The “All Connected” show features Hans Haacke’s “Oil Painting: Homage to Marcel Broodthaers,” 1982, with a portrait of Ronald Reagan. Credit Hans Haacke/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Vincent Tullo for The New York Times.
I do wish [the show’s curators] had enforced a bit more critical distance. Mr. Haacke, as each gallery proudly proclaims, has written every single wall label himself — which offers helpful context, but turns the show into an uncomfortable act of self-justification. The words put too much emphasis on what Mr. Haacke meant, and not what he actually made.
(Jason Farago, “Hans Haacke, at the New Museum, Takes No Prisoners “ NYTimes, 10-31-19)
Farago’s comment supports a bias of mine that an artist’s work may breathe more the less he verbalizes about it.
On a language note, this article acquaints me with the word “exudation,” a derivative from “exude,” meaning to ooze, as from a pore or wound.
… A giant flat-screen television displays the president’s most recent Twitter exudations….
(c) 2019 JMN
EthicalDative 
“The words put too much emphasis on what Mr. Haacke meant, and not what he actually made.” Does what he made convey something different — in which case, as I often argue, conceptual art is not so good at communicating the all important ideas that it is supposed to be about — or does the critic just not see the work in the same way as the artist?
I”m guessing the meaning is something along the lines of “Reagan bad!”.
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I’m not sure. I wish Farago had included an example of Haacke’s labeling to illustrate his comment. Farago was dismissive of the Reagan portrait itself — called it “pallid.” I was struck by how the presentation of the picture relegated it to the distance and foregrounded the red carpet. I tend to give performance art less attention than it needs. I don’t think I did the article justice with my excerpt. Farago evinced mixed feelings about Haacke’s work (which was unknown to me). Here’s another of his remarks: “The show cannot disguise that Mr. Haacke has often been a better activist than artist. Much of his later work is flat-footed and polemical, when compared to his initial accomplishments in institutional critique.” My favorite illustration was of a giant blue tarp suspended above an oscillating fan. It pulsed and undulated like a sea creature — one of the few works I could look at for several minutes, and made me smile.
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I’m familiar with Haacke. My graduate art education was 100% poitical conceptual art, so I’ve doubtlessly give conceptual and performance art thousands of hours more time than I should have.
“The show cannot disguise that Mr. Haacke has often been a better activist than artist. Much of his later work is flat-footed and polemical, when compared to his initial accomplishments in institutional critique.” And THAT sounds quite accurate. When the point is for the art to be a visual aid for a political argument or talking point, if the art succeeds, it doesn’t succeed for some other reason.
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