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Perfect Wave: More Essays on Art and Democracy
A collection of essays by American art critic Dave Hickey, nicknamed “The Bad Boy of Art Criticism.”
When Dave Hickey was twelve, he rode the surfer’s the perfect wave. And, like so many things in life we long for, it didn’t quite turn out—he shot the pier and dashed himself against the rocks of Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach, which nearly killed him.
Hickey went on to develop a career as one of America’s foremost critical iconoclasts, a trusted no-nonsense voice commenting on the worlds of art and culture. Perfect Wave brings together essays on a wide range of subjects from throughout Hickey’s career, displaying his breadth of interest and powerful insight into what makes art work, or not, and why we care. With Hickey as our guide, we travel to Disneyland and Vegas, London and Venice. We discover the genius of Karen Carpenter and Waylon Jennings, learn why Robert Mitchum matters more than Jimmy Stewart, and see how the stillness of Antonioni speaks to us today. Never slow to judge—or to surprise us in doing so—Hickey relates his wincing disappointment in the later career of his early hero Susan Sontag and shows us the appeal to our commonality that we’ve been missing in Norman Rockwell.
Bookended by previously unpublished personal essays that offer a new glimpse into Hickey’s own life—including the aforementioned conclusion to his surfing career— Perfect Wave is a welcome addition to the Hickey canon.
When Dave Hickey was twelve, he rode the surfer’s the perfect wave. And, like so many things in life we long for, it didn’t quite turn out—he shot the pier and dashed himself against the rocks of Sunset Cliffs in Ocean Beach, which nearly killed him.
Hickey went on to develop a career as one of America’s foremost critical iconoclasts, a trusted no-nonsense voice commenting on the worlds of art and culture. Perfect Wave brings together essays on a wide range of subjects from throughout Hickey’s career, displaying his breadth of interest and powerful insight into what makes art work, or not, and why we care. With Hickey as our guide, we travel to Disneyland and Vegas, London and Venice. We discover the genius of Karen Carpenter and Waylon Jennings, learn why Robert Mitchum matters more than Jimmy Stewart, and see how the stillness of Antonioni speaks to us today. Never slow to judge—or to surprise us in doing so—Hickey relates his wincing disappointment in the later career of his early hero Susan Sontag and shows us the appeal to our commonality that we’ve been missing in Norman Rockwell.
Bookended by previously unpublished personal essays that offer a new glimpse into Hickey’s own life—including the aforementioned conclusion to his surfing career— Perfect Wave is a welcome addition to the Hickey canon.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published October 23, 2017
14 people are currently reading
174 people want to read
About the author
Dave Hickey
137 books75 followersDavid Hickey (born circa 1939) is an American art and cultural critic. He has written for many American publications including Rolling Stone, Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Harper's Magazine, and Vanity Fair. He is currently Professor of English at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Distinguished Professor of Criticism for the MFA Program in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of New Mexico.
Known for his arguments against academicism and in favor of the effects of rough-and-tumble free markets on art, his critical essays have been published in two volumes: The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993) and Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997). In 2009, Hickey published a revised and updated version of The Invisible Dragon, adding an introduction that addressed changes in the art world since the book's original publication, as well as a new concluding essay. He has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, Texas Monthly, and elsewhere. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius grant."
Hickey graduated from Texas Christian University in 1961 and received his PhD from the University of Texas two years later. In 1989, SMU Press published Prior Convictions, a volume of his short fiction. He was owner-director of A Clean Well-Lighted Place, an art gallery in Austin, Texas and director of Reese Palley Gallery in New York. He has served as Executive Editor for Art in America magazine, as contributing editor to The Village Voice, as Staff Songwriter for Glaser Publications in Nashville and as Arts Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In 1994, he received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association.[1] In 2003, he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Friends of the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
Known for his arguments against academicism and in favor of the effects of rough-and-tumble free markets on art, his critical essays have been published in two volumes: The Invisible Dragon: Four Essays on Beauty (1993) and Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy (1997). In 2009, Hickey published a revised and updated version of The Invisible Dragon, adding an introduction that addressed changes in the art world since the book's original publication, as well as a new concluding essay. He has been the subject of profiles in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, U.S. News and World Report, Texas Monthly, and elsewhere. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, the so-called "genius grant."
