James Rosenquist were recent guests on the Leonard Lopate Show.

Posted by dwhudson at February 4, 2006 3:12 PM