In June 2010, Bob Pincus found himself at the center of a firestorm when newly established San Diego Union Tribune editor Jeff Light laid off 35 jobs, including his job as an art critic and book editor. Immediately upon learning of this event, the San Diego arts community rallied on Pincus’s side with “We Want Bob” Facebook campaigns, at community forums at the Warwick Bookstore in La Jolla, where hundreds met with arts leaders. , in blogs at Huffington Publications, articles in the LA Times and more: all are calling for Bob Pincus to be reinstated as art critic. As Pincus said: “It’s like he died, but I didn’t.” Overwhelmed by the outpouring of emotions and support from the San Diego community for his plight, Pincus put the past behind him. The San Diego Union Tribune did not presuppose his decision. Hugh Davies, Principal of MCASD, commented:
“For more than 20 years, Robert Pincus has been a first-rate, fair, intelligent and well-informed critic, and he deserves great credit for the maturation of the art world and museums in San Diego. His departure from the newspaper is a great loss to the visual arts community here. The support of our city newspaper in the form of information but more importantly informed criticism is vital to the future growth and enhancements of San Diego as a vibrant cultural destination.”
Budget cuts continue to affect the San Diego art community as it does in many other cities across the US, it was able to win major museum grants from the NEA and the Andy Warhol Foundation and, despite comments made by Hugh Davies ( above), was recently fired from his position. It is difficult to separate the career of Robert Pincus from the ever-evolving changes of the art world, its institutions and challenges, and the decision-makers within it. However, it is enlightening to complete the story and look at the trajectory of Pincus’s life and how the story of his life in San Diego evolved.
To start at the beginning, Robert Pincus was born in Connecticut and moved with his parents and sister to Southern California when he was seven years old. His father, who was in the women’s fashion and merchandising industry, moved the family from San Diego to the Westwood area of ​​Los Angeles when Pincus was 11, where he spent the rest of his childhood. He commented that although his family frequented artistic and cultural events, initially he was not interested in the visual arts: his passion was literature. A self-described ‘counterculture teenager’ who loved the poetry of Dylan Thomas and TS Eliot and the music of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, he began writing poetry. At Cal State Northridge, where he spent his first two years of college as an English teacher, Mrs. Connelly recruited him to write for the school’s literary magazine and thus began his writing career. Another English teacher introduced the idea of ​​’voice’ to literature by reading stories aloud to students. This added the dimension of the spoken word, further capturing Pincus’s imagination.
Pincus started with a major in English, but was soon drawn to interdisciplinary studies and when he transferred to the University of California Irvine for his final two years of college, he changed his major to Comparative Cultures. Pincus was fascinated by the avant-garde as a cultural phenomenon and noted that he was influenced by Professor Dickran Tashjian, who was a scholar of Dada and Surrealism and was also drawn to English and American literature. He took classes in conceptual art and Duchamp and the instructors sent students to galleries in Los Angeles to write exhibition reviews. It was at this point that Pincus began writing for the college newspaper. He also did book reviews and for two semesters, and was the fine arts editor, and then became the editor of the entire newspaper. He commented that he never intended to pursue journalism. He then went on to receive a BA in Comparative Cultures with a focus on literature and art history.
Before continuing on to graduate school, Pincus took a year ‘off’ and worked for a friend’s family who were in the ‘seminar’ business. He helped organize seminars, wrote pamphlets and was a ‘jack of all trades’. He then attended the University of Southern California, studying for a master’s degree in American Studies. He was offered a full scholarship and he taught writing to freshmen. He focused his master’s thesis on Los Angeles and Art History and was particularly interested in the artist Ed Kienholz. When he was a teenager, a family friend had taken him to see a major exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where he was originally introduced to her. Kienholz’s work. After completing his master’s thesis, Pincus entered USC to study for a Ph.D. in Philosophy with a concentration in Art History and English. He commented that he had no plans to become a professional art critic; however, one of his advisers, Susan Larson, suggested that he write for Art Week and later the LA Times, where he became a freelance writer. He found his own voice as an art writer and wrote the review for artist Mike Kelly’s first solo show in Los Angeles. There he developed a style of writing for newspapers, focusing on the general reading public. He continued to focus his studies on Nancy and Ed Kienholz and interviewed them many times during the years of his doctoral study. Looking toward the end of his program at USC, Pincus was thinking about future job prospects when his friend Christopher Knight told him about a job opening at the San Diego Union Tribune.
Pincus was offered the job as an art critic for the Tribune and moved to San Diego. There, he worked days at the newspaper and spent nights and weekends completing his thesis. Eventually, his dissertation took the form of a book On a Scale That Rivals the World: The Art of Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990). During his twenty-five years at the Union Tribune, Pincus worked as an art critic and book editor, as well as writing simultaneously for Art in America and Art News magazines. He has also completed books and written dozens of art catalogs.
Now that he no longer works for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Pincus plans to continue teaching courses at the University of San Diego and writing on art on a freelance basis. The course he teaches “Art Now: How to Think Critically About Art” speaks to his ongoing commitment and his perspective on the importance that people seek to understand art and make it part of their daily lives. When asked about his thoughts on reviewing art, Pincus explained that when reviewing, the critic goes through an academic process, learning about the type of art it is, with the goal of “establishing a new point of view rather than to just add another one.” small snippet of information to an already received body of knowledge.” He went on to say that the reviewer can make negative comments, but they should be constructive, and critical but respectful.
In his closing remarks, Pincus expressed his belief that while there are signs of growth in the San Diego artist and gallery art scene, San Diego has essentially regressed in the amount of critical writing, reviews and commentary. He believes that the more conversation and critical writing about contemporary art, the more interest in art in general. And, that this writing encourages more people to go see exhibitions.
Robert Pincus lives in Del Mar with his wife Georgianna Manly, who works for Planned Parenthood as a nurse practitioner, and their son, who is in graduate school studying to be a fiction writer.
