Image by Hanif Shoaei, Istanbul Modern Art Museum

We’ve all read them and felt utterly inadequate. We cannot even aspire to be writers because we cannot read them with any real understanding… yet they obviously make sense. It must be that our intellect is lacking…or our education… or something. Whatever it is, they go way, way above our heads…

I’m talking about artists’ statements. You know the type that delves into concepts you haven’t the foggiest idea about. You don’t know whether to smile sagely or just back away quietly with a superior expression glued to your face. Inside you are cringing and want to laugh nervously or run away… or both.

Whatever you do, you are impressed almost in spite of yourself… they must be good to write something like that…or be worthy of having it written about them. When you see them in galleries, the fact that their…