Art Lies, Volume 66, Summer 2010 Page: 25
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all willfully and gleefully on the short bus, thereby creating this scenario
of bogus complicity); moreover, we were doing it because it was suppos-
edly the last form of resistance available to us (i.e., Josh Smith), and now
Diesel has colonized even that corner of the room (normally reserved for,
yes, the dunce), depriving us of that last precious modicum of imbecil-
ity. And what's worse, Diesel knows it-knows that this is being taken
away and that this knowledge, which functions as ersatz irony, suppos-
edly makes it okay and absolves them of the act.
JL The thing about the stupidity of Josh Smith is that it has been dis-
cussed only in terms of its critique of political economy, almost to the
exclusion of everything else. What if we were to think of it in a differ-
ent way? Maybe in terms of objet petit a, the thing that drives the artist's
work but which he cannot fully access. It may be that for Smith and his
gesamtkunstwerk of endless production, there will come a time when he
gets too close to the sun and gets burned (the transformation of the objet
petit a into the a priori). He would know exactly what his own work means,
and then he would no longer have a reason to make it-or he will think
he knows. But I don't think his work has reached that point. I believe
there is the possibility for it to develop in time. It already has. He has
changed subjects, he paints fish and animals, he varies his techniques,
his modes of display, etc., etc. The popular interpretation of these paint-
ings does not ultimately account for their material presence. It seems to
fit neatly at the moment and so we think of it in terms of a zeitgeist. But
if we look at Picabia's work now, the particular battles it fought are mostly
long forgotten. It is quite mysterious. I believe this possibility exists for
Smith. When context shifts around the unchanging work of art, what was
once heavy can again become light. This is the way in which works of art
are ultimately NOT subject to definition. It is also the way in which work
frames its context, rather than the other way around. If we recognize the
abstraction inherent in all representation, we see what a powerful force
it can become. This is why I would make a simplistic statement like "art-
ists make art."
As for the Diesel ad, you've perfectly summed it up.
CS I have such a hard time imagining Josh Smith's work outside of the
current moment-or its moment, its apex, which in some ways seems to
have already passed. But then again, I think there's something fundamen-
tally unassimilable about the work, something that will always disgrun-
tle-even infuriate-and as such, ultimately resist being shuffled away
into some intractable category.
I think you also make a good point about work framing its context.
Even this conversation, to a certain degree, has been framed by Josh
Smith, while we think-or at least I think-I am responding to a context,
to the factors of a historical moment, which happens to be ours.On a completely different note, something else to consider is the
sense of endgame inherent in "retard art." Or maybe the sense of end-
game is particular to all postwar art, and "retard art" or the retarded ele-
ment in art, which is certainly engaged in a hyperbolic one-upmanship, is
merely a hypertrophied version of the endgame?
The other day I was reading a discussion between William Anastasi
and Thomas McEvilley from 1989, and the frequency with which they
referred to and admired Anastasi's work as "dumb" was impressive. At one
point they talk about a photographic mise en abyme entitled Terminus by
Anastasi, and the repartee around the work is heartbreakingly and, I dare-
say, mindblowingly Beckettian:
McEvilley [...] And Terminus as a title suggests something like the end
of the line.
Anastasi We keep trying to make the very last work of art.
McEvilley Hoping.
Anastasi That art would just pack up after this piece.CS I LOVE San Pellegrino!
1. See Chris Sharp, "The Idiots," ArtReview 32 (May 2009): 80-84, and the comments
following its online posting, http://www.artreview.com/profiles/blogs/the-idiots#.
2. Chris Sharp, "Joe Bradley, CANADA, New York, USA," Frieze.com (February 11, 2008).
3. See Morgan Falconer, "Besides, With, Against, and Yet, The Kitchen, New York,
USA," Frieze 129 (March 2010): 123.25 ART LIES NO. 66
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Gupta, Anjali. Art Lies, Volume 66, Summer 2010, periodical, 2010; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth228031/m1/27/?q=%22Puleo%2C+Risa%22: accessed June 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .