function initNewsletterSignup() { Often, his reviews were rid of art jargon, causing them to be legible to a larger audience, even when he was dealing with conceptual work. NPR's Scott Simon speaks with New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl about his latest piece, "The Art of Dying." link.href = fileName; checkCookies(); }); Since before I ever set foot in a gallery, Schjeldahl was one of New Yorks leading art criticsin recent years for The New Yorker, but before then for The New York Times, the short-lived weekly Seven Days, and, most notably, The Village Voice. All rights reserved. Things you buy through our links may earnNew Yorka commission. break; You know, meaning is an investment in the moment and, you know, separated by stretches of boredom. contentType: 'application/json; charset=UTF-8', In 21019 when Schjeldahl was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and was not expected to live long the New Yorker had asked him to write a memoir. I want for nothing. Apr 30, 2020, By The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors. setNewsletterCookie('signedUp', 1); Death sits in her apartment and contemplates her experiment: What if no one ever died again? SCHJELDAHL: I think we're wired for belief, and it's sort of human pride and ambition to overrule those intuitions. Saddened beyond words by the passing of Peter Schjeldahl, whom I looked up to with astonishment, for the power of his observations, the vitality of his writing, and the ever-youthfulness of his enthusiasm; he was also the most invigorating of colleagues, stopping by my desk and in a couple of quick, incisive sentences, setting off a veritable pinball machine of surprising and far-reaching ideas, said New Yorker film critic Richard Brody of his former colleague on Twitter. Originally Published: June 4th, 2019 Quick if (o[this.name]) { + 'Please enter a valid email address' data: JSON.stringify( $form.serializeFormJSON() ), '