A major trend in the 20th and 21st century art world has to become ever more “minimalist.” As artists have tried to achieve the least possible gesture that could be called art–going from representations to idealizations to reductions to basic forms to pure forms to color fields to lines to found objects–they arrived at “conceptual art,” in which there is no art at all, just the idea for the art. Museums and art buyers can purchase and display the notes that record the idea for the work of art, which is never made. Now we have “The Museum of Non-Visible Art,” in which there is nothing at all. And it has recorded its first sale: Woman Pays $10,000 For ‘Non-Visible’ Work Of Art » First Thoughts | A First Things Blog.
At the link, Joe Carter goes into all of this. He then offers for sale his own line of non-existent art for a mere $19.95 apiece. He specifies, however, that he only takes money that is real, not imaginary.
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