Huh? Wow! This Exhibit Reveals The Secret To Being As Great An Artist As Ed Ruscha

According to the American artist Ed Ruscha, there's a simple rule for distinguishing between bad and good art. Bad art makes you say 'Wow! Huh?' Good art makes you say 'Huh? Wow!' It's a good rule, certainly as compelling as any philosophical criteria. (Much of the writing in the philosophical subfield of aesthetics is of the 'Wow! Huh?' variety.) But 'Huh? Wow!' is most revealing when considered in terms of Ruscha's own work, divulging what makes his art so enduringly great. It's been there practically from the start, and Ruscha seems instinctively to have understood that it was worth more than a roomful of midcentury Picasso paintings.... Essay by Jonathon Keats.