Joe Maller - Hall of Bad Art Writing

Hall of Bad Art Writing

I recently started collecting examples of bad art writing and criticism. I think my interest is from both a perverse attraction to the horrible, and a need to subvert their importance in order to survive having read any of it. The obvious solution, based on the lessons of the playground, is to make fun of it. If you laugh at the stupid, you know you're smart.

These articles suck the life from my soul. Normally I don't like cynical work, or work derived from negative reactions, but in this case these are about the survival of my mind. These people write about poetry, yet never seem to have experienced any themselves.

All text is excerpted as critical review from copyrighted sources. Attempted translations follow the original sentences.

Textual fluidity has an important tactical function in the transactional network of marketing communication.
-Douglas Kellner
A Baudriard Reader
Simple words work well in advertising.

In 1973 she [Hanne Darboven] began incorporating texts--transcribed directly because,she has claimed, they could not be bettered--from various writers, initially Heinrich Heine and Jean-Paul Sartre, whose works spoke to her recognition of the failure of the grand narratives of Enlightenment thought to provide convincing encompassing interpretations and, equally, to her fundamentally romantic existentialist position.
-Lynne Cooke
Hanne Darboven,
Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983, 1980-83
Dia Center For the Arts.
In her work dating from 1973, Hanne Darboven quoted Heinrich Heine and Jean-Paul Sartre. She agreed with their extenialist views and arguments for the failure of Enlightenment theories.

Unfortunately, I expect that this list will grow. If you'd like to contribute, e-mail bad_art_writing@joemaller.com


	I recently started collecting examples of bad art writing and criticism. I think my interest is from both a perverse attraction to the horrible, and a need to subvert their importance in order to survive having read any of it. The obvious solution, based on the lessons of the playground, is to make fun of it. If you laugh at the stupid, you know you're smart. These articles suck the life from my soul. Normally I don't like cynical work, or work derived from negative reactions, but in this case these are about the survival of my mind. These people write about poetry, yet never seem to have experienced any themselves. All text is excerpted as critical review from copyrighted sources. Attempted translations follow the original sentences.

	Textual fluidity has an important tactical function in the transactional network of marketing communication. -Douglas Kellner A Baudriard Reader Simple words work well in advertising.

	In 1973 she [Hanne Darboven] began incorporating texts--transcribed directly because,she has claimed, they could not be bettered--from various writers, initially Heinrich Heine and Jean-Paul Sartre, whose works spoke to her recognition of the failure of the grand narratives of Enlightenment thought to provide convincing encompassing interpretations and, equally, to her fundamentally romantic existentialist position. -Lynne Cooke Hanne Darboven, Kulturgeschichte 1880-1983, 1980-83 Dia Center For the Arts. In her work dating from 1973, Hanne Darboven quoted Heinrich Heine and Jean-Paul Sartre. She agreed with their extenialist views and arguments for the failure of Enlightenment theories.

	Unfortunately, I expect that this list will grow. If you'd like to contribute, e-mail bad_art_writing@joemaller.com