More in ‘Harold Rosenberg’

The idea that there is a Jewish genius for commentary—more, that in some way commentary, or criticism, or interpretation, represents the truly Jewish way of engaging with literature, and even with the world—has appealed to many modern Jewish writers. And certainly there is no shortage of examples to support this idea. Georg Morris Cohen Brandes, the late-19th century Danish Jewish critic, was responsible for introducing the works of Nietzsche and Ibsen to Europe. Walter Benjamin, perhaps the most influential theorist of modernism, elevated criticism and commentary to a high art, even a metaphysical principle; to Benjamin, everything that exists, from language to the stars, is a kind of text waiting for its commentator.

A couple of weeks ago, Artforum magazine hosted a panel at the New School titled “Art and Money,” which focused on the effects of the decade-long bull market in contemporary art. No one in the art world was particularly surprised by the subject. After all, March had brought us a symposium at MoMA titled “Is ...