The Stuart Morgan Memorial Lecture: Peter Schjeldahl

I think probably the deadliest thing that can happen in art is self-seriousness. Art's function is strictly to bring gladness to the human spirit. Solemnity is entirely out of place. If it's not fun, there's been some categorical error and we should really go out and get a job. (Peter Schjeldahl)

The second annual Stuart Morgan Memorial Lecture is given by Peter Schjeldahl , one of the most influential art critics in the United States . Schjeldahl has been a columnist for The Village Voice and a contributing editor at Art in America and has worked as a regular art critic for The New York Sunday Times, Vanity Fair, and Seven Days. His books include Columns & Catalogues (1994), The Seven Days Art Columns (1991), and Hydrogen Jukebox: Selected Writings of Peter Schjeldahl, 1978-1990 (1991), as well as several books of poetry. He was the recipient of the College Art Association’s Frank Jewett Mather Award for distinguished art criticism and a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has been the art critic for The New Yorker since 1998.

Stuart Morgan (1948–2002) came of age as an art critic in the eighties, initially in Artscribe (which he himself edited for a while), ArtForum and Frieze. Several of his friends and colleagues decided to set up this series of memorial lectures to celebrate the best in writing and thinking about contemporary art. Brian O’Doherty gave the first of these lectures in November 2003 at Tate Modern. One of the original founders of Artscribe, Ben Jones, left the world of art magazines and set up a drinks company, Celtic Spirit, and this helps to support the project.

Supported by Celtic Spirit Co, Frieze and The Elephant Trust