Dave Hickey Response

Dave Hickey’s article wasn’t the worst thing I’ve read, however I did find it a bit tough. It is hard to relate to an article that focuses so much on a subject that I don’t appreciate as much as the author. Take for instance his many (somewhat unnecessary, in my opinion) moments of nostalgia for classic cars. I don’t know much about cars, especially not cars from the 60s as I was born in the 90s—so it seems like he was stuck in the past to an extent. While I get the relationship with the art market and most of Hickey’s references I feel that the reading is a bit dated and it translates as such. I had difficulty reading this the first time but once I got into it I did enjoy bits and pieces; comparing the glossy colors to Caravaggio on wheels was rather fantastic even if inaccurate.

My main complaints are that I could tell that there was fluff in this article; it was obvious he stuffed in a lot of unnecessary information and I personally hate when authors do that. Out of ten pages, I learned the most in the last two. Another issue I had with it was, as previously stated, how dated it felt and that the article seemed to lean towards an audience that appreciated cars more than art. Again, though, it wasn’t as bad as some of the things I’ve had to read. At least I was able to finish it and he did raise some interesting points. My favorite point was about how General Motors made changes to keep customers trapped in a rotation and “moving up” the price ladder.