Robert Pincus the ONLY Art Critic in San Diego... Laid Off

So, I'm watching Micha and Elle having cyber sex... at the Performance Opening for the Here Not There exhibition at The Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, and Tom Driscoll informs me that the only (paid) art critic in San Diego has been laid off from The San Diego Union Tribune.

This is shocking and very tragic for the established San Diego art scene. Not that is is good for the emerging San Diego art scene, but Pincus was important for covering museum exhibitions and shows at the major galleries around the city. His reviews were the most prestigious form of press coverage that local art exhibitions could hope to achieve, and Pincus has been with the local arts community for decades. This is not good news for anyone.


Image on the left of Pincus stolen from a blog by artist Vicki Walsh whose amazing paintings we all happened to be standing in front of when I heard this news.

Does the world value arts writers? But Pincus didn't just review art but books as well. Does the world value literature? Another casuality of the internet's no-pay-for-writers policy?

Here's another personal reason this hits close to home-- I wanted to be Robert Pincus. I secretly imagined that someday perhaps I could be THE arts writer for a local paper. I imagined it as a fantastic, high-paying, powerful position in the arts world of the second largest city in California. I imaged he was untouchable.