The art world is an all-volunteer force. No one has to be here if he or she doesn’t want to be, and we should be associating with anyone we want to. 545
The price of a work of art has nothing to do with what the work of art is, can do, or is worth on an existential, alchemical level. 706
The Met is not only the finest encyclopedic museum of art in the United States; it is arguably the finest anywhere. 816
Robert Rauschenberg was not a giant of American art; he was the giant. No American created so many aesthetic openings for so many artists. 712
To me, nothing in the art world is neutral. The idea of ‘disinterest’ strikes me as boring, dishonest, dubious, and uninteresting. 637
The forties, seventies, and the nineties, when money was scarce, were great periods, when the art world retracted but it was also reborn. 614
Almost all institutions own a lot more art than they can ever show, much of it revealing for its timeliness, genius, or sheer weirdness. 601
The art world is molting – some would say melting. Galleries are closing; museums are scaling back. 577
