Likeability and Fiction in the Internet Age: A Critical Analysis

Christian Caliandro critiques the concept of 'likeability' in contemporary art and culture, arguing that it fosters fiction and artificiality by eliminating contradictions and friction. He contrasts this with the role of art as a site of friction, disagreement, and unpredictability, citing Robert Morris's 2011 declaration 'Unavailable' and Peter Saul's retrospective at the New Museum in New York as examples of artists who embrace negativity and bad taste to resist institutional hypocrisy. Caliandro also references Francis Bacon's use of chance to distort reality and Paul Kneale's post-internet art perspective, which suggests that the historical period of 'art' may have ended, replaced by an 'internet' period. Caliandro finds Kneale's idea too likeable to be convincing. The article is part of a series on 'Broken Art' published on Artribune.