Without New York...

Lately I've been thinking if I could do this blog if I didn't live in New York, or even if I could maintain an avid interest in art and art photography in another city. To those of you who live elsewhere, that must sound completely retarded. But I've got a short attention span, so if something isn't in my face constantly, I lose focus.

Some confirmation of my thinking came from an unexpected source. Artnet's interview with LA-based artist John Baldessari has been linked on a couple of other blogs for his comments on the unwitting kitsch artist Thomas Kinkade. It's a loooong interview, and he also makes some comments about his decision not to move to New York:

ND: Did you feel like you wanted to be in New York because that was where more action was, and where more artists were?

JB: Probably, yeah. Probably, of course. You know it was the art center. I don't know if it is now. In one way you could say yes. In one way no. I think it still has the best museums. I think also art is more in your face there. You can't avoid it. Here you can, which is good because one gets a lot of work done that way.

If you read all the way through the interview, you'll come across a hint of why Sonnabend Gallery doesn't have or want to have a Web site. (Don't tell me they have an Artnet site. As we all know, that doesn't count.)