Robert Storr's collection of his Writings on Art 1980-2005, the first of a projected two-volume anthology, is enough to want to make any writer about art or culture roll over and give up. No way to compete. Storr, whose work I have long admired, is herein seen as not only an advocate of artists but as a communicator of the highest order. As an artist himself who worked at many trades in many locations before settling into a paying gig of criticism( he calls himself "The Accidental Critic") is at once clear eyed and fine grained. He debunks the idea of it being a 'career", and with that I am in full sympathy. Anyone who goes into writing about arts and culture needs to have their eyes wide shut.

A great aunt, then Bill Rubin, then artists like Christo, Frank Stella, Oldenburg, Jasper Johns and Siquieros, gave him an up close view. Lee Krasner gave him his inaugural lesson in the "sexual politics of art". I was only sorry to not know even more about Storr's personal history and his interactions with artists. Included are essays--a marvel of information and insight-- and excellent illustrations of. among others, the work of Louise Bourgeois,Peter Saul, Yvonne Rainer, Jean-Miche lBasquiat, Ilya Kabakov, Carroll Dunham, Arshile Gorky, and Philip Guston, whose work he championed early on.

When I wrote about MoMA last year for AirMail, I spent many many virtual hours in the archives reading interviews with curators, donors and staff. Storr's oral history was among the most candid and refreshing. He was brought on by Kirk Varnedoe to make more of a place for contemporary art at the museum, and his unvarnished reflections of his employ there are fully accessible at the MoMA database. This candid photograph of him in his office shows the enormous volume of his daily intake--which is fully reflected in these essays.