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For years I have felt slighted that the bow-tie-wearing geeks who write for such journals as the National Review and the New Criterion ignored me. Clearly, they thought I was not significant enough to mention in their catalogs of dangerous liberal intellectuals. That might be changing.

Over on ARMAVIRUMQUE: THE NEW CRITERION'S WEBLOG James Panero takes issue with the upcoming Whitney Biennial:

The Whitney Museum of Amerikkkan Art has unveiled its lineup for its 2006 biennial exhibition. And if you thought "political art" was oh-so-thirteen years ago, guess again. Politics as usual is back at the Whitney. And by politics, of course we mean the same left wing politics defined in such a way as to produce the maximum amount of smugness in the "creative community." Think you'd ever see something like the (actually creative) right wing guerilla theatre of say, the editors of The Dartmouth Review in the 1980s? Think again. (And for more on the performance art piece known as the 'shanty bashing,' you can check out Stefan's and my book on The Dartmouth Review when it comes out next spring--just in time for the Biennial, as it happens!)

But let's not kid ourselves--when the official art world gets involved in politics, official political art, or 'subversion,' or whatever, is what you get.

Snarky and simplistic criticism, sure. But that's what we expect from The New Criterion.

What does it have to do with me? This is from the Biennial press release:

Catalogue

The 2006 Whitney Biennial catalogue, with 800 pages and more than 200 images, will use an innovative book format in order to present a remarkable artists' section, "Draw Me a Sheep." Borrowing its title from Antoine de Saint-Exupry's The Little Prince, the section will be a collection of individual artist pages done as a series of four-panel poster foldouts. By inviting each artist to create a page for the book, "Draw Me a Sheep" presents an image from the artist's world and explores how each artist deals with representation in his or her own time.

In addition to the artists' section, the catalogue will contain a general introduction and a conversation between the curators, Chrissie Iles and Philippe Vergne and the art historian Toni Burlap; a foreword by Whitney director Adam D. Weinberg; and contributions by critic and teacher Johanna Burton; Bradley Eros, an artist, experimental filmmaker, curator, writer, performer, and researcher, whose work was shown in the 2004 Whitney Biennial; Lia Gangitano, founder and director of Participant Inc. and former curator of The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and Thread Waxing Space, New York; Bruce Hainley, a contributing editor of Artforum and Associate Director of Graduate Studies in Criticism & Theory at Art Center College of Design; Molly Nesbit, a professor of Art at Vassar College and a contributing editor of Artforum; cultural historian and media scholar Siva Vaidhyanathan; and writer and cultural commentator Neville Wakefield. In addition the book will include excerpts from a series of articles by the writer and noted French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy (the complete series will be published by Random House in January 2006).

The book is designed by Conny Purtill, published by the Whitney Museum of American Art, and distributed by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. The retail price is $50 and the publication date is March 2006.

Ok. I cheated. Panero does not really take issue with me. He probably has no idea how dangerous I am (roar!!!!!!!).

This was my sneaky little way of bragging about one of the coolest things I have been asked to write. I have an article in the catalog of the 2006 Whitney Biennial! Check it out in the spring.