Opinions: Art Reviews

It was no secret that Irwin Touster had very strong opinions on a vast array of subjects, and he was certainly never shy about expressing them.

His strongest opinions were centered around art, a subject near and dear to his heart. He had a hierarchy about which medium was the most important, with painting taking the top spot, and what he called “crafts” (which could include knitting, jewelry making, embroidery or any of the hobby arts) sitting at the bottom. Touster also loved playing the devil’s advocate, so even if you agreed with his thoughts on a subject, he was more then happy to discard his original opinion and take the opposing viewpoint. More than anything else, he loved a good argument.

From 1961 through 1964 Touster was the art critic for The Fire Island News, and in 1964 he began writing art reviews for his local upper westside NYC paper, The Westside News. Touster sold his Fire Island house in 1968, and two years later he purchased a piece of property in Mount Tremper, New York, eight miles down the road from the town of Woodstock.

Woodstock had long been a mecca for artists, and became the perfect community for Touster to display his craft as both an art reviewer and an instigator. From 1974 through 1976 Touster reviewed art exhibits for The Woodstock Times. The editor of the Times, Geddy Sveikauskas, loved the controversy that the reviews created, especially Touster’s constant sparring with The Woodstock Artist Association, a “longtime staid and insular institution” (in Touster’s opinion) located in the center of town. It didn’t take long for The Woodstock Times to put Touster on the masthead, allowing him to continue to rile up the Woodstock art community, but now with the official blessing of the local paper. Many letters to the Editor about Touster’s reviews would follow.

In the early 1990’s Touster had a number of exhibitions of his own work at galleries around the Woodstock area, and was more then happy to open himself up to whatever positive or negative press might come his way.

Touster’s last piece of writing for the Woodstock Times appeared in 2002. Terror on the Mountain was his personal account of being attacked by a rabid fox while living in his Woodstock barn. A number of artists in the area who’s work had previously been reviewed by Touster were quite unhappy that the fox had not finished the art critic off.