John Canaday’s Embattled Critic

John Canaday, Embattled Critic (New York: Noonday Press), 1962, 238 pgs.

WHEN A GROUP OF SOME 50 artists and critics wrote to the New York Times questioning Mr. Canaday’s fairness, the Times received 600 letters from its readers, 550 of which supported Mr. Canaday. His book was greeted with full-page pleasure on the art pages of Newsweek Magazine. His voice is undoubtedly the voice of millions. But Mr. Canaday, nevertheless, insists that he is “the embattled critic.” To understand this, we must first of all grasp that Mr. Canaday’s view of recent American art is fundamentally that of a Great

books June 1962

“Taxes and Art” and Richard H. Rush's “Art as an Investment”

Taxes and Art (French & Co., Inc., Prentice-Hall, Inc.), 1961.

Richard H. Rush, Art as an Investment (Prentice-Hall, Inc.), 1961, 418 pp.

OF THESE TWO BOOKS, Rush’s Art as an Investment must be considered the more vile, because it costs ten dollars and has 418 pages, while the French & Co. booklet can be had for the asking and is blessed with only 20 pages. By all other standards, they are at a dead heat.

Shortly after the appearance of the French & Co. booklet, The Commissioner of Internal Revenue issued a statement declaring that his office would examine with a wiser, if sadder eye, tax returns