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anything of it - and art that came from inside, not from outside trends. But I wasn't even writing about art when I was falling for Ryman's and LeWitt's art, so my relation to it was very different. You say, 'falling for their art'. That's a curious expression. No. That's what I did. I was really knocked out by things in those days. Are you saying you don't 'fall for' art any more in that way? 'Fall for' is a very innocent thing, isn't it? I can still get pretty excited about things! (All these terms of endearment...) I still thrive on the kind of constant stimulus that made me a perfect avant-garde critic for a while. But now I measure things against other things much more - the result, I suppose, of trying to make myself think more theoretically. That need for a framework again. I don't really think in depth - and I'm not apologizing for it; it's something I've gotten very interested in and my fiction is about scanning, skimming, fragmentation, juxtaposition, falling into the gaps, the reader participating in making the 'plot'. I like a sort of point-to-point stimulus; I think most people who get involved with the avant-garde are that kind of person. Maybe we've been created by a consumer society. Or maybe it's a way of seeing and thinking that is simply more like real life. the tension between art and politics provides that kind of stimulus too. I'm finally getting down to the two areas of art that interest me most - and make me most schizophrenic. That's art that is socially aware and outreaching, and art that has to do with nature, ritual, ancient symbols and images - especially art outdoors. I know they sound politically opposed, like cultural feminism and socialist feminism, but I'm committed at the moment to closing that gap - at least for myself. But now I think I'm also finally weaning myself from my identification with and dependence on visual artists. I really want to mostly write fiction. but I'm only creeping towards that point... Do you think you'll ever be able to live by writing fiction? Or will you continue to lecture and write criticism part-time? It seems very unlikely I'll ever be able to live on fiction, and since I resist teaching, I'm stuck with the lecturing because writing fees have stayed put while the cost of living has done its spiralling number. The maddening part of it is that as long as I am making my living off criticism and lecturing, I feel that tremendous obligation to see all the art I can possibly see, even if I will never write about nine tenths of it - or even think about it ever again. That's valuable time spent trudging round the galleries that I'd rather put into my own writing. I'd love to have my cake and eat it too - just see what I know I'm interested in, and write and talk about that and simply miss the rest of it. When I lived in Devon for ten months last year, I was kind of practising for that. I missed a whole art season and it really didn't make any difference to anybody. Same with the organizational work I do. People said: What do you mean you're going away for a year? What will happen to this and this and that? And of course, it all survived without me. If there were another feminist art critic, could you really pull out, personally? Even if their viewpoint within feminism were completely different from your own? Yeah. I think so. I mean I know that person won't be me and they wouldn't want to be anyway. And I could continue to support her or them. But I wouldn't feel as I do now that if I don't do it nobody else will. Which of course is rather conceited of me. There are other women writing about women's art, but just not as a full-time commitment. And of course my own commitment is getting less full-time, which scares me. We've worked so hard, and the backlash is getting heavy. I'd hate to see it all going down the drain, to have to start again from scratch years later... artscanada A Thematic Bi-Monthly Journal Of The Arts Give yourself and others a subscription to artscanada, the most appealing and authoritative journal in the art world today Send subscription with payment to: artscanada 3 Church Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1M2 1 Year £10 6 Issues 2 Yrs £16 12 Issues 3 Yrs £20 18 Issues Outside Canada add £1.50 per year postage Start your subscription with Art and Nationalism to be published on the 15th of December. Among contributors are: Dore Ashton, New York New York art - 50s and 60s John Bowlt, Texas Russian Avant-Garde Ronald Christ, Rutgers University Latin America Michael Greenwood, Canada Contemporary art in Canada and Britain François-Marc Gagnon, Canada Quebec, Colonial era and 1930s and 40s Theodore Allen Heinrich, Canada An International view Hilton Kramer, New York New York art - 1930s and 40s Matti Megged, Israel and New York Israel Octavio Paz, Mexico The Mexican Muralists George Woodcock, Canada Historical piece on Canada and U.S.A. Duncan Macmillan, Scotland United Kingdom The thematic portion of the issue will illustrate approximately 200 works in black and white and color. The articles will be abundantly illustrated with handsome reproductions of Canadian, Russian, American, French, Mexican, Latin American, British and Israeli art. The combination of a vivid, very frank and cogent portrayal of the "Social realism" of the Mexican mural painters Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros by the eminent Mexican writer Octavio Paz, and Ronald Christ's article which is based on individual artists currently working in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Nicaragua and Mexico, offers a view of the whole of Latin American art and artists working with the factors of the original European impetus of modern art, the rediscovery of the ancient native cultures of the Americas, the geography of the New World, the political struggles. The issue will also inagurate regular coverage of the New York gallery shows with reviews by critics Dore Ashton and Sylvia Tennenbaum. 9
