Art: Brickbat Biennale

The tidal bore of abstract art flows so overpoweringly these days that most critics find it profitless trying to swim against the current. But last week at the 30th Venice Biennale. 400 painters and sculptors from 33 nations exhibited some 3,000 works whose overall impression was so weird that the experts, almost to a man, rose in revolt. "It is not the world of art.'' said Turin's outraged La Stampa, "but a world of impenetrable moors and silent, sterile landscapes." Added respected Critic Leonardo Borghese, writing in Milan's Carriere della Sera: "Ridiculous, sad,...

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