The undercover reactionary

Andreas van Dühren

As visual art, at least since Leonardo, has always been conceptual as well, every artist is also a conceptual artist.
Conceptual art, in its explicit manifestations, came upon with the success of Pop art; this may have been coincidental, it still is significant.
The success of Conceptual art accompanied the total victory of mass culture, of advertisement and, finally, of political correctness.
To conceptualize art explicitly is the most efficient way of labeling it, which makes it easier to talk about it, that is, to sell the pieces.
The most authentic protagonists of Conceptual art may have been Donald Judd, Ed Ruscha or Cindy Sherman; but if one had to explain why, one would have to include George Lucas.
The literality of Conceptual art contradicted a certain suspicion against the narrative when both came up, so they merged into the artist talk.
As any concept is a formulated conception, it requires technique, which primarily means grammar; there is no art theory without the art of writing.
A concept may be an extroverted vision at the first state; in the end it is a piece of work that should stand for itself and on the same level as the work it is referring to.
The impact Conceptual art had on the art world may be widely known, whereas its influence on the environment has hardly been explored.
Any profound theory of Conceptual art would have to consider the latter's influence on conceptualism itself.
The main subject of conceptualism is the relation of theory and reality; art may be its most efficient method.
Contextualization seemed to widen the range of art reception, it did not improve the art of reading.
Any true contextualization of art would have figured out art as a tool, supposed to influence reality; instead it replaced the traditional function of allegory.
The representational function of an artifact does not replace the state of the art.
A work of art is a matter of fact anyway, and its factuality surpasses any other criterion for art; also, it is any other kind of work that has to rely on some relevance beyond its being a matter of fact. 
The reality of a work of art is a specific quality; any realism can only be a method in order to achieve that quality, not any particular view.
A certain tendency towards pointing out a theme undermines any objective quality.
There is always one part one can hardly talk about; it does not have to be the most important part, but it has to be kept in mind while talking about what can possibly be explained.
Art theory and art history are two different disciplines, with different approaches, methods and criteria; art theory has to include the future, in order to make any statement about the present.
Considering the future is part of recognizing any talent; like art itself theory implies some speculation.
There had been a world without art, and imagining such a world can be very inspiring.