Nate Lippens, a freelance art critic whose work has appeared in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and The Stranger, has been exposed as a plagiarist.* Editor & Publisher has a story about his thefts, which were exposed by the Post-Intelligencer in a May 15 story and Note to Readers on the 14:
Work in the Seattle P-I by Nate Lippens, a freelance critic, is being examined after one of his art reviews was discovered to have striking similarities to criticism published two years earlier in Art in America magazine.
The P-I is looking at dozens of pieces written by Lippens for the newspaper between July 2006 and April 2008. All links to his articles through the P-I’s Web site have been withdrawn until they have been thoroughly examined and cleared to return to the site.
David McCumber, P-I managing editor, was disturbed by the similarities.
“Obviously,” he said, “content that co-opts others’ material without credit does not meet our standards, and it’s distressing under any circumstances. It’s a sharp reminder to our editors — really, to everyone in the profession — just how vulnerable we are, and how vigilant we must be.”
The alternative weekly The Stranger also has found similarities between work by Lippens and criticism in Art Forum magazine. Lippens freelanced for The Stranger starting in 2000, and was on the staff from 2004 to 2005. The Stranger is examining all of Lippens’ pieces published in its pages and has withdrawn links to them on its Web site, editor Christopher Frizzelle announced on thestranger.com Wednesday.
In an e-mail to the P-I on Wednesday, Lippens said: “I never knowingly plagiarized material. … I’m completely mortified and ashamed for betraying the implicit trust of my colleagues, friends and readers. I know that I can’t undo it or regain that trust but I do offer my sincerest apologies to everyone involved.”…
*Correction May 26: the first sentence of this post called Lippens a “freelance at critic” instead of a “freelance art critic.” It has been corrected. Thanks, Charlene!
