The big piece circulating online last weekend in cranky intellectual spaces was Jason Farago’s big takedown of Hannah Gadsby’s “It’s Pablo-matic” exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. Unfortunately for me—an inhabitant of said spaces—this piece kind of annoyed me. Not because I have any affection for the idea of this exhibit (I recommend this equally harsh piece) but because sometimes a person pans a thing you’d probably hate in a way you don’t agree with and then that somehow irks you more than if they were panning something you liked or praising something you hate.
First, though, I would like to be clear about what in the piece I do agree with and appreciate: the general point that making an exhibit that ends up being about deflating and taking down Picasso ends up sort of celebrating Picasso in a backhanded way, and that the women artists who are featured are done so carelessly, etc. All true and ver…
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