His transgression was like the punchline of a New Yorker cartoon: almost nobody clocked it.
The magazine’s art critic Jackson Arn did something at a party last month that was so outrageous that it got him canned.
It seems he wasn’t swinging from any chandeliers when he did it, though, since most people we spoke to who were at the packed, sprawling bash at Noho hotspot Jean’s had no idea it happened until a story about his dismissal appeared in the New York Times on Tuesday.
But according to those who happened to be in his corner of the boozy party to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the venerable magazine, the mild-mannered Arn — perhaps better equipped to grapple with the vagueries of Constructivism than the effects of hard liquor — allegedly “was asking everyone to kiss him.” (It seems his criteria for canoodling candidates were broad and fashionably inclusive).
And apparently he had at least one taker! One source says the amorous Arn was spotted making out with somebody betwixt the literary grandees. Another source told us that — at least as far as his overt activities at the bash were concerned — he seemed to be in pursuit of “good clean fun.”
On the other hand, we also hear there was some grumbling to be heard in the HR department regarding his alleged salivatery spree in the days that followed. (Everyone’s a critic! Except, that is, for Jackson Arn of course who, unavoidably, is not).
Insider’s say that Arn’s a genial and generally well-liked character at the mag.
Acording to the Times, he previously wrote for Artforum, The Nation and The New Statesman.
Keeping their lips to themselves were: Art Spiegelman the graphic novelist behind “Maus,” former editor Tina Brown, Jelani Cobb, the dean of Columbia Journalism School, New Yorker boss David Remnick, “Among The Thugs” author Bill Buford, M. Gessen, writer Doreen St. Félix, Conde Nast big Jonathan Newhouse, and many others.
Arn didn’t get back to us. Neither did the New Yorker.
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