Who Was Mrs. Benway?

Abstract

Abstract From 1985 to 1991, the artist Jutta Koether contributed a column titled Mrs. Benway to the pop cultural magazine Spex, for which she developed a form of art criticism that would appeal to a mostly music interested readership. In the process, Koether advanced a form of critique as a practice with the ability to actively determine the conditions for one’s own life, connecting to contemporaneous evaluations of models of critique for their ability to initiate change. Spex not only provided a platform for evaluation and judgment, but functioned as a launch pad where the habit of responding and taking position to current events was routinely exercised in step with the magazine’s monthly publication rhythm and Cologne’s dynamic art calendar.