Jerry Saltz has an article today in the Village Voice that expresses my every thought about being involved in the art world. I can’t agree with him on the Biennial, but everything else, especially:
“As for art itself, it’s time to say no to work that is entirely dependent on external explanation, simply a re-presentation of reality rather than a transformation of it, or purely process (sometimes sharpening a pencil for five years is just that). Jasper Johns famously wrote, “Take an object. Do something with it. Do something else with it.” These days, too many artists follow only the first two steps, or only the first. (Duchamp is no longer a good enough excuse.) Art is a very mysterious and complicated thing; it can take years to understand what an all-white painting, for example, might be about. Nevertheless, art should have everything you need to know about it in the work, not on a wall label. It should take us beyond language. “