Gilda Williams

“Many cherish art as a special haven within an over-schematized world, where ambiguities can thrive. If an artwork’s message is self-evident, maybe it’s just an illustration, a decorative non-entity, a well-executed craft object, hardly counting as ‘significant’ art at all. It’s not just that without an explanation the viewer is lost; without some written framework to steady it, the art itself risks losing its way, never gaining traction in the contemporary art system. From this perspective, both viewer and artwork alike are as if handicapped without the art-world’s special assistance.”
― Gilda Williams, How to Write About Contemporary Art