WASTED WORDS

THE ESSENTIAL DAVE HICKEY
ONLINE COMPILATION


Compiled by Julia Friedman


Overview

Between June 2014 and April 2015, a bedridden Dave Hickey posted almost 3,000 digital comments on social media, prompting nearly 700,000 words in response from art lovers, acolytes, and skeptics. Wasted Words is an unedited comprehensive transcript of these exchanges. This polyphonic digital discourse reveals the range of Hickey’s strong opinions, as he embarks on a crypto-enlightenment project for the benefit of "dunces" and "pricks."

Dave Hickey’s digital writings highlight the impact of digital technology on culture, while allowing a more intimate glimpse of their author. These writings reveal the well-known critic in a creative-informal, rather than critical-formal, mode. Not only do they flesh out many of the ideas elucidated in Hickey’s essays on art, but they also cover a variety of topics, including the year 1972, Texas Eagle Scouts, and Hickey's own academic misadventures.


About the Author

Dave Hickey is a distinguished American art and cultural critic and the author of The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997), and Pirates and Farmers (2014). His most recent book, 25 Women: Essays on Their Art, is just out from the University of Chicago Press. Hickey was Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico.

Julia Friedman is a Russian-born art historian, writer, and curator. Her book Beyond Symbolism and Surrealism: Alexei Remizov’s Synthetic Art was published by Northwestern University Press in 2010. She is currently working on a monograph about the California artist Wally Hedrick.

DUST BUNNIES

DAVE HICKEY'S
ONLINE APHORISMS
JUNE 2014 - MARCH 2015


Compiled and Edited by Julia Friedman


Overview

Dustbunnies is an assemblage of “swept up” fragments that came from a vast digital discourse that took place in Dave Hickey’s social media space between June 2014 and March 2015. During that time Hickey posted almost 3,000 comments, prompting nearly 700,000 words in response from art lovers, acolytes and skeptics. Wasted Words, the resulting volume, is an unedited comprehensive transcript of these exchanges. Its pendant publication, Dustbunnies, distills Hickey’s richly aphoristic comments, extracted from various discussion threads.

Unlike Wasted Words, which is inherently contextual and discursive, Dustbunnies stresses the timeless character of Hickey’s unique authorial voice. Always provocative and often shocking, Hickey’s pronouncements are perfectly suited for the jab-like nature of the social media platform. In a delightfully ironic twist of fate, some two decades after the onset of the digital revolution, a critic known for his paragraph-long verbal riffs blasts away at digital natives in the under-140-character idiom they understand.


About the Author

Dave Hickey is a distinguished American art and cultural critic and the author of The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993), Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997), and Pirates and Farmers (2014). His most recent book, 25 Women: Essays on Their Art, is just out from the University of Chicago Press. Hickey was Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico.

Julia Friedman is a Russian-born art historian, writer, and curator. Her book Beyond Symbolism and Surrealism: Alexei Remizov’s Synthetic Art was published by Northwestern University Press in 2010. She is currently working on a monograph about the California artist Wally Hedrick.

• Thursday, May 12
Celebrate the publication of 25 Women: Essays on Their Art 
and for a discussion with author Dave Hickey introduced
by Dr. Julia Friedman
Artbook @ Hauser Wirth & Schimmel
Los Angeles, CA

• Wednesday, May 11
Dave Hickey In Conversation with Julia Friedman at
UCLA Hammer Museum
Los Angeles, CA

• Friday, April 15
Dave Hickey In Conversation with Julia Friedman at
SITE Santa Fe
Santa Fe, NM

• Thursday, March 31
Julia Friedman Lecture and Book Signing at
The Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA)
Scottsdale, AZ

• Saturday, March 5
Dave Hickey In Conversation with Julia Friedman at
Las Vegas Contemporary Art Center (CAC)
Las Vegas, NV

• Saturday, February 13
Julia Friedman Book Signing with Art Catalogues (LACMA) at 
The 2016 Printed Matter's LA Art Book Fair
Los Angeles, CA

To Schedule An Event Contact: info@pcppress.com

Event ▸ Julia Friedman Book Signing, Saturday, Feb 13, 4 – 6pm, LA Art Book Fair – Booth T07
Event ▸ Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman, Saturday, Mar 5, 6–9pm, CAC, Las Vegas, NV
Event ▸Julia Friedman Lecture and Book Signing, Thursday Mar 31, SMoCA, Scottsdale, AZ
Event ▸ Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman, Friday, April 15, SITE Sante Fe, NM
Event ▸ Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman, Wednesday, May 11, UCLA Hammer Museum
Event ▸ Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman, Thursday, May 12, Artbook @ Hauser Wirth & Schimmel
Recent Press ▸ Dave Hickey: 'The title of artist has to be earned’, Peter Nowogrodzki, June 14, The Guardian
Recent Press ▸ Everyone’s a critic, David Hawkes, May 27, Times Literary Supplement
Recent Press ▸ Dave Hickey On Facebook’s “Wasted Words”, March 3, KNPR Public Radio
Recent Press ▸ Julia Friedman: Editor of Dave Hickey…, Jenna Duncan, Feb 25, Java Magazine
Recent Press ▸ Dave Hickey Talks About 2 New Books, Kristen Peterson, Feb 10, Las Vegas Weekly
Recent Press ▸ The Critic’s Notebook, James Panero, Jan 25, New Criterion
Recent Press ▸ Dave Hickey’s Facebook Rants Now 2 Books, Ryan Steadman, Jan 20, Observer.com
Recent Press ▸ Dave Hickey’s Facebook Posts Have Been Published, Jan 18, Bookforum.com
Recent Press ▸ Art World Press Top Stories, Hickey’s Facebook Rants, William E. Pratt, Jan 23
Recent Press ▸ New Books by Dave Hickey and Julia Friedman, SettlersandNomads.com, Feb 2
Video ▸  UCLA Hammer Museum: Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman (LiveStream, 1:15:00, May 11)
Video ▸  SITE Santa FE: Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman (Vimeo full-length, 54:13, Apr 15)
Video ▸  SITE Santa FE: Dave Hickey with Julia Friedman (Vimeo trailer, 1:51, Apr 15)
Video ▸  SMoCA: Art Historian Julia Friedman (YouTube Trailer, 1:48, Mar 31)