Posted inArt

Weaving History and Politics Together

CHICAGO — There are some situations in life where bigger really is better (readers can fill in the blank on their own), but art isn’t necessarily one of them. Much as I love German uber-expressionist Anselm Kiefer’s “Nigredo,” or the playful idiocy of Jeff Koons’ giant puppy, I wonder whether the effect in either case would be the same if the pieces were twelve by twelve inches rather than fifteen or twenty feet long or high. Particularly in the context of the modern industrial-gallery-museum complex, ”going big” often seems a response to having all those white walls to fill and auction prices to keep up, rather than having something to say on a large scale.