Comments on Art

Visual culture provokes thought and dialogue, art provokes response, art provokes comments.

Posted below are our observations and comments on visual works.

Writing and reading what is written about art can help one understand the art world dialogues with which works are connected and help understand how works out in the world are read by others. Visual works generate visual dialogues through their interactions with each other as well as through the dialogues of writing.

The French poet and essayist Edmund Jabès wrote that a bad book is a book poorly read by its first reader. Likewise a bad visual work or painting could be said to be a work not completely seen by its first viewer. Creating--and also responding to--visual works requires a concentration and focus. This should not be replaced by a “detached” viewpoint. But one should augment one’s impassioned view of visual experience to include what aspects of a work another may see. The act of reading art criticism and writing about works of art can be part of this process, which can short circuit incomplete responses to works.