Goya's Ghost
(Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, First Friday)

Of course, sprinkled among this eclectic group are the Beautiful Ones, those upon whom Fortune bestowed resplendent physical pulchritude. These are the ones who wear the epithet "artist" like a fashionable commode, erroneously believing that anything so beautiful on the outside must likewise be beautiful inside.

You can almost see the ghost of Goya floating among them, smiling beneath his death mask, saying, In the midst of such ugliness, there's only one thing to do, and that is to have fun — enjoy yourself, have a good time. To handle it in any other way would be tragically absurd.