A Picture Of Blindness

From Yves Klein to Carsten Höller, artists have proposed invisible artworks (Warhol included). What drew these visual artists to non-visibility? Further, is there a collective movement, an “invisibilism”, beyond the artists’ individual context of production?

“A Picture of Blindness” shows that invisible art is unique in its reflexive call upon the Imaginary and the self critique it enables for art. Tom Friedman, for example, exhibited a witch’s curse by presenting an empty pedestal. Mauriozio Cattelan claimed that his work was stolen, showing only a report of theft, as a way to dodge the pressure of art production. Against rationalism, consumerism or representation, turning to invisibility is justified in this essay as one of the few efficient strategies of resistance.

Graphic Design by Bart de Baets