Philip Taaffe (b. 1955, USA)
Untitled, 2004

What does a painting do? What is the best thing it can do? It can do many things; and it should be able to turn you on… (Taaffe 1999)

Taaffe is here not so much for any particular painting, as for the quote above. It is so rarely I come across someone asking what an artwork does – yet I keep asking that question all the time. I find the standard assumption that it simply “communicates” or “represents” or “means” very insufficient and unsatisfactory. While various communicative aspects are clearly important and always present, I am quite curious what else art can do if it is not only assigned a role of “language”. If it is not just a medium, but actual thing in a world channelling agency… “Turn on” is then just as good a proposition as any. Or, let’s say a good start.