How closely did you read artcritical in 2010? Play this acrostic puzzle and find out. The first three readers to email us the names of MYSTERYMAN and his FRENEMY win a copy of “A Swinger’s Guide to London” by regular artcritical contributor Piri Halasz. (Use comment box below.) Originally published in 1967 and newly reissued by the Authors Guild under their Backinprint.com imprint, this period-piece riot of a travel guide, savvy in its hip heyday, remains surprisingly valid half a century hence as many of the attractions are still “swinging.” Those that aren’t are fun to read about and compare to what is.
Stop Press, January 1, 2011: Congratulations to our first three winners who each receive a signed and inscribed copy of Piri’s book: Kimberly Glass of Omaha, NE; Erika Schneider of Tampa, FL; and Kim Uchiyama of New York, NY. But do not give up the rest of you: artcritical will give away one more signed, inscribed copy, to one more correct entry, selected by raffle, on January 15 when the answers will be revealed.
Quotes below all come from articles posted at artcritical within the last calendar year. The missing artist names provide acrostic clues that spell the name of our mysteryman. The clues about his frenemy follow. We have thrown in a few visual clues to decorate the page and make life easier.
“Were MYSTERYMAN still alive, he might not be as enthusiastic about …’s work since the ‘90s.”
THE FIRST LETTERS OF THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS’ NAMES (LAST NAME ONLY)
“ARTIST manages to create profound and moving worlds that touch on the core themes of death, loss, pain and longing.”
“ARTIST enlists man’s best friend to help him confront the void of his own bodily demise.”
“ARTIST’s signature move is a deliberate, meandering line that blossoms into mutant filigree over membrane-like washes of evocative color.”
“ARTIST has inadvertently turned himself into a Sophomore conceptualist.”
“Hard-nosed Canadian empiricism and Brooklyn grit seem to combine in ARTIST’s work to undermine stylistic stasis.”
THE LAST LETTERS OF THE FOLLOWING ARTISTS’ NAMES (LAST NAME ONLY)
“ARTIST apparently perceives little distinction between the convergence of lines on a horizon and how the shifting patterns of light alter the manner in which he sees these persistent linear demarcations.”
“The sublime must be mediated, or translated, into something visible—in ARTIST’s case it is a redefining of color, as well as an understated exploration of perspectival depth.”
“ARTIST made off-white her primary ground of choice, creating a seemingly limitless palette of sensuous, creamy variations from the most unassuming of colors to build upon.”
“ARTIST embraces crudeness with confident pragmatism in order to split the difference, as no one has before, between drawing as tough-minded singularity, yet also as the sequential driver of cinematic experience.”
A SYLLABLE FROM EACH OF THE FOLLOWING PROVIDES THE NAME OF MYSTERYMAN’S NEAR-HOMOPHONIC FRENEMY
“ARTIST tapped opposing powers of photography, to evoke mystery and to demystify.”
“How could ARTIST with his geometrically-oriented pieces rooted in the kind of visual language evidenced in the earliest fragments of pottery, achieve a relatively reference-free field when that field should, by all accounts, be laden?”
“In ARTIST, the rejection of European taste and pictorial composition became the perquisite whereby extreme content could evolve.”
RIDICULOUSLY BIG CLUE
“One senses that drawing is how ARTIST comes to grips with her surroundings, whether those stimuli are constructed, imagined or discovered.”
NOTE: Cheating with Google might be bad for your soul but it’s good for our visitor stats! If frustration gets the better of you, or you are that desperate for your free copy of the Swinger’s Guide, just add “artcritical” to keywords from each quote.
No prizes for employees of artcritical LLC or regular contributors, though they are welcome to play.
print