22 days ago
- The article discusses 'New Literalism' in contemporary culture, referring to the simplification and reduction of complexity in movies, art exhibitions, and museums to avoid ambiguity and controversy.
- It critiques artists like KAWS for surface-level, apolitical pop culture appropriation and museums for flattening complex figures like Picasso into single-dimensional narratives, such as labeling him solely a misogynist.
- Museums are adopting New Literalism as a strategic retreat into superficiality to insulate themselves from financial and public risks, prioritizing attendance and safety over engaging with difficult or ambiguous ideas.
- This shift has led to comparisons with blatantly superficial venues like the Museum of Ice Cream or Refik Anadol's Dataland, which oversimplify topics like AI without addressing societal harms, further eroding the museum's traditional role.
- The author argues that museums should reclaim their purpose of fostering media literacy and navigating ambiguity, suggesting that doing so would attract an attentive public and complete the interpretive role of art, as emphasized by Duchamp.