Sunday Theory

(This is an old post, I had it sitting as a draft. Figured I’d post for the sake of transparency. I am not sure if this is even interesting to me anymore. It certainly doesn’t seem very accurate.)

Is conceptual art, namely John Baldessari’s legendary, game changing (depending on your interpretation of the history of art but, for our use here, I am saying game changing) work ‘I Will Not Make Any More Boring Art’, more or less interesting because it is featured on the New Yorker’s home page in an advertisement for their new New Yorker iPad app? I am, of course, assuming that the title of the article refers to his work. Granted, answering this question depends somewhat on something alluded to in the first sentence – interpretation. But lets just say that Baldessari’s ouevre is both lauded and profoundly hated (because it is) and great and awful (because it is). Assume that you fall somewhere directly in the middle of these camps making you almost neutral and, therefore, almost negating the idea that you may even have an interest in considering this question but think about it regardless.

Consider context. Do not ignore the fact that the New Yorker app is not available on the iPhone yet (something that perturbed me to a healthy degree). Also, Baldessari is a caricature in the photo, a grandfatherly old soothsayer (which is kind of what he is in real life) who strangely, but maybe not accidentally, looks similar to how many people believe God to look. Ok enough.