George Brecht died just over a month ago, on December 5, 2008; I’ve finally gotten around to writing a brief appreciation. A conceptual artist, Brecht created “scores” of events to be performed. I am particularly fond of Brecht because most of his scores are simple enough that you can recreate them yourself; yet they are no less beautiful than the art you see in museums. Like this one:

CHAIR EVENT

  on a white chair

    a grater
    tape measure
    alphabet
    flag

    black
      and spectral colors

Sometimes you don’t have to do anything to perform one of his scores, you just have to pay attention to beauty that’s already there; as with this one:

TWO DURATIONS

  Red
  Green

It’s art for the common folk, because you can afford to have one of Brecht’s works in your house (whereas I doubt you could afford any art done by, say, Hockney). Even though he hadn’t done much work in recent years, his death is a real loss.

One last example: here’s my version of Brecht’s “Exhibit.”