SHARKFORUM: OPINION WITH TEETH

I am an artist, art critic (Art in America, a.o.), theorist, historian and doctoral candidate with a serious predisposition for impertinence. I call it a "questioning" outlook. Others often say I simply have a bad attitude. And yet, I'm also frequently accused of possessing a persistently good mood. I think these go together well. You decide for yourself.

Wesley and I knew each other in passing when I lived in Chicago, but have become more "intellectually" acquainted by way of the often heated discussions over at Paul Klein's site, The Art Letter. As my blurb here states, I was born near Chicago; I lived in "our" city the longest I have ever lived in one spot. My career as an artist began there. I worked at the Field Museum building dioramas, had my ups and downs, had many shows, many reviews, sold well enough, won some awards, was listed as best installation of the year (or something like that) in The New Art Examiner once for a Raw Space piece. And so on.

I left in the 80s, when it appeared that there was nothing more for me in Chicago's visual artworld. In one of my recurring, sporadic changes, I had abandoned my earlier Late Conceptual Art and began pursuing the painting-installation-popular art mongrelization that I still engage in. (Although all my "directions" have dealt with the same core content and subject matter.) As I decided to abandon the Windy City, a brand of art was beginning to be enforced --- an exceedingly trendy, art magazine-derivative Neo-Conceptualism (then still linked to Neo-Geo). That, together with all the other aspects of Chicago's recurring provincialism, and a dreadful, dissolving love relationship, made me think, "Why the hell, then, don't you just go directly to that worshiped Mecca --- i.e. NYC?" I started on my way, however, then met my future wife (in the kitchen of my Chicago studio, strangely enough, due to a Maxtavern connection). She is Swiss, and after an unexpected further year in Chicago, and a later year in Tortola in the Caribbean, we headed off to Europe. I have now lived in one place or another in Europe for 17 years. Whenever I live for extended periods in the US, I never seem to make it out of NYC.

I found Chicago's music, literature and comic art world's wonderful. I believe Chicago is a wonderful place to live; my wife loved it too, and misses it still: those amazing neighborhoods, the food, the various ethnic groups. I think Chicag has great art too. But I don't miss it's artworld. Nonetheless, somehow or other, Chicago has never let me go. I still speak with a fairly Chicago accent in English, unfortunately very "cleaned up" due to conducting my life chiefly in the German language (and several dialects), thus seldom speaking English, or when I do, not to native speakers. Except with my Londoner Cockney pal Jonathan, whereupon we indulge our full "street" tendencies. I also had contact with Paul Klein. When he began his on-line discussions and his plan for a Chicago Art Museum I was intrigued. While participating in his list, my interest in Chicago's art travails returned, and fascinating discussions with Tony Fitzpatrick and Wesley Kimler and others began. And Wesley's were always THE most thought-provoking, even fierce. But never accommodating. Never ass-kissing. Tough but inspiring. So I wound up here. Check back. I hope I bring some pertinent observations to this round table.