John Rockwell

As we were recruiting writers for this issue of the Reader, we learned that John Rockwell was retiring from his position as arts critic for The New York Times. It was all too tempting to ask Rockwell to reflect on the arts as he has chronicled them through his career. His response was to address the relationship between culture and class—both in history and in the present—raising questions about patronage and access, and the differences across classes in the kinds of art that are supported and accepted.