ARTSPEAK - from the sublime to the ridiculous

ARTSPEAK
from the sublime to the ridiculous - or is it the other way around?

Post by Otto Rapp

I had recently posted a tongue in cheek spoof about a 'artspeak generator': 
INSTANT ARTIST STATEMENT

OK, now I am trying to get a bit more serious here - 
below is a picture and quote from the blog Translating Artspeak (who in turn took it from an article in the Arts & Culture section of the ChicagoMag (January 2014): 

The quote:
“With his keen knowledge of paint’s spatial effects, the artist exploits the transformative qualities of color applied directly to the architectural frame.”

The Translation:
 The artist painted a mural. 

---

I think we need to explore this more seriously, 
so here as an update to my earlier blog, read all about 

INTERNATIONAL ART ENGLISH 
by Alix Rule & David Levine

Of this English upper-middle class speech we may note (a) that it is not localised in any one place, (b) that though the people who use this speech are not all acquainted with one another, they can easily recognise each other’s status by this index alone, (c) that this elite speech form tends to be imitated by those who are not of the elite, so that other dialect forms are gradually eliminated, (d) that the elite, recognising this imitation, is constantly creating new linguistic elaborations to mark itself off from the common herd.
—E. R. Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma: A Study of Kachin Social Structure, 1954
........................read MORE

but to be fair, here is the critique, if you will, of the above essay, by Ben Davis:

INTERNATIONAL ART ENGLISH
 - THE JOKE THAT FORGOT IT WAS FUNNY

---

“International Art English” is back. 

The essay of the same name, penned by David Levine and Alix Rule and published in the online journal Triple Canopy one year ago, touched off a minor furor with its attempt to prove scientifically that the art world was a hive of pompous windbags — that is, that the official language of art was a linguistically meaningless jumble of buzzwords written in a tortured style imported from French theory, a claim the authors said they could verify through running 13 years of press releases through a computer. 
..................read MORE

---

---

But if you prefer humorous, then by all means, check my earlier blog 
INSTANT ARTIST STATEMENT