Perhaps because of our the direction of the conversation that we had in class but when looking at Art Forum I kept thinking that I was reading a life style magazine. All be it a very high end, and well designed, but life style none the less. First its the enormous amount of advertising. Like Vogue almost the whole damn thing is on advertisement. And then its also the style and content of the ads. They are flashy and colorful, again really well designed but still a bit much I think. But mostly, why was there a Yves St. Laurent Ad? I understand the cross over between art and fashion but it felt so out of place, and just awkward and added to the “this is who you should want to be” feeling that was through the whole magazine, and this combined with their website, its straying a little to far.
This became more apparent when I looked at Art in America. While there are still advertisements they are not the bulk of the content, and none of them (at least form the version I picked up were from a fashion label). The layout of the magazine is much less designed than Art Forum, which normally would irritate me as sign of being a bit too conservative, but in this case it just made it feel more approachable, more readable and more in tune with the studious nature that one would look for in an Art Magazine. Art in America is also smaller and a traditional magazine format.
As for the writing, they are different but I can’t say that I preferred one over the other, except that finding the actual articles was a lot more difficult in Art Forum than in Art and America.
I understand that Art Forum is THE magazine, but it seems a little too proud of its self....
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