If being an anti-art artist is difficult, being an anti-art art historian is a hard position indeed. His doctrinal revolutionism brings forth nothing new in art but reenacts upheavals on the symbolic plane of language. It provides the consoling belief that overthrows are occurring as in the past, that barriers to creation are being surmounted, and that art is pursuing a radical purpose, even if it is only the purpose of doing away with itself.
More from Harold Rosenberg
In the United States, revolts tends to be directed against specific situations, rarely against the social structure as a whole.
Permalink to quote #17 The current demoralization of the art world is attributable at least in part to museum interference, ideological and practical, with ongoing creation in art.
Permalink to quote #19 Art has arrived at the paradox that tradition itself requires the occurrence of radical attacks on tradition.
Permalink to quote #16