Conceptual Mannerism

The other day I was handling a contemporary drawing at the Art institute of Chicago. This drawing was a simple line drawing that produced an abstracted image that looked much like a cloud. After looking at the drawing, I kept feeling like the image seemed remedial. Its formal construction looked much like a doodle of someone that was not thinking of the work.

Because, this image disturbed me I did some research, and in fact the drawing was the result of the artist placing his pen on a piece of paper while riding the subway. Highly conceptual, but the drawing seemed to be so closely linked to other conceptual work of the past, that the impact of the drawing seemed both visually and conceptually flaccid. This type of critique had already occurred. The Neo Dadaists of the nineteen sixties and their critique of abstract expressionism, as well as, the grand abstractions of Gerhard Richter seem to have already reflected this point.

It made me think that the majority of work that is created now and doted over by the powers that be (art critics and other institutional entities within the art worlds hierarchy) are nothing but one-liners. This seems to be the result of a learned, not invented activity; therefore the result of mannerism. Being that the primary source of production of the last twenty years, the conceptual school of thought was bound to come to such result. In many ways this result could be a sign for change.