DAVE HICKEY NOT RETIRED FROM MAKING BOLD DECLARATIONS

HICKEY OUT AND ABOUT:  The visiting art critic said  'art is run by losers," so messaged an L.A. based Paint This Desert field witness. The eye and ear attended the MOCA-sponsored David Hickey chat and book signing in downtown Los Angeles that stuffed Grand Central Market with, as she said,  Cali Arty students.  Hopefully they will recover from last nights revelations...The PtD operative was struck by Hickey's claim that professors are "failed artists" and good at crushing the hopes of art students. "If you are gifted they will try to destroy you. Because you could do what they couldn't."  .  .  .  Hickey is the former UNLV art professor who made his retirement an event and now on a book tour for "Pirates and Farmers."  @cmonstah, aka Carolina A.Miranda, was also there, which was "particularly bad luck" for Hickey, says Tyler Green.

CATCH UP: Hickey left a mark here in Las Vegas and many wonder who will guide the art ship. That was asked at a November 2013 panel "What is the role of Art in our culture?"  at the Las Vegas Book Festival. Panelist Dawn-Michelle Baude, a poet and UNLV professor, responded with "He's not here anymore. We have to move on." 

MORE CATCH UP: From October 2013,  Las Vegas Weekly's Kristen Peterson interviewed Hickey. 

MORE: 'Dave Hickey is back — and he's still stirring things up'  Los Angeles Times

ADD FEBRUARY 2:  At C-Monster,  Carolina Miranda posts "A few words about the David Hickey talk"  to sharply say: "Let’s be clear: I was at the talk because I do have some healthy respect for Hickey as a writer. He stays away from the word salad gobbledygook that is my art world nightmare, and for that I am grateful. I’m also a proud owner of Air Guitar. And as someone who regularly writes about travel, I find his essay on Las Vegas to be poetic and insightful — one that addresses, yet goes beyond all the Sin City tropes. That said, last night’s talk was a disappointment."  She's rankled and says why.