Two of the letters here were submitted to the Los Angeles Times in reply to their coverage of local exhibitions. Neither letter was accepted for publication. Christopher Knight’s article, responded to here by Diana Thater and T. Kelly Mason, describes Christopher Wool’s mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art as “unrelieved dullness—perhaps the most forlorn exhibition MOCA has offered to date, surpassing even the 'Pure Beauty' fiasco of 1994.” Knight concludes that “Wool’s career (he was born in 1955) coincides almost exactly with the irrepressible proliferation of contemporary art museums and academies, a phenomenon that has utterly transformed America’s art life since the 1970s. His pedigreed painted panels contain within themselves an entire history of the academic, institutional ecology that made them possible. No wonder the show’s so dull.”

The review by David Pagel that Laurel Beckman responds to begins: “At a time when many artists appear to be making work with the main purpose of getting a slice of the nonprofit pie—the Center for Land Use Interpretation refuses to presume that someone else is in charge and that the best an artist can do is appeal to their benevolent patronage.For the past few centuries, this sentiment has been at the root of most art worth its name.”

These letters, and the essay which Peter Lunenfeld posted to the MATRIX list, are printed here with the kind permission of the authors.