Not since the days of Picasso has the art world borne witness to such a decisive triumph.
For the last few years — decades, even — art has been circling around something, standing on a precipice, preparing to take a steep dive down into a cavernous black hole, the bottom of which can’t be seen. Today, we’ve reached the event horizon.
yuumei has created a piece called Useless Intensity No. III. It represents a leap forward, a consummation of a brand new, visionary artistic movement. It flies in the face of the abstract minimalism that has dominated galleries from Paris to Tokyo throughout the previous generation, dispatching with it, laughing at it. You want minimalism? This is what minimalism looks like. Especially astute critics will note that this project bears some resemblance to some conceptual experiments that have been attempted over the last few years such as James Franco’s non-visible artwork, which was essentially just air. Except unlike that piece and pieces like it, Useless Intensity No. III isn’t here to ask “what is art?” It’s telling us, in no uncertain terms, what art is. This is art. It is a piece. You may print it, frame it, hang it.
“Useless Intensity No. III” has no patience for explorations and examinations.
It represents a violent break from the embarrassingly self-aware aesthetics of post-modernism toward a more objective state of mind. This piece answers your questions about existence and the human experience. The artist is omniscient, omnipotent.
The one question that remains is where can art possibly go from here? Is Useless Intensity No. III the sound of a dull thud against a glass ceiling, or the sound of that ceiling shattering into a million pieces, forever changing the nature of creative expression as it breaks? Only time will tell. Perhaps other innovative artists will capitalize off of this momentum, bringing us into the next dominant artistic era. Perhaps the artist next piece will be just as revolutionary as this one. In the mean time, we’ll bask in the glow of what art history will surely hail as one of the defining masterpieces of this century for a little while longer.
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Your Thoughts
- In the not too distant future, do you think fine arts degrees might be replaced with affidavits confirming that the bearer has met and hung out with officially hip, important artists. This new form of arts degree will be valued according to the number of supporting affidavits.
- Will classic art criticism soon be replaced with arts sales receipts and artists’ banking records?
- Does creativity suffer when too many people think they know what an artist’s piece of art is trying to say, and stop making up stuff from their own under-informed reactions to the work under consideration?
