John Lucas Perreault (
New York, New York, August 26, 1937 – September 6, 2015, New York, New York) was a poet, art curator, art critic and artist.
Early life
Perreault was born in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and raised in
Belmar and other towns in New Jersey.
He studied briefly at
Montclair State Teachers College, after which he enrolled in a poetry workshop at the
New School for Social Research.
[ His first book of poetry, ''Camouflage'', was published in 1966, followed by ''Luck'' (1969) and ''Harry'' (1974).][
]
Professional work
Perreault was an editorial associate for ''ARTnews
''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...
'' in the 1960s, an art critic for ''The Village Voice
''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, th ...
'' (1966–74), and senior art critic for ''The SoHo Weekly News
The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (also called the ''SoHo News'') was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018).
History
The first issue was published on ...
'' (1975–82). He also worked briefly as the chief curator at the Everson Museum Everson may refer to:
People with the surname
* Ben Everson (born 1987), English footballer
* Bill Everson (1906–1966), Welsh international rugby union player
* Cliff Everson, a New Zealand car designer and manufacturer
* Corinna Everson (born 1 ...
(1982).[ From 1985 to 1989, he was the first professional curator at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art in Staten Island.] He was also senior curator at the American Craft Museum
The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...
(1990–93).[ In later years, Perreault was interested in ]craft
A craft or trade is a pastime or an occupation that requires particular skills and knowledge of skilled work. In a historical sense, particularly the Middle Ages and earlier, the term is usually applied to people occupied in small scale pro ...
and served as the executive director of UrbanGlass.[ From 2004 until 2014, he wrote a ]blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
called ''Artopia: John Perreault's art diary''.
Art and art criticism
As an art critic, Perreault's writing was clear and accessible. He championed the avant garde, including Minimalism, Land Art, and Pattern & Decoration.[ In 1968, when several names were used to describe the art now known as Minimalism, he predicted that the term ''minimalism'' would "stick."
In the 1970s, with the rise of the ]feminist art movement
The feminist art movement refers to the efforts and accomplishments of feminists internationally to produce feminist art, art that reflects women's lives and experiences, as well as to change the foundation for the production and perception of co ...
, he frequently wrote in support of art by women. In 1974, for example, he praised Sylvia Sleigh's recent nudes, calling them "as daring as ever, perhaps even a little bit more daring" and noting that she was "always willing to challenge herself and her viewers." The following year, he responded positively to Shirley Gorelick's paintings of African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
sitters. In his review of a group show at SOHO20 called ''Showing Off'' (1975), Perreault characterized Sharon Wybrants's ''Self-Portrait as Superwoman (Woman as Culture Hero)'' (1975) as "more than slightly tongue-in-cheek. But it demonstrates that women artists have egos too, sometimes just as big as any man's. And why shouldn’t they?" Perreault also praised Alice Neel's portrait of the art historian Linda Nochlin
Linda Nochlin (''née'' Weinberg; January 30, 1931 – October 29, 2017) was an American art historian, Lila Acheson Wallace Professor Emerita of Modern Art at New York University Institute of Fine Arts, and writer. As a prominent feminist art ...
(now at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), calling it "a knock-out" and remarking that "Nochlin looks as if she has just had about enough of Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
, whereas her daughter is the perfect imp."
At times, Perreault served as a subject for artists,[ including Alice Neel, whose ''John Perreault'' (1972) is now owned by the ]Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...
. The two met when Perreault was working for ''ARTnews'', but the portrait was painted for ''The Male Nude'' (1973), an exhibition that Perreault curated at the School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design.
History
This school was started by ...
. As he later recalled, Neel thought he resembled a faun
The faun (, grc, φαῦνος, ''phaunos'', ) is a half-human and half-goat mythological creature appearing in Greek and Roman mythology.
Originally fauns of Roman mythology were spirits (genii) of rustic places, lesser versions of their c ...
.[ Perreault also appears with other art critics—all unclothed—in Sylvia Sleigh's ''The Turkish Bath'' (1973). Perreault was later portrayed in Sleigh's 14-panel ''Invitation to a Voyage: The Hudson River at Fishkill'' (1979–99), now owned by the ]Hudson River Museum
The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park in Yonkers, New York, is the largest museum in Westchester County. The Yonkers Museum, founded in 1919 at City Hall, became the Hudson River Museum in 1948. While often considered an art museum by th ...
. In 1975, a bust-length portrait of Perreault was painted by Philip Pearlstein
Philip Martin Pearlstein (May 24, 1924 – December 17, 2022) was an American painter best known for Modernist Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art.
Biography ...
.[ Perreault later wrote a monograph on Pearlstein's drawings and watercolors, published in 1988.
Like other art critics, including ]John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
and Clement Greenberg
Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...
, John Perreault was also an artist.[ He created drawings, paintings, and found object constructions.] Perreault's first exhibition of paintings and sculptures was in 1965. Later, he aimed "to attack what he calls the art supplies racket" by using "alternate media," such as Colgate toothpaste and oil-soaked beach sand.[ Another preferred medium was instant coffee grounds,][ which he used "in honor of" ]George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
, "the 'inventor' of instant coffee," who once maintained a residence near Bellport, New York
Bellport is a village in the Town of Brookhaven in Suffolk County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 2,084 at the 2010 census.
The Incorporated Village of Bellport is named after the Bell famil ...
, where Perreault lived.[
]
Personal life
In 2008, Perreault married Jeff Weinstein, his partner of 32 years, in Provincetown, Massachusetts
Provincetown is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States Census, Province ...
, after same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
was legalized there. Weinstein, who began as a restaurant critic, has held positions as an arts editor at ''The SoHo Weekly News
The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (also called the ''SoHo News'') was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018).
History
The first issue was published on ...
'' (1977–79), editor of visual arts and architecture criticism at ''The Village Voice'' (1981–95), fine arts editor at ''The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...
'' (1997-2006), and editor of arts and culture at Bloomberg News
Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Tele ...
(2006–07).
Death
Perreault died in 2015, aged 78, from complications following gastrointestinal surgery
Digestive system surgery, or gastrointestinal surgery, can be divided into upper GI surgery and lower GI surgery.
Subtypes Upper gastrointestinal
Upper gastrointestinal surgery, often referred to as upper GI surgery, refers to a practise of surg ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perreault, John
1937 births
2015 deaths
American art critics
American art historians
American art curators
Cultural historians