I thought I’d give it another try by attending the preview for Frieze Art Fair (to May 7), but I still find that, for me, art fairs are a a good way to network with artworld luminaries but a poor way to view and absorb art. A suitable format for conveying this superficial, disjointed experience is chain of live tweets.
Aside from the people mentioned in my tweets, I ran into Max Hollein, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, who chided me for visiting SFMOMA but not his institution during my recent California visit (during which I mostly gazed at my three-month-old grandson). I also chatted with Susan Talbott, director of the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, who thanked me for having treated her well in this Wall Street Journal article about her former institution, the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.
Overall, my personal encounters were more satisfying than my artistic ones. Nevertheless, there were a few engaging discoveries. Come join me now for a random ramble on Randall’s Island: