Dave Hickey (1940–2021)

Best book of art writing ever. These all first appeared in the late lamented LA journal Art Issues, and Hickey's writing was why I subscribed. (Though there was also a Peter Schjeldahl article on Martin Luther that just killed me.) The journal did not survive its creeping smartiness, but fortunately before it folded its tents it published this fine and handsome anthology of its most miraculous writer's incidental works. You will not regret reading this. You'll not see art the same way after.

Beauty versus 'the beautiful'; beauty versus meaning; beauty versus the market.
Art as a fomenting agent of revolution. The artistic institution as the subduer of alternative vision.
I would be very foolish to say what Mr. Hickey was or was not espousing (he's way too smart and articulate and my vocabulary is not up to the task), but my humble take on the essays in The Invisible Dragon would be thus: "when we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change," and, perhaps, when show more we change the we speak of things, the things we speak of change us. show less

This is my favourite book. Period. All of human behaviour is described in these pages.

Plus, we learn that Art is not necessarily good for you; that the well-being benifits of Art is a Myth cooked up by Institutions of the Pharmacological Arts, like the LACMA and the Getty, et al...

The exhibition at the Hayward Gallery was a really great retrospective with lots of fantastic work spanning decades. Her paintings are miracles. This book is lovely and well produced, and a nice reminder of it. The essays are interesting though some of them do cover similar ground but I always learn something reading about Bridget Riley's work and methods.