The only corollary to the "I could have done that" statement is "...but I did not." You can lay out all manner of reasons you did not, but the only thing that matters is that you didn't. You didn't think of it. Your brain did not conceive of the idea and you did not craft it and present it to the world. You didn't have the idea but then say "Nah, nobody would take that seriously" and then not do it, so don't kid yourself. "My kid could have done that"--but your kid didn't. There's this thread of contention among people who don't like contemporary art that all these artists are just bullshitters and the art world is a bunch of insular snobs that take bullshit seriously, but it's just not true. Not really. For the most part, artists producing these things that "any idiot could have done" are producing them earnestly, with thought and intent. Bullshitters are people like Kinkade. You might not get everything or like everything, and nobody is asking that you do. Most people don't like everything, and that's valid. My wife hates Rothko (who I love) and thinks he was a hack, but even she'll concede that his work was art. I have never known an artist that thought his work was beyond criticism, but "that ain't art cause anybody could have done it" isn't criticism. It's ignorance.
I look forward to fifty years from now when people realize that his paintings were orgiastic indictments of American culture dripping with sarcasm, and his secret hand sketch from the back of a master edition entitled, "Fuck you, I'm a Robot, No, Fuck You, I'm a Bigger Robot!" displaces the Mona Lisa at the Louvre. And when Duchamp turned the urinal upside down, he said about fifty-thousand things. Sometimes art moves a person emotionally, sometimes it gives them just enough freedom to get up and move their goddamn selves.
The number of people who give a shit about an upside-down urinal is probably a lot smaller than the number of people beating off at Looney Tunes hermaphrodite porn. But I'm supposed to give a shit about one group because at some point they declared themselves Serious Art People.
The obvious question being who's asking you to give a shit? I don't give a shit about your mom but does that give me permission to dismiss her as a person entirely?
Our man Tom Kincade worked on this gem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_(1983_film) How the fuck does this exist.
I didn't even know he existed?! Where am I supposed to get emotional support for such discoveries if not the internet?
