“9. Jerry Saltz, “Eleven Things That Struck, Irked, or Awed Me at Documenta 13”
If someone’s going to get riled up about an exhibition, it’s bound to be an art critic. We wouldn’t want the profession’s finest [what? list] to be anything other than mercurial, and Jerry Saltz’s furor over this year’s mega-exhibition, Documenta 13, was the most balanced, scathing indictment about an art exhibition we’ve read this year. He scolds the show’s curators for their “control-freak secrecy,” but doesn’t forget to praise the artists who are doing things right, like Ryan Gander. Saltz, just to remind you of his own critical flubs—he’s not perfect, either—recounts a story about how his wife, The New York Times art critic Roberta Smith, makes fun of his poor German skills.