Post by Frank Bramblett
![Conceptual death of art 1 weinermoreorlessgiveortake1997](https://www.theartblog.org/wp-content/uploaded/weinermoreorlessgiveortake1997.jpg)
I have nothing against concepts or theory, and even have been guilty of doing conceptual art. [I] believe that theory is critical to art, but believe that artists’ dependence on theory is terminal to art (shown, Lawrence Weiner’s “More or Less…Give or Take…).
![Conceptual death of art 2 duchampthebridestrippedbare](https://www.theartblog.org/wp-content/uploaded/duchampthebridestrippedbare.jpg)
The problem is that theory today leads the artist to such an extent that the “work” dies.
![Conceptual death of art 3 baldessarireadwritethinkdream](https://www.theartblog.org/wp-content/uploaded/baldessarireadwritethinkdream.jpg)
![Conceptual death of art 4 goyathirdofmay](https://www.theartblog.org/wp-content/uploaded/goyathirdofmay.jpg)
I am a long time fan of R. Hughes (see previous post) and his simplistic way of describing complex relations of multiple contexts. Since a visit to the Prado a few years ago, I am a lover of Goya. I too look forward to his talk.
About the Malen event (see yesterday’s post): Sorry, but I had a different experience that had nothing to do with the “conceptual art” conversation. For me it was all downhill from the introduction announcing that she was obsessed. Obsessives deny as an alcoholic denies.
I was at the back near the door, and recognized most of the laughter as coming from the mid to front. For those at the back, we could not see the slides. I became amused at the head in front bobbing back and forth in futile efforts to make the connection between the images and the words. Was this a strategy? Soon I began to fight laughter, not at what was being said or seen, but in Malen’s delivery and what I saw ahead (shown, one of Malen’s slides).
My efforts to contain my laughter escalated as the efforts to slowly exit the squeaky door. Was her intention to create in me a condition of sympathy or futility? Was this not a presentation, but a study?
I was saved by the case studies at the end that, I agree, were of some amusement.
–Philadelphia painter Frank Bramblett won a 2000 Pew Fellowship in the Arts