e-flux Journal

e-flux is a mailing system, based in New York that has been providing invaluable information to art world professionals and art enthusiasts alike since 1999. Free to sign up to, e-flux sends information to one's email detailing everything from exciting new shows opening around the world to new appointments and available job positions within the art world. Whilst it's extensive network is what e-flux has become known for, it also offers a journal containing theoretical essays discussing topics that are central to current discourse on contemporary art practice and the complex institutional framework that supports it.

An essay in the May 2010 issue of the e-flux journal by Anton Vidokle, titled 'Art Without Artists' examined the rise of the curator as a quasi-artist come cultural producer and contested this role asking whether the increased influence and supposed support of the curator within the contemporary art world was a welcome development among artists. Whilst this polemical critique of curatorial practice raised some very apparent trends that certainly need to be addressed in a culture in which 'spectacle' is an ever more prominent theme and expectation, it was perhaps a little harsh to suggest that the curator (manager) was attempting to take the role of the artist (worker), acting as a controlling force restricting and keeping artists in check, stifling their raw creative ability and needs.

The archive of the e-flux journal is available online for free and provides a useful resource to artists, art professionals, art history students and anyone with an interest in contemporary art. Check it out.