Jumping the Shark.... Art Blogs in Art in America

Mirror.. Mirror upon the Wall.. who in Art Blogger land is the fairest of them all....???? Then the mirror answered, "O Lady Queen...."

Well.. if you haven't picked up a copy of Art in America "The World's Premier Art Magazine" yet this month.. be sure to turn to page 61 of the November'07 issue! 

And no.. it's not a great critical review of the next art world American talent..... it's a 5 page snarkfest interview with 5 of the webs most influential art bloggers! Regina Hackett(Seattle), Jeff Jahn (Portland), Roberta Fallon/Libby Rosof (Philly), Tyler Green (DC), and of course NY's own...Edward Winkleman.

The story's best line of the long meandering article goes hands down to Edward... when asked to comment on the statement :

".... Unknown Bloggers want to be little bloggers; little bloggers want to be bigger bloggers; and bigger bloggers want to be called, as is Tyler's Modern Art Notes, "the most influential of all the visual-arts blogs" by the WSJ

Edward answered : "Of course bloggers have huge egos. Lock six bloggers in a room, throw in a mirror, and watch them tear each other apart fighting for it...."

Well.. it would seem Edward has been doing a fair amount of self reflecting... hmm...

Well.. And anyway... the last time MAO was in a SoBe hotel room with several bloggers and a mirror.. the fight over the mirror had nothing to do with EGO or even Snow White!

Nevertheless... we at MAO don't care much who's considered a big or a little blogger.. we just know they're all a bunch of silly size queens great informative websites!!

(Photo.. by Nan Goldin...Self portrait in my blue bathroom, Berlin, 1991)

Comments

[danielcooneyfineart]

Have you read Charlie Finch's opinion yet?

[Lisa Hunter]

Charlie Finch takes an even dimmer view. Maybe we should start blogging about LOLcats or the South Beach diet.

[Mike @ MAO]

Does anyone other than Dinky Winky actually read..Charlie Finch anymore??

[Kenny T]

Who the hell is Dinky Winky? And MAO doesn't need a mirror. He knows he's the best looking out of that group. Charlie Finch's response is priceless. Well, valueless...

[Edward_]

Goddammmitt MAO

Would you NOT help perpetuate that retarded moniker????

[Rocco]

The only thing Mike uses a mirror for is to cut his toe nails....I'm sorta kidding...He also uses it to check how young a hat can make him look.....not a day over 42!

[Beth]

I must say that I'm a bit confused about how Art in America makes this call. I think Brian Sherwin who is the editor for the Myartspace Blog (www.myartspace.com/blog) offers a good read. He is young, but he has also interviewed about 400 artists in under a two year period which is impressive. The majority of the interviews are with emerging artists, but he has also interviewed huge names like Michael Craig-Martin, Sylvia Sleigh, James Rosenquist, William T. Wiley, Thornton Willis, Aleksandra Mir and even Alex Grey. I'm not sure why Sherwin and the Myartspace Blog has slipped under Art in America's radar, but the traffic speaks for itself. Go to Alexa, Winkleman's blog has a rank of 2,346,874 at this time while the Myartspace Blog has a rank of 192,776. When it comes to rank the lower number is better. Thus, it would seem that Sherwin is more influential online as far as art blogging is concerned. The only blogger mentioned here that beats Sherwin's Alexa ranking is Tyler Green's blog. It would seem that traffic does not speak to Art in America. Perhaps money does?

[Amusing]

Beth, you can't really compare an artist interview blog to an exhibit blog. I think Art in America desired to examine art bloggers who give exhibit reviews. While the Myartspace Blog is a great source for learning about artists it is not a great source for exhibit reviews. I doubt the writer of that blog would appreciate you throwing him into your petty fight no matter what the traffic numbers suggest.

[Van Marciano Art]

Interesting post and furthermore, interesting comments, though I must agree with Beth. Thanks for posting.