I saw an item in a newspaper column entitled "News Of The Weird." It read, in part: ...at the annual spring auction at Christie's in New York City, Massachusetts artist Tom Friedman managed to sell a piece consisting of an ink squiggle on a 12-by-18-inch piece of white paper (described in the Christie's catalog as "starting an old dry pen on a piece of paper"). It was sold for $26,000...
Not many artists get that kind of money; I looked up Tom Friedman. He's not yet 50 and he has an impressive resume, including an MFA from the University of Illinois and exhibitions of his work in Chicago, New York, London, Rome, Stockholm, Geneva, Milan, Tokyo and many other cities. Museums, too.
He transforms such ordinary materials as toothpicks, sugar cubes, plastic cups and bubble gum into intricate manifestations of his complex thoughts.
Sometimes the concept itself is the work of art. Once he set up a pedestal and hired a witch doctor to put a curse on a spherical area of space above the pedestal. The pedestal then became part of a sculpture exhibit, presumably with an accompanying printed explanation about the curse and all.
The paper with the pen squiggle surely came with some kind of affidavit, because if it couldn't be proven that it was done by a famous and accredited artist, it would have no importance beyond, say, a surface for 4 grocery lists. It must have been bought as a more or less risky investment; it seems unlikely to enrich the decor of a room, or become an aesthetic marvel in an album of master drawings. Its value would depend entirely on factors outside of itself.
Conceptual art is intended, above all, to make you think. The wag who wrote this bumper sticker knew it: IF YOU LIKE CONCEPTUAL ART THINK ABOUT HONKING
Not many artists get that kind of money; I looked up Tom Friedman. He's not yet 50 and he has an impressive resume, including an MFA from the University of Illinois and exhibitions of his work in Chicago, New York, London, Rome, Stockholm, Geneva, Milan, Tokyo and many other cities. Museums, too.
He transforms such ordinary materials as toothpicks, sugar cubes, plastic cups and bubble gum into intricate manifestations of his complex thoughts.
Sometimes the concept itself is the work of art. Once he set up a pedestal and hired a witch doctor to put a curse on a spherical area of space above the pedestal. The pedestal then became part of a sculpture exhibit, presumably with an accompanying printed explanation about the curse and all.
The paper with the pen squiggle surely came with some kind of affidavit, because if it couldn't be proven that it was done by a famous and accredited artist, it would have no importance beyond, say, a surface for 4 grocery lists. It must have been bought as a more or less risky investment; it seems unlikely to enrich the decor of a room, or become an aesthetic marvel in an album of master drawings. Its value would depend entirely on factors outside of itself.
Conceptual art is intended, above all, to make you think. The wag who wrote this bumper sticker knew it: IF YOU LIKE CONCEPTUAL ART THINK ABOUT HONKING
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