About twelve years a controversial article titled "International Art English" was published in a journal called Triple Canopy. This newspaper article sums up the main points. If you want to read the original piece by Alix Rule and Davide Levine, you can find it here.
The phenomenon they describe is fairly basic: Too often the writing that accompanies art is full of jargon, overblown claims, and nonsensical garbage. In other words, bullshit. Real people don't speak or write like that. Why do art people? Is it some kind of "insider language" as Rule and Levine claim? Is it like a secret handshake or something?
But maybe we shouldn't immediately dismiss this kind of writing. Maybe artists--like doctors, lawyers, engineers, or plumbers--need specialized language? Some art is complicated and messy. It's not simple. Therefore, we can't use simple language to describe and evaluate it.
Of course, the reality is somewhere in the middle. It's not that art doesn't need writing, art needs better writing. That's where your generation comes in.
Take a look at the text that is included on the webpage from the artist in the Whitney Biennial that you chose. What is that piece of writing like? Can you make yours better? That's your challenge. You have a little bit more room, around 300 words.
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