Keith ArnattArt as an Act of Omission 1971

Art as an Act of Omission is a single panel text work quoting from the philosopher Eric D’Arcy’s book Human Acts – An Essay in their Moral Evaluation (1963). D’Arcy considers an omission to be the ‘not-doing’ of something that was expected to be done, leading Arnatt to ask the question: ‘If art is what we do and culture is what is done to us – what would culture do to us if art is what we didn’t do?’ In other words, Arnatt asks that if art was an expected action that was not carried out, how would this particular omission affect our lives, if at all? This work also exists as a printed card that Arnatt sent to close friends and colleagues, examples of which can be found in Tate Archive (TGA 786.5.2.6 and TGA 830.2.1.12, the latter postmarked March 1971)… (read more)