Rorschach test

 

Chief - Franz Kline - 1950

Non objective abstraction has been the rage for the last twelve or thirteen years or so now, the 1950's oeuvre finally being safe enough to be palatable for the normal American living room. So we art dealers are careful not to let a good blocky abstraction sneak by.

Rorschach test blot

Because, as opposed to representational work, they can mean whatever you want them to mean. Like Rorschach blots. 

Nary a show goes by when somebody or another doesn't ask what such a work I am showing is supposed to represent?

And I have a pat answer, delivered with a straight face. "Well, obviously you can see, it's my parents fighting."

In Palm Springs last month, a tall patron had the perfect repartee for me. He said he saw an unreasonable father. I cracked up.

Sounds like we have all been in analysis. Or should be.