FEBRUARY 7, 2008

My brother-in-law could do that

WEBSITE: Donald Judd, or Cheap Furniture?

Judging the intrinsic worth of modern art has always been one of those things we’re happy to leave to the experts, though occasionally we’ve wondered, in a moment of skepticism or philistinism, whether some universally worshiped abstraction is really worth its stratospheric market price. And now there’s an online quiz that tests your eye for value, by asking if you can spot the difference between the work of the minimalist artist Donald Judd and mass-produced furniture.

Graydon Parrish, a painter, created the quiz with Mikhail Simkin, an electrical engineer at UCLA, and it’s effective both as a clever time-waster and as offbeat art-world commentary. As you try to decide whether a plain-looking bookcase is a “priceless” (the quiz’s term) Judd work or something you’d buy for a dorm room, you’ll get a tutorial in the larger question of just what makes art, art.

Donald Judd, or Cheap Furniture?

Ask.com for more information on Donald Judd

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