Hickey graduated from Texas Christian University in 1961 and received his PhD from the University of Texas two years later. In 1989, SMU Press published Prior Convictions, a volume of his short fiction. He was owner-director of A Clean Well-Lighted Place, an art gallery in Austin, Texas and director of Reese Palley Gallery in New York. He has served as Executive Editor for Art in America magazine, as contributing editor to The Village Voice, as Staff Songwriter for Glaser Publications in Nashville and as Arts Editor for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
In 1994, he received the Frank Jewett Mather Award for art criticism from the College Art Association.[1] In 2003, he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, sponsored by the Friends of the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 19, 2017
Hickey is always exciting and interesting as an observer. His stories of the American modern west and our various political-post modern-consumer messes are hilarious.
He is snarky and judgmental but never devastating - it’s almost a sentimental snark.
I’m comforted by his views of art and the role art can play in society.
He is snarky and judgmental but never devastating - it’s almost a sentimental snark.
I’m comforted by his views of art and the role art can play in society.
December 6, 2017
Worthy companion to 'Air Guitar' and 'Pirates and Farmers.' Essays on Antonioni, West Coast Jazz, Venetian architecture, The Carpenters, Susan Sontag's journals, art fairs, surfing, etc.
November 7, 2019
This is a really strange book as it's a collection of essays that are reviews and thoughts about art, artists, and music. For those that know Dave Hickey's work this is a great collection. I approached it not knowing that it was a collection of various essays, and wasn't sure who Hickey was, but I found the essays to be either fascinating or skippable. It's sort of like buying an album because it looks good, not because you know the singer or a song they wrote.
The best work in this book is when Hickey talks about pop music. He has a real gift for discussing why a particular song is "good" (whatever that means) and why we return to it time and time again. I also really enjoyed the essays that were speculative about the end (telos) of art itself. There were many touching moments in the essays where Hickey's writing carries you to moments he's had where he's in a particular place speculating. But this only happens in a few of the essays in the book.
Not everything here is great, and I'd suggest reading around in it if you are interested in art and music criticism on a very broad level. This is very "loose theory" in a sense, someone thinking about why something in art is the way it is, and referring very lightly to any serious theoretical work out there about it. Meant for light reading, it can capture you and make you think. It has beautiful moments, but it's not something that I thought really blew me away.
The best work in this book is when Hickey talks about pop music. He has a real gift for discussing why a particular song is "good" (whatever that means) and why we return to it time and time again. I also really enjoyed the essays that were speculative about the end (telos) of art itself. There were many touching moments in the essays where Hickey's writing carries you to moments he's had where he's in a particular place speculating. But this only happens in a few of the essays in the book.
Not everything here is great, and I'd suggest reading around in it if you are interested in art and music criticism on a very broad level. This is very "loose theory" in a sense, someone thinking about why something in art is the way it is, and referring very lightly to any serious theoretical work out there about it. Meant for light reading, it can capture you and make you think. It has beautiful moments, but it's not something that I thought really blew me away.
January 29, 2020
Maybe not as essential as Air Guitar, one of the greatest works of cultural criticism of the last thirty years, but everything by Hickey is essential--and the essays here on West Coast Jazz, The Carpenters, and Norman Rockwell are classics. Well worth checking out.
April 17, 2019
Dave Hickey, American Treasure. Even when I don't know what the hell he's talking about--and that's quite often, honestly--I'm listening like we're in on the same joke.
March 26, 2021
Ok, read a few, skipped a lot
May 22, 2023
Kick-ass book of end-of-life criticism from a guy who led a kick-ass life.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews