Writer and Art Critic
Dave Hickey
Notes from Evan Smith
"He's a critic in every sense of the word--someone who trains an analytical eye on all manner of creative output and says what's good and bad about it; and also someone who usually finds fault--or seems to, anyway--in the things that so many of us embrace. And like so many critics, he's--fill in the blank--cranky, cantankerous, curmudgeonly. And difficult--definitely difficult. But that's what makes Dave Hickey who he is, and that's what makes him such an extraordinary writer and lecturer and thinker, on subjects ranging from culture high and low to what's wrong, inexorably and unredeemably, with his native Texas. He doesn't give a damn what you think, and he doesn't particularly care, either, what you think about what he thinks. A real sweetie, you might say with a sneer, but you'd be right, because underneath his hard shell is an enormously charming and engaging guy who's fun to be around, as long as you don't mind standing in the back of the room, drink or smoke in hand, one of the cool kids, making fun of everyone else. Born 67 years ago in Fort Worth, raised at various points in the Metroplex, Louisiana, and Southern California, educated at SMT, TCU, and UT-Austin, now a resident of the classy and intellectual city of Las Vegas, Hickey wrote both fiction and nonfiction in the early days of his career and ran celebrated art galleries in Austin and New York. He later edited the influential magazine Art in America and pontificated about rock and roll and punk rock and country music for the likes of Rolling Stone and the Village Voice. He even wrote a few songs himself in the Nashville phase of his life. His best work has been collected in a series of anthologies, including 1997's extraordinary Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy--if you don't own it, run right out this second and get it. Well, run out in a half-hour. You won't want to miss the first time a guest on this show has dropped the names of Andy Warhol and Shaun Cassidy in the space of a few minutes." - Evan Smith, Texas Monthly Talks, Broadcast 6.22.06
