http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art-and-architecture/news/martin-creeds-new-work-runs-rings-around-the-tate-857364.html

Stephen Deuchar, director of Tate Britain, said while it was irreverent, it was also a ‘serious work of art which extended the study of the sculpted human form.

“It’s extraordinary to see in a place associated with the reverential contemplation of art, a place of stillness where you don’t normally see anyone running in contravention of all museum etiquette, and also to experience the ground thudding and air moving as someone runs through a pedestrian space,” he said.

Creed, who has in the past, created works which explore themes of vomiting and defecating, as well as a piece consisting of a screwed up piece of paper blue-tacked onto a wall,

again:

“And those who are about to fall will not take warning from the example of those who have fallen, but nothing can be done about it. All will fall”  Goya, Los Caprichos

Adrian Searle
Tuesday July 1, 2008
The Guardian

I am certain someone has already computed the accumulated distance that will be achieved between now and November by Martin Creed’s runners in Tate Britain in terms of circumnavigations of the planet, the hours run and the energy expended. But this is no laboratory test rat-run or competitive race.

The great thing about Creed’s Work No 850 is that it is gloriously pointless, a repeated explosion of vitality, a sort of extension of Paul Klee’s definition of drawing as “taking a line for a walk”…

For those who don’t know, uber-conceptualist art darling Martin Creed has just “installed” a new “work”: a person running through a gallery at the Tate Britain. This above is a “review” of the “work”.

Adrin Searle, who are you that you can actually sit down at your laptop and write something about this … this manifestation? I’m not even going to criticize you Adrian or you, Martin, since you reveal yourselves utterly by this. You don’t provoke debate. To debate, both sides must have a point to make. You don’t make us think.

“And those who are about to fall will not take warning from the example of those who have fallen, but nothing can be done about it. All will fall.”

Goya, Los Caprichos

The debate: The art world has long favoured bonds between artists and critics, but such friendships make it hard to stay honest.
Guardian, January 16, 2007

This blog is about a year and a half old but it could just run and run.

Is it OK to write about your friends? What if the reason you got to be friends with them is that you are excited by their work and  you want to be part of it? Can artists be honest with each other? Do critics have to be ‘pure’ Olympian creatures?

Or – given that most crtiical texts seem to be just about promoting some artists over others, why be left out in the cold? If you’re a writer, write about those artists you value and want to see get on, and if you’re an artist, find critics sympathetic to you and cajole them to write about you…

The state of painting today. What has happened to drawing? What’s video art for? Is art school worth the money?

Ripostes, disagreements and arguments welcome.