The New Reaction

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>intense, and provocative, with the odd “everything relates to everything else” to pad it out a bit. No doubt they even believe it. And the message they’re pushing is this: art is produced by a special group of people, a specially sensitive and talented and indeed charismatic group of people, who provide the rest of us – poor drab lost souls that we are – with a glimpse into the world of human genius and creativity, which we gain access to only by entering the magic kingdom of the art gallery.

This, of course, is so diametrically opposed to what so many of the greats of modern art believed that it makes you weep – but that’s the way with revolutions: the visionaries give way to the bureaucrats.

Comments

  1. Cyrus Avatar

    I was there a fortnight ago and agree totally. Best advice: ignore the words and let the art speak for itself. If it needs an essay to explain it it’s not worth looking at.
    My nomination for the most ludicrous work currently on display: the installation by the group campaigning for equal representation of women artists in New York galleries. I tried very hard to convince myself it was meant to be ironic, but didn’t succeed. The average visitor to TM is certainly a woman, evidently not deterred by the over-representation of Dead White Men.
    One thing I found a little odd was the number of people – again, not obviously rebellious types – who had their toddlers in tow. Genuinely overheard from one little girl: ‘Mummy, why is that art?’

  2. George S Avatar

    Nice piece.
    Anyone reading this, Mick, may / may not be interested that I am writing a series of posts round my place about the Tate Modern, springing out of a visit to the very good Fischli and Weiss show. Starting from 14 October and scrolling up.
    I am trying to trace up the history of stuff like the Tate’s texts. Lightly.

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