Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

paris commentary
michel claura
There are, I feel, a few basic ideas to be considered before discussing the work of Buren and
his friends. First of all, these ideas are the outcome of an objective look at art from its beginnings.
Each work of art is the fruition of its creator’s sensitivity and is directed at the sensitivity
of the beholder.
The forms taken by an artist’s sensitivity, and indeed by its opposite, can be manifold,
but it determines his choice of subject—flowers, a woman, war, his environment, movement,
the contrast or harmony of colors, the contrast or harmony of form—and whatever his subject
the artist’s aim is to translate his personal feelings into a work of art. Artistic creation thus boils
down to the exploitation of his personal problems, either by translating his problems into
universal terms or sinking his own inhibitions in his work. “Everybody, hence me,” or “me,
hence everybody.” To express himself the artist must both receive and transmit.
If art is both an illusion in itself and the illusion of communication, what does it mean
to the public? A doubtless unconscious complicity is established between artist and spectator.
The artist offers an illusion which the public accepts. In so doing, the public, consciously or
otherwise, in fact rejects reality. Which reduces art to the level of entertainment.
During the time that a spectator takes to look at, or even to think of, a work of art, he is
no longer quite alone, alone with himself, alone in a hostile environment. Thus the complicity