"Artality"

“Artality”

I scanned the front page of today’s New York Times and spotted an “Abstract Expressionist” work. However, I didn’t notice a clue to its provenance; my thumb covered the lower left (see black rectangle). Studying art history heightens awareness. Out of habit I analyzed its style and meaning—obviously the New York School—perhaps impressionist-inspired water lilies with lightly colored brush strokes creating a reflection of the darker mid-section. Then I removed my thumb. [Scroll down to the bottom].

Artality: (är- tl-t). Artistic monism; specifically, the phenomenological unification of art and reality (courtesy of Fuchswörterbuch).

Art criticism? Am I the hammer that sees everything as nails, the newbie art critic blinded by the obvious in search of the obscure? Or maybe it’s not me at all; in Abstract Expressionism do we lose our common sense? Should I feel guilty for my politically incorrect faux pas? Was that the photographer’s intent, to mess with the cognoscenti?

So let’s just call it “Process Art” or art with inevitable unintended consequences. Or let’s just admit that all things are one, artality.

The small caption reads:
A woman and child wait for food in Mogadishu, where the government is teetering.