Rest in Peace, John Perreault, 1937-2015

Art critic, artist, and poet, John Perreault, passed away this week at the age of 78. He started as a poet and painter but began writing art criticism after John Ashbery recommended him to Art News. Perreault became chief art critic of The Village Voice in 1966, where he advocated for new and unusual art outside of the mainstream, such as work by Judy Chicago. John Perreault attended Kenneth Koch's poetry workshops at The New School; Perreault published his first poetry collection in 1966, with an introduction by Ashbery. More, via The New York Times.

John Perreault, an art critic at The Village Voice and The SoHo Weekly News who was an early champion of feminist art and the craft-oriented pattern and decoration movement in the 1970s, and who later held senior curatorial positions at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center on Staten Island and the American Craft Museum, died on Sunday in Manhattan. He was 78.

The cause was complications of gastrointestinal surgery, his husband, Jeff Weinstein, said.

Mr. Perreault started out as a poet and painter, but after being recommended by the poet and art critic John Ashbery, he began writing criticism for Art News. In 1966, The Village Voice made him its chief art critic, and he used the position to make the case for new art and work outside the mainstream, especially the creations of feminists like Judy Chicago; photorealism; art with gay content; and the pattern and decoration art associated with the Holly Solomon Gallery.

On Artopia, a blog on the website Arts Journal that he started in 2004, he described his interests as ranging “from Minimalism and Earth Art to realist painting; from pattern painting to performance art; from street works to ceramics and design.”

Mr. Perreault’s reviews were required reading for anyone trying to make sense of the swirling, often confusing, art scene of the 1970s, when movements and trends vied for attention.

Read more at The New York Times.