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In Review

After art critic Douglas Crimp moved to the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in 1969, he became a regular customer at Max鈥檚 Kansas City, a restaurant and art bar on Park Avenue. Max鈥檚 had two rooms, one in front and one in back, and members of Andy Warhol鈥檚 Factory could reliably be found in the latter.

As he passed through the front room, Crimp would greet the 鈥渁rtist- regulars鈥� he had come to know during his first two years in the city, but he found himself inexorably pulled to the back, whose 鈥渃harged atmosphere鈥� he loved.

The divisions between the rooms 鈥渕irrored divisions in the art world that were fairly pronounced in those days, divisions between tough-minded Minimal and Conceptual art and the glam performance scene, between real men and swishes, to use Warhol鈥檚 word,鈥� writes Crimp in his new book, Before Pictures (University of Chicago Press, 2016).

The Village Voice has called it a 鈥減rofound, delectably gossipy memoir鈥� while The New Yorker termed it an 鈥渆xhibition-as-memoir,鈥� with its story significantly relayed through the 150 illustrations that fill it.

But Crimp鈥攖he Fanny Knapp Allen Professor of Art History and a professor of visual and cultural studies鈥攔ejects the label of memoir, which he suggests doesn鈥檛 capture his narrative method and puts the emphasis on him rather than on the historical moment he depicts.

The book 鈥渕oves from anecdote to criticism to research, back to anecdote, and so forth, and also from my gay life to my art world life,鈥� he says.

Before Pictures was inspired years before it was written, by Crimp鈥檚 realization that many of his fellow activists in ACT UP, an advocacy group formed in response to the AIDS crisis, were decades younger than he and so hadn鈥檛 experienced gay life in 1970s New York. Writing about his life in that era would be a means of resisting a 鈥渞evisionist narrative that was being promulgated: that the 1970s represented gay men鈥檚 immaturity and led inevitably to AIDS, which in turn made us grow up and become responsible citizens,鈥� Crimp told Out Magazine in September.

After spending his childhood in Coeur d鈥橝lene, Idaho, he went to college 鈥渁s far away as possible in every respect,鈥� he writes, moving to New Orleans and enrolling at Tulane鈥檚 School of Architecture.

He explored local gay culture and also pivoted from architecture to art history. In 1967 he moved to New York, taking up residence first in Spanish Harlem.

鈥淚 moved at a time when New York was virtually bankrupt and rents were cheap and I could imagine myself becoming an art critic by simply joining the art world and participating鈥攁nd I was able to do that,鈥� he says.

The book, structured around Crimp鈥檚 changing addresses, tells the story of his life in the city from the late 1960s through much of the 鈥�70s, concluding with his curation of the 1977 exhibition Pictures at the gallery Artists Space.

Crimp first became renowned as a critic of the 鈥淧ictures Generation鈥濃�攁 group of artists, including Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo, whose work reflects the media-driven, consumerist world in which they grew up.

鈥淢y own life and aesthetic attitudes reflected the ambivalence and fears that were still operative about homosexuality,鈥� he writes, 鈥渁bout whether art could be a manly enough profession and about what kinds of art qualified as most manly.鈥�

He calls the division 鈥渂etween the art world and the queer world鈥� something that he 鈥渨ould negotiate throughout my first decade living in New York City.鈥�

Crimp is the author of five other books, including 鈥淥ur Kind of Movie鈥�: The Films of Andy Warhol (MIT Press, 2012) and Melancholia and Moralism: Essays on AIDS and Queer Politics (MIT Press, 2002). He also edited AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism (MIT Press, 1988), a special issue of the art journal October, later republished as a book.

It was the first book-length publication on the cultural meaning of AIDS and propelled Crimp into the AIDS activist movement.

鈥淚 first met Douglas through his writing when I was in graduate school,鈥� says Joan Saab, chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

When she came to Rochester 15 years ago, she was intimidated to become his colleague鈥攁n apprehension that she says was soon dispelled by his generosity toward fellow faculty and his engagement of students.

Crimp鈥檚 book 鈥渂rings all the warmth and intellectual rigor of his classroom to the printed page,鈥� she says.

鈥淗e seamlessly balances his art criticism with his emerging activism, without ever losing his warm and compelling voice. It鈥檚 a tour de force.鈥