Perhaps I should take this first entry to explain my little rant about artist statements, or any art exhibited with explanatory text for that matter, whether produced by the institution or the idiolect. This now ubiquitous activity, or component, perpetuates several cornerstones of modern art that I have come to question.
To begin, art and language have a complicated relationship and this complication is essentially rooted in the hegemony of language over our conscious experience. While some (including yours truly) may argue the essence of art cannot be put into words, thus echoing Wittgenstein's distinction between saying and showing; others in response have pointed to a lack of an outside viewpoint from which art can then be observed without falsification. Arguably the height of this tension is aligned with the birth of modern art and the abstracted image.
Admiration for mimetic verisimilitude still prevails amongst -- dare I say, the novice art enthusiasts who may hold this as the painter's primary function. Perhaps this enthusiasm can be interpreted as a diversion from the lexical challenge brought on by the proverbial pile of bricks, and even more so by its accompanied text with all its theoretical explanations in esoteric terms. But this is conceptual art, where the art is in the idea. (You should detect a hint of sarcasm there without positioning me diametrically across the wonders of conceptual art and its esteemed artists.)
The history of conceptual art can be traced to the education reformation in the 19th century with the introduction of universal education. Artists wanted to be recognized as intellectuals and not artisans -- to use their minds rather than their hands -- and understandably so as this distinction was (and is) a marker of social class. Now, having sufficient aesthetic distance from its conception and sociological function, does conceptual art maintain its vigor? Or is it badly reduced Hegel? I for one do not have the answers, but only a bad lingering taste, offensive to both the head and the hand.
Addendum-
Yes, I do recognize the flaw in this entry with all its self-contradictions.
