Published: Dec. 10, 2020
Petra Sertic

Title: New article on SPEX by German PhD Student Petra Sertic

 

German PhD Student Petra Sertic published a new article in the recent issue of Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der Deutschen Literatur:

Who Was Mrs. Benway? 

A Form of Art Criticism and Critique as a Form of Art in Spex Magazine 1985–1991

Abstract:

From 1985 to 1991, the artist Jutta Koether contributed a column titled Mrs. Benway to the pop cultural magazine Spex, for which she developed a form of art criticism that would appeal to a mostly music interested readership. In the process, Koether advanced a form of critique as a practice with the ability to actively determine the conditions for one’s own life, connecting to contemporaneous evaluations of models of critique for their ability to initiate change. Spex not only provided a platform for evaluation and judgment, but functioned as a launch pad where the habit of responding and taking position to current events was routinely exercised in step with the magazine’s monthly publication rhythm and Cologne’s dynamic art calendar.