A New Format

Volume 24 saw a dramatic change in the magazine, as increased printing costs made the switch to a smaller size format an economic necessity. While some missed the tabloid-size which the publication had maintained since volume two, the new format gave Art Papers increased distribution possibilities, thus beginning the first significant expansion of readership in many years. The year began with a 25-year survey and interview with Laurie Anderson, one of the first “Artist to Artist” contributors back in 1979 along with John Turturro, and a travelogue from Japan on the dance-art form Butoh. That issue also introduced the Soundbytes column, in which Patrick Hughes has written regularly on innovative musical forms. The following issue included an essay by historian Robert Rosenblum on the Norman Rockwell Retrospective, for which the magazine designed a special cover mimicking the Saturday Evening Post, and an interview with Maya Lin. Other issues covered topics including extended adolescence in contemporary art, 30 years of conceptual art, Radcliffe Bailey’s “Magic City” exhibition, and a group of Chinese expatriate artists including Muna Tseng and her deceased brother, Tseng Kowng Chi. Interviews were conducted with critic Dave Hickey, artist Richard Misrach, and composer/musician Pauline Oliveros, while the surprise of the year was Mary Ann Caws’ tribute to Hedda Sterne, the lone female and surviving member of the infamous “Irascible Eighteen” group of Abstract Expressionist painters (see photo).