P4M BOOK REVIEW: Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula Magazine

For five years, Coagula has been puncturing art-world hype and pretension, sometimes through wit, sometimes through rigorous analysis, and sometimes through sheer, relentless bad-ass attitude. With features like "Most Obnoxious People In The Art World," and "Most Overrated Artists of the 20th Century," the bi-monthly journal ("the National Enquirer of the art world"-- New York Post) has ruffled some fancy feathers, including those of dealer-and-shoe collector Mary Boone, artist-and-film buff Julian Schnabel, and writer-and-banquette warmer Anthony Haden-Guest. The journal has also championed the causes of some edgey artists who have been underappreciated by squeam-bots, commodity-lovers, and theory-snobs: blood-spilling cult fave Ron Athey, Filipino activist/expressionist Manuel Ocampo. Occasionally, editors Mat Gleason and "Janet Preston" (Charlie Finch) can be butt-headedly wrong, but who the fuck cares? In a pure white gallery full of Persons In Black, sometimes somebody's just gotta fart. Get a whiff with this new paperback compilation of Coagula's greatest hits.

Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press), $19.95. Available November 15.