Tractatus Logico Catalogicus - Art or the Art of Selling 1972

Editor: This is Marcel Broodthaers' "Tractatus Logico Catalogicus - Art or the Art of Selling." The date is unknown, but it resides in the Tate Collections. Its austere presentation is quite striking. What structural elements are most apparent to you? Curator: The tripartite division immediately establishes a structural framework, doesn't it? The stark contrast between the black field and the ordered, yet fragmented, texts creates a visual tension, highlighting a play between absence and presence. Editor: So, the composition itself speaks to the content? Curator: Precisely. The distribution of textual elements, rather than their semantic meaning, engages our visual parsing. The piece is more about the *idea* of cataloguing, than any actual catalogue. The materiality, the flatness of the image, is of course also key. Editor: I see! It's like a painting *about* being a catalogue. Curator: Precisely. It shifts the focus from consumption to conceptual consideration. Editor: That’s a very helpful perspective. Thank you. Curator: My pleasure. It's about looking beyond the surface, isn't it?