I went to the Nahmad exhibition in the Kunsthaus in Zurich yesterday. The collection belongs to a Monaco-based family and includes works up to 1970 by various artists, including Monet, Kandinsky, Picasso and Miro. I liked the Kandinsky and Picasso works, especially Picasso’s paintings from the 1930s. While Hilter was rising in one part of the world, Picasso was making these masterpieces in another. I liked his paintings of himself painting a model.
Also I liked la saucisse casquée by René Magritte, which is a sausage with a metal helmet on one end.
During the exhibition I wondered, if all the people here were zombies after the apocalypse, would this still be art hanging on the walls. I guess not. So art involves the viewer. This process of putting the art on display in an art gallery and having people look at it is what makes it art. These disinterested people in the photo, who are stuck for something to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon are part of the artistic process. No wonder Magritte thought it would be amusing to put a painting of a sausage with a helmet into an art gallery.