It’s been a little while since we recapped recent activities on Richard Prince’s Bird Talk blog, chiefly because he hadn’t posted in over a month — he seems to have been mulling over some serious stuff, judging by his Twitter feed. But then, on Friday, he let forth with a tirade titled “Shit List…” in which he blasts most of the major art publications including, once again, ARTINFO. However, uncharacteristically self-conscious about the negativity spewing forth from his fingertips, he opens with a list of recent exhibitions he has enjoyed.
Prince’s favorite new shows include:
I like David Salle’s show up now at Skarstedt’s.
I like Blair Thurman’s show on the lower east side.
I like Tony Cox’s show on Broome.
I like Dan Colon’s show in Scotland.
And of course I like Christopher Wool’s show at the Gugg.
The Kandinsky show at The Neue Gallery is great.
For some strange reason, (at the moment) I really like Chagall. I can’t explain why. I’ve never really thought about him much, but his show at The Jewish Museum made me think about him a little more. (I feel the same way about Henry Moore. Never thought about him much but have recently been checking him out).
We’d like to think that Prince’s misspelling of Dan Colen’s last name was deliberate and intended as a pun on his post’s scatological title and tone. The brief burst of positivity quickly leads to a screed in which Prince dismisses all of Chinese contemporary art — “It’s not even mediocre Avalanche Art” — before directing his vitriol toward art magazines and news sites.
After disparaging our colleagues at Artforum (“It sucks”), ARTnews (“the worst”), ArtReview (“I hate your power lists”), and Frieze (“Your magazine is confusing”), Prince concludes his post with an impassioned takedown of ARTINFO:
ArtInfo.Com… There’s no information worth reading on your stupid ass site and yes I realize you fucking idiots sometimes follow what I say and sometimes even re-publish my blather and crap, ( I would hope by now you would come to realize that it’s Bird Talk)… but I’m not going to shut up just because you continue to exist. (Just to let you know… I hope you fuck off and die and go out of business and leave the art world to me. Why me? Because I am the fucking art world).
After four months of Bird Talk silence, we are greatly relieved to know that Prince is still healthy and very much himself. Little does he know, were he to ever actually shut up, we might cease to exist.
— Benjamin Sutton
(Image: Richard Prince, aka “the Fucking Art World.”)