by Jay Heuman

NOTES:

[1] In Wichert’s words (“Criticism in the Moment,” 15 Bytes, January 2007): “And while Greenberg remains an insightful critic and … a wonderful writer, I am gratified to have outlived his inhibiting impact on the practice of art.”

[2] Adam Gopnik, “The Power Critic,” The New Yorker, 16 March 1998.

[3] Karen Wilkin, “A Critic and His Critics: The reception of Clement Greenberg: A Life by Florence Rubenfeld,” Partisan Review 4 (1998), pp. 627-634.

[4] Greenberg, “Taste,” the transcript of a talk given at Western Michigan University, 18 January 1983.

[5] Greenberg commented about American social realist Ben Shahn: “Well, yeah, he was a good photographer and he could be a good painter. Now – after the 60’s – I think better of his painting. I used to think he was too minor. That’s part of the fun of watching art: you change your mind.” This was uttered during an interview by Russell Bingham in Edmonton, AB, Canada (1991), published in The Edmonton Contemporary Artists’ Society Newsletter (vol. 3, iss. 2 & vol. 4, iss. 1).

[6] Greenberg, “Art Criticism,” Partisan Review 47, no. 1 (1981), p. 37.

[7] I am certain not specifying “Western” art was merely an oversight. One finds infrequent inclusion of anything non-Western perusing Art & Culture: Critical Essays (Beacon Press, 1961) or the four-volume comprehensive Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism (ed. John O’Brian; University of Chicago Press; vols. 1 & 2, 1989; vols. 3 & 4, 1993).

[8] This ebb and flow was recognized in the swing – or decline – from the Classical (and stoic) Greek style to the Hellenistic (emotive) Greek style.

[9] Greenberg, “Towards a Newer Laocoon,” Partisan Review 7 (1940), pp. 299-300.

[10] Greenberg, “Modern and Post-Modern,” presented as the William Dobell Memorial Lecture (Sydney, Australia, 31 October 1979) and printed Arts 54, no. 6 (February 1980).

[11] By “commercial,” I mean allowing the market instead of one’s personal creative urge to determine choice of subject, style, etc.

[12] Interview by Lily Leino, “USIS Feature,” United States Information Service, April 1969; printed in Clement Greenberg: The Collected Essays and Criticism, Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969 (vol. 4), ed. John O’Brian (University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 303-314.