The Art World's Most Embarrassing Controversy, Peter Schjeldahl on Clement Greenberg and Acid, & More

Jerry Saltz calls MoMA PS1’s Wael Shawky show “one of the best exhibitions of the season,” saying that the expertly installed survey of the artist’s “epic” and ravishing puppet-populated retellings of the Crusades speaks to the skill of curator Klaus Biesenbach, Björk or no Bjork. (NYM) 

RISD faculty member Roger White weighs in on the state of art MFA programs in the wake of the scandal at the University of Southern California after seven students declared the school was a useless waste of time and money and left. (New Yorker) 

Andrew Russeth has a few choices pieces of praise for artist Seth Price’s new novella, Fuck Seth Price, which sounds like a toothsome combination of thoughtful market critique with the imaginative plotting of a Houellebecq romp. (Artnews)

In a piece about a lawsuit in which no one looks good, the New York Times notes that “Danh Vo ranks highly as an ‘early blue chip’ artist.” Does the Grey Lady now consider Art Rank an expert source? (NYT) 

How to respond to the “plutocratic orgy” of the current art market? “Detach and marvel,” Peter Schjeldahl advises in an essay everyone’s been excited about this week. (New Yorker)

And ere’s a great interview in which Schjeldahl talks about why his nickname “The Feeler” is a bit creepy, his experiences dropping acid, his dislike of Henry James, and why after years of hating Clement Greenberg he realized that he a “genius,” if an “asshole.” (Brooklyn Rail) 

Masahisa Fukase approached his two favorite photographic subjects (his wife and ravens) with a similar, near obsessive tendency. (Guardian)