YUPPIE ART

I want to applaud William Wilson on the stance he’s taken in reviewing so-called yuppie art. In his articles on Jennifer Bartlett (Feb. 23) and Eric Fischl (April 27), he has not been swept away by the majority of swooning art glitterati who can’t pay enough to make these art school star overachievers millionaires before the paint is dry.

These Post-Mod-Neo-Expressionists make one yearn for cool abstraction. Fischl’s one-note gimmick of sexual repression that covers up the fact that “he makes rather boring pictures” made the point. But could it be that the inherent “nastiness and a disturbing lack of compassion” that Wilson pointed out is the artist’s reflection of our lives in this decade?

Perhaps artists nowadays are much like football players. They earn big salaries because their careers are so short-lived. So whatever happened to Julian Schnabel? Anyone hear from him since he moved Uptown?

SHERIDAN BROWN

Los Angeles