What sets Thomas McEvilley apart from other critics in art and culture is his direct knowledge of the newest art and theory, and his comprehensive understanding of classic art and ancient civilizations. In McEvilley's view, modernism's present was the future, and post-modernism's present is the past. He distinguishes himself from both of these positions, and - Janus-like - simultaneously scrutinizes past and present in order to facilitate the production of future discourse. G. Roger Denson brings singular insight to Thomas McEvilley's writings. As an art writer he has explored similar theory, but from the point of view of a nomadic ideologist. He addresses the issues of pragmatism, historicism, and cultural relativism. In so doing, he effectively dismantles the need to establish a master narrative.
G. Roger Denson (b. 1956), the author of the new novel, VOICE OF FORCE, is best known for his cultural criticism on Huffington Post. But he is also the author of three screenplays: Anthony in the Desert (drama) 2000; Appalachian Angels (drama) 2001, and The Patient (metaphysical/suspense) 2003 which were honored variously by Paramount Pictures' Chesterfield Writer's Film Project, Mirimax Pictures' Project Greenlight; Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope; Kevin Spacey's Trigger Street; and The Screenwriter's Community.
Before writing for Huffington Post, Denson's feature and cover articles appeared in Art in America; Artbyte; Arts (all New York); Parkett (Zurich); Artscribe International (London); Flash Art (Milan); Bijutsu Techo (Tokyo); Trans>Arts,Culture,Media (Buenos Aires, Caracas, and New York); Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin); Contemporanea (Turin, Italy); Tema Celeste (Syracuse, Italy); Acme Journal; M/E/A/N/I/N/G; and Journal of Contemporary Art (all New York).
His books on criticism and art include, Capacity: History, the World, and the Self in Contemporary Art and Criticism, on the criticism of Thomas McEvilley, Routledge, 1996, and When Down is Up: The Desublimating Impulse, on the theoretical writing of John Miller, Gordon & Breach, 2001. Denson's monographs on artists include Dennis Oppenheim, B. Pinto de Almeida, Fundacao De Serralves Portugal, 1997; Hunter Reynolds: Memento Mori, Memoriter, Trinitatiskirche, Cologne, Germany, 1994; Michael Young: Predella of Difference, Blum Helman, New York, 1991; Susan Silas: Galerie Antoine Candau, Paris, 1990; Despo Magoni: To Survive A Myth, Nees Morfes, Athens, 1988; and the group catalog, Poetic Injury: The Surrealist Legacy in Postmodern Photography, The Alternative Museum, New York, 1987, (with preface by Rosalind Krauss and essays by Denson and Suzaan Boettger).
Denson plays the whipping boy for art criticism in "Robert Morris Replies to Roger Denson (Or Is That a Mouse in My Paragon?)" Chapter 14 of Continuous Project Altered Daily: The Writings of Robert Morris, October Books, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1994. His interview with artist Reneé Green is represented in Art and Feminism, edited by Helena Reckitt and Peggy Phelan, Phaidon Press, London, 2001. His article from Parkett #40/41 on the nomadic tendency in art and criticism is republished in El reverso de la diferencia, edited by Benjamin Arditi, Coleccion Bubes y Tierra, Caracas, 2000. And in Aperto 1993, Venice Biennale, Denson wrote on the work of Jessica Diamond and Yoyoi Kusama.
Essays and interviews by Denson are included in Foreign Affairs: Conflicts in the Global Village (Central America, Middle East, South Africa, published with Noam Chomsky, Edward Said, Geno Rodriguez, Eqbal Ahmed, and Houston Conwill); Occupation and Resistance (with Noam Chomsky, Jay Murphy, Gadi Gofbarg, Karen White, and The People of Beit Sahour); and Figures Forms and Expressions (featuring the work of Leon Golub, Francesco Clemente, Sandro Chia, and Robert Mapplethorpe).
Denson has written on the artists Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sigmar Polke, Andres Serrano, Sarah Charlesworth, Philip Taaffe, Pat Steir, Marilyn Minter, Reneé Green, Robert Longo, Ashley Bickerton, Nayland Blake, Tishan Hsu, Liz Larner, Gilbert and George, Barbara Ess, Robert Ryman, Dan Flavin, General Idea, Jules Olitski, Lydia Dona, Maura Sheehan, Jimmy De Sana, and Richard Artschwager. As a curator he has worked with Allan Kaprow, Cindy Sherman, Trisha Brown and Dancers, Lew Thomas, Suzanne Lacy, Joan Jonas, Steve Paxton and Dancers, Eric Fischl, Shigeko Kubato, Yvonne Rainer, Laurie Anderson, Dara Birnbaum, Gary Hill, Paul Sharits, Marina Abramovic, Douglas Dunn and Dancers, Gretchen Faust, Wolfgang Stahle, Scott and Beth B, Polly Apfelbaum, and others.
In 2004 Denson co-wrote and edited the performance script for Don't Trust Anyone Over Thirty: Entertainment by Dan Graham and Tony Oursler, performed at Art Basel Miami Beach; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, Austria; and The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2004-05. A film montage of the performance made by Tony Oursler was installed at the Whitney Biennial 2006, Whitney Museum of Art in New York.
