The New Yorker’s art critic since 2023, Jackson Arn, has been let go following complaints of “inappropriate overtures” at the magazine’s 100th anniversary party last month, according to the New York Times.
Two people who were at the event, which was held at Jean’s on Lafayette Street in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood, told the Times that Arn appeared “intoxicated” and that he was indecorous with “some of the guests.”
Attendees at the party reportedly included the upper crust of the literary and journalistic contributors to the magazine, including former editor Tina Brown, Columbia Journalism School dean Jelani Cobb, and Art Spiegelman, the cartoonist and author of the groundbreaking graphic novel Maus.
Arn, who before the New Yorker wrote criticism for outlets like Art in America, Artforum, the Nation, and the New Statesman, succeeded art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who wrote for the New Yorker from 1998 until his death in 2022. For the New Yorker, Arn covered far-reaching corners of the art world, from tattoo conventions to Brancusi sculptures, wrote book reviews about legendary artists, and commented on the aesthetics of cult action flicks.
Arn declined to comment. A spokesperson for Condé Nast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
